Midwest League 2006

Average Team Ages

This page compares the ages of the players assigned the teams of the Midwest League on opening day of the 2006 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 slightly older than 2004, which had been the MWL's oldest season. That appears to be significant.

                                   Pitchers    Hitters     Team

League Average                       21.9       22.0       21.9

Western Division
Beloit Snappers               MIN    21.5 (12)  21.0 (14)  21.2 (14)
Burlington Bees               KC     21.8 (9)   21.8 (10T) 21.8 (9T)
Cedar Rapids Kernels          LAA    21.3 (13)  21.9 (7T)  21.6 (11)
Clinton LumberKings           TEX    21.0 (14)  21.8 (10T) 21.4 (12T)
Kane County Cougars           OAK    22.3 (2)   22.3 (4)   22.3 (2T)
Peoria Chiefs                 CHI-N  21.9 (7T)  22.0 (5T)  22.0 (5T)
Swing of the Quad Cities      STL    22.2 (3T)  21.9 (7T)  22.0 (5T)
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers     SEA    21.6 (11)  21.3 (13)  21.4 (12T)

Eastern Division
Dayton Dragons                CIN    21.7 (10)  22.8 (1)   22.2 (4)
Fort Wayne Wizards            SD     22.1 (5T)  22.0 (5T)  22.0 (5T)
Lansing Lugnuts               TOR    22.1 (5T)  22.5 (2)   22.3 (2T)
South Bend Silver Hawks       ARI    22.2 (3T)  21.9 (7T)  22.0 (5T)
Southwest Michigan Devil Rays TB     22.8 (1)   22.4 (3)   22.6 (1)
West Michigan Whitecaps       DET    21.9 (7T)  21.8 (10T) 21.8 (9T)

• Oldest Player in the League: Southwest Michigan Pitcher Kevin Lynn (born November 12, 1978)
• Youngest Player in the League: Beloit Catcher Allan De San Miguel (born February 1, 1988)

Ages are in "years", which are calculated as of July 1, 2006. Rankings show the oldest teams as (1) and the youngest as (14).

This data is derived from each team's opening day roster, April 6, 2006. Ages for players were determined from easily-available sources, and averaged.