Midwest League 2008

Average Team Ages

This page compares the ages of the players assigned the teams of the Midwest League on opening day of the 2008 season.

Team ages matter. They tell you something about the player development philosophies 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.

While systems generally have year-to-year consistencies, over time things change. The Angels, for instance, fielded older MWL teams a decade ago; a management change has resulted in a shift to relatively young players. Over the same period, the Diamondbacks have shifted in the opposite direction, though the change has been less extreme.

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. While this year's collection is slightly younger than last year's, that was the MWL's oldest season. The trend appears to be significant; the typical Midwest League player is half-a-year older than he was a decade ago.

                                   Pitchers    Hitters     Team

League Average                       21.9       21.9       22.0

Western Division
Beloit Snappers               MIN    21.9 (9)   21.9 (5T)  21.9 (7T)
Burlington Bees               KC     22.0 (7T)  21.8 (8)   21.9 (7T)
Cedar Rapids Kernels          LAA    21.1 (14)  22.4 (4)   21.8 (10)
Clinton LumberKings           TEX    21.6 (11)  21.6 (9)   21.6 (11)
Kane County Cougars           OAK    22.7 (2T)  22.9 (1)   22.8 (1)
Peoria Chiefs                 CHI-N  21.2 (13)  21.0 (14)  21.1 (14)
Quad Cities River Bandits     STL    21.7 (10)  21.2 (13)  21.4 (13)
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers     SEA    22.0 (7T)  21.9 (5T)  22.0 (5T)

Eastern Division
Dayton Dragons                CIN    22.4 (5T)  21.9 (5T)  22.2 (4)
Fort Wayne Wizards            SD     22.5 (4)   21.5 (10T) 22.0 (5T)
Great Lakes Loons             LAD    21.5 (12)  21.5 (10T) 21.5 (12)
Lansing Lugnuts               TOR    22.7 (2T)  21.3 (12)  21.9 (7T)
South Bend Silver Hawks       ARI    22.4 (5T)  22.6 (2)   22.5 (3)
West Michigan Whitecaps       DET    22.9 (1)   22.5 (3)   22.7 (2)

• Oldest Player in the League: Clinton First Baseman Jason Hart (born September 5, 1977)
• Youngest Player in the League: Clinton Outfielder Engel Beltre (born November 1, 1989)

Ages are in "years", which are calculated as of July 1, 2008. Rankings show the oldest teams as (1) and the youngest as (14).

This data is derived from each team's opening day roster, April 3, 2008. Ages for players were determined from rosters available on MILB.com, and averaged.