Midwest League 2002

Average Team Ages

This page compares the ages of the players assigned the teams of the Midwest League on opening day of the 2002 season.

Team ages matter. Some organizations draft mainly college players, others mainly work with high school talent. Some teams rush players through the system, others move prospects along slowly. A team with many players signed from the Frontier League is likely to be older than one with a large Latin American contingent.

This is one clue about how our baseball families build their organizations. Don't read too much into it--but it's useful knowledge.

Sometimes things change: After years of sending relatively old players to the MWL, the Angels have made a significantly younger team in Cedar Rapids. And Wisconsin's team age has dived to make the Rattlers the youngest team in the League. Sometimes things don't change: Michigan repeats as the oldest MWL team this season.

                               Pitchers    Hitters     Team

League Average                   21.6       21.7       21.6

Western Division
Beloit Snappers           MIL    20.9 (12)  21.2 (12)  21.0 (13)
Burlington Bees           KC     21.6 (5T)  21.8 (5T)  21.7 (7)
Cedar Rapids Kernels      ANA    21.3 (8T)  21.5 (8T)  21.4 (8)
Clinton LumberKings       MON    21.3 (8T)  21.3 (10T) 21.3 (9)
Kane County Cougars       FLA    20.8 (13)  21.5 (8T)  21.1 (12)
Peoria Chiefs             STL    22.3 (2T)  21.7 (7)   22.0 (3T)
Quad City River Bandits   MIN    21.3 (8T)  21.1 (13)  21.2 (10)
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers SEA    20.5 (14)  20.9 (14)  20.7 (14)

Eastern Division
Dayton Dragons            CIN    22.1 (4)   22.5 (2)   22.3 (2)
Fort Wayne Wizards        SD     21.6 (5T)  22.2 (3T)  21.9 (5T)
Lansing Lugnuts           CHI-N  21.3 (8T)  21.3 (10T) 21.3 (11)
Michigan Battle Cats      HOU    23.0 (1)   22.6 (1)   22.7 (1)
South Bend Silver Hawks   ARI    21.5 (7)   22.2 (3T)  21.9 (5T)
West Michigan Whitecaps   DET    22.3 (2T)  21.8 (5T)  22.0 (3T)

• Oldest Player in the League: Michigan Pitcher Max Tremblay (born June 18, 1976)
• Youngest Player in the League: Wisconsin Pitcher Emiliano Fruto (born June 6, 1984)

Ages are in "years", which are calculated as of July 1, 2002. Rankings show the oldest teams as (1) and the youngest as (14).

This data is derived from each team's opening day roster, April 4, 2002. Ages for players were determined from easily-available sources, and averaged.