Midwest League 2003

Average Team Ages

This page compares the ages of the players assigned the teams of the Midwest League on opening day of the 2003 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.

The Midwest League's a wee bit older than in recent years. Part of the explanation is that two of the new organizations--Oakland and Texas--delivered relatively old players for this level; another is that the T'Rats have aged over a year. The Angels farmhands, on the other hand, continue to grow younger.

                               Pitchers    Hitters     Team

League Average                   21.7       21.8       21.7

Western Division
Beloit Snappers           MIL    21.7 (7)   21.5 (9T)  21.6 (9T)
Burlington Bees           KC     22.0 (3T)  21.2 (12T) 21.6 (9T)
Cedar Rapids Kernels      ANA    20.8 (14)  21.5 (9T)  21.1 (13T)
Clinton LumberKings       TEX    22.0 (3T)  22.1 (5)   22.1 (2T)
Kane County Cougars       OAK    22.3 (1)   22.4 (2)   22.3 (1)
Peoria Chiefs             STL    21.6 (8T)  22.3 (3T)  22.0 (4)
Quad City River Bandits   MIN    21.5 (10T) 21.2 (12T) 21.3 (12)
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers SEA    21.5 (10T) 22.7 (1)   22.1 (2T)

Eastern Division
Battle Creek Yankees      NYY    22.0 (3T)  21.0 (14)  21.5 (11)
Dayton Dragons            CIN    21.6 (8T)  21.8 (6T)  21.7 (8)
Fort Wayne Wizards        SD     21.8 (6)   21.8 (6T)  21.8 (7)
Lansing Lugnuts           CHI-N  21.0 (13)  21.3 (11)  21.1 (13T)
South Bend Silver Hawks   ARI    22.1 (2)   21.7 (8)   21.9 (5T)
West Michigan Whitecaps   DET    21.4 (12)  22.3 (3T)  21.9 (5T)

• Oldest Player in the League: South Bend Pitcher Matt Wilkinson (born October 25, 1977)
• Youngest Player in the League: South Bend Pitcher Adruabi Rosario (born May 16, 1985)

Ages are in "years", which are calculated as of July 1, 2003. Rankings show the oldest teams as (1) and the youngest as (14) [or (13T)].

This data is derived from each team's opening day roster, April 3, 2003. Ages for players were determined from easily-available sources, and averaged.

My thanks to Katie Sanders for reporting an error on the original version of this page.