Midwest League 2004

Average Team Ages

This page compares the ages of the players assigned the teams of the Midwest League on opening day of the 2004 season.

Team ages matter. They tell you something about the player development philosphies of the parent organizations, and give clues about the makeup of your local team. 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 interesting knowledge.

The Midwest League's been aging in recent years. This year's collection is the oldest since I've been tracking the data. That appears to be significant.

A curiousity: For the second year in a row, South Bend has both the oldest and youngest players in the league.

                               Pitchers    Hitters     Team

League Average                   22.0       21.8       21.9

Western Division
Beloit Snappers           MIL    21.3 (11T) 21.6 (8T)  21.5 (9)
Burlington Bees           KC     21.8 (7T)  21.3 (10)  21.6 (7T)
Cedar Rapids Kernels      ANA    21.9 (6)   20.9 (9T)  21.4 (10T)
Clinton LumberKings       TEX    21.5 (9T)  22.4 (4)   22.0 (6)
Kane County Cougars       OAK    22.5 (2)   22.7 (2)   22.6 (1T)
Peoria Chiefs             STL    22.3 (4)   22.8 (1)   22.6 (1T)
Swing of the Quad Cities  MIN    22.0 (5)   20.9 (13T) 21.5 (12)
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers SEA    21.2 (13)  21.6 (8T)  21.4 (10T)

Eastern Division
Battle Creek Yankees      NYY    21.5 (9T)  20.9 (13T) 21.2 (14)
Dayton Dragons            CIN    21.8 (7T)  22.5 (3)   22.2 (5)
Fort Wayne Wizards        SD     20.9 (14)  22.2 (5T)  21.6 (7T)
Lansing Lugnuts           CHI-N  21.3 (11T) 21.2 (12)  21.3 (13)
South Bend Silver Hawks   ARI    23.0 (1)   21.8 (7)   22.3 (3T)
West Michigan Whitecaps   DET    22.4 (3)   22.2 (5T)  22.3 (3T)

• Oldest Player in the League: South Bend Pitcher Aric Leclair (born April 12, 1978)
• Youngest Player in the League: South Bend Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez (born October 17, 1985)

Ages are in "years", which are calculated as of July 1, 2004. 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 8, 2004. Ages for players were determined from easily-available sources, and averaged.