Part III

Very Young

            Group III of our effort here is players whose Prime Age ranges from 21.42 to 22.00.   There are 429 players in the group, supposed to represent 3% of the players in the study. 

            Again, the best player in this group is a 19^th century pitcher, Silver King.  This will continue to be true for several more groups of players—that the BEST player in the group, by Win Shares, is a 19^th century pitcher.  19^th century baseball was to a large degree represented by very young pitchers—18, 19, 20, up to 23—very young pitchers pitching a large number of innings.  King was credited with 263 career Win Shares, a near-Hall of Fame number, although I wouldn’t personally regard King as a reasonable Hall of Fame candidate. 

            The only other two players in this group with 100 Win Shares are Tony Conigliaro (104) and Hardie Henderson (100).  Hardie Henderson was another 19^th century pitcher.  Other names on the list that you might recognize include Marlins’ pitcher Jose Fernandez, Royals’ one-time super prospect, Clint Hurdle, Bob Coluccio, Juan Nieves, 1970 phenom Wayne Simpson, and shooting stars like Larry Bearnarth, Nelson Mathews, David Clyde, Joe Lovitto, Nelson Simmons from Sparky’s Tigers, Billy Joe Robidoux and basketball star Dave DeBusschere.

            Altogether, not a very interesting group.  Sorry.