Quote:
Originally Posted by G1911
Gary Nolan, Wally Bunker, Chief Bender, Rube Bressler and Smoky Joe Wood also all had excellent seasons as teens in the 20th century.
Most pitchers are not major league ready or good in their teens. Most aren’t at 20 or 21. Most excellent pitchers ‘put it together’ at 23-25. Koufax bloomed a little late, but not very late like Randy Johnson or Early Wynn. The much bigger issue for his value to his team is that he was completely done by 30. His early years can’t be ignored, nor should they for any pitcher, but his real problem is the age he was useless by. Johnson I have as #2 and he was a true late bloomer.
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Agreed!
The list of names you and I have of those who pitched in their teens is pretty impressive in terms of the ability of others to spot their raw, MLB level talent at such an early age. Of the 15 listed teen pitchers, 5 are in the HOF (including Ruth), and 5 are Cy Young winners (with Wynn being the only CYA winner and HOFer in the group). So 9 of these 15 MLB pitchers turned out to be at least somewhat great. That is an outstanding 60% success rate in predicting who would go on to do well. And that doesn't even include Wood or McNally, who both had excellent careers also.