{"id":8823,"date":"2014-04-28T09:38:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T13:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8823"},"modified":"2014-04-28T10:03:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T14:03:56","slug":"minor-league-age-appropropriateness-for-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8823","title":{"rendered":"Minor League Age Appropropriateness for 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Taylor<\/a>

Taylor Hill is one of the younger hurlers in AAA. Photo via milb.com\/Potomac Nats official<\/p><\/div>\n

Age Appropriateness by minor league level is a topic I come back to year after year. \u00a0Click here for this analysis in 2011<\/a>, and then here for the same analysis for 2013<\/a>\u00a0(I must have been really busy in April of 2012 to have missed out on such fun analysis).<\/p>\n

I won’t repeat a ton of the build-up to this topic; see last year’s post for a ton of rule-of-thumb discussions and what not. \u00a0Basically the point of this post is to talk about the average\/median ages of pitchers in the various full season minor league levels, then take a look at our four full-season affiliate rosters to see how our guys rank.\u00a0 I’m very much of the belief that age matters in prospects, and that it should be taken into consideration when looking at a guy’s performance.<\/p>\n

Data Taxonomy<\/span>: I’ve taken every pitcher on every team’s roster in each of the four leagues that the Nats have farm teams in (AAA = International, AA = Eastern, High-A = Carolina, Low-A = South Atlantic), put them into a spreadsheet, calculated their ages at the end of this season (9\/1\/14) and then calculated the four quartile figures in terms of age. \u00a0I only used pitchers in our leagues as opposed to the entire level across all of baseball thinking that different leagues may have different needs (I’m thinking how the California League and the Pacific Coast League has so many hitters parks and thus the pitchers may linger there longer, skewing the numbers). \u00a0I also standardized the numbers to be at the end of the season as opposed to the beginning, so that people can talk about a player’s “Age 25 season” for example. \u00a0 I’ve labeled the four quartiles as follows: “Really Young” means the lowest quartile or youngest 25% of players, “Young” means the 2nd quartile or 25-50%, “Old” means the 3rd quartile or 50-75% range, and “Really Old” means anyone in the 75th quartile or above for the league.<\/p>\n

(Click here for the whole worksheet of player data<\/a> I used to do this post on Google Docs).<\/p>\n

\n

First, a look at how these age rankings have fared over the past few years:<\/p>\n

Age Appropriate Matrix 2011-2014<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
2011<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nHigh-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nLow-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Young<\/td>\n25.54 or younger<\/td>\n24.44 or\u00a0 younger<\/td>\n22.65 or younger<\/td>\n21.88 or younger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Young<\/td>\n25.54 \u2013 26.93<\/td>\n24.44 \u2013 25.37<\/td>\n22.65 \u2013 23.83<\/td>\n21.88 \u2013 22.84<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Old<\/td>\n26.93 \u2013 28.79<\/td>\n25.37 \u2013 26.65<\/td>\n23.83 \u2013 24.77<\/td>\n22.84 \u2013 23.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Old<\/td>\n28.79 or older<\/td>\n26.65 or older<\/td>\n24.77 or older<\/td>\n23.65 or older<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2013<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nHigh-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nLow-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Young<\/td>\n25.91 or younger<\/td>\n24.02 or younger<\/td>\n23.08 or younger<\/td>\n21.69 or younger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Young<\/td>\n25.92 – 27.75<\/td>\n24.02 – 25.17<\/td>\n23.08 – 24.00<\/td>\n21.69 – 22.66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Old<\/td>\n27.75 – 30.35<\/td>\n25.17 – 26.84<\/td>\n24.00 – 24.91<\/td>\n22.66 – 23.39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Old<\/td>\n30.35 or older<\/td>\n26.84 or older<\/td>\n24.91 or older<\/td>\n23.39 or older<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nAA<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nHigh-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\nLow-A<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Young<\/td>\n25.85 or younger<\/td>\n24.13 or younger<\/td>\n22.74 or younger<\/td>\n21.84 or younger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Young<\/td>\n25.86 – 27.47<\/td>\n24.14 – 25.27<\/td>\n22-74 – 23.63<\/td>\n21.84 – 22.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Old<\/td>\n27.47 – 29.58<\/td>\n25.27 – 26.77<\/td>\n23.63 – 24.53<\/td>\n22.65 – 23.69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Really Old<\/td>\n29.58 or older<\/td>\n26.78 or older<\/td>\n24.53 or older<\/td>\n23.70\u00a0 or older<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

At a \u00a0high level:<\/p>\n