SI.com - MLB - Bill James: Young Talent Inventory - Friday November 2, 2007 3:07PM

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S.I. James: Ranking baseball’s top 50 up-and-coming stars
Published 11/2/2007 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
S.I. James: Ranking baseball’s top 50 up-and-coming stars While S.I.com got slammed here yesterday...they have brought on board Belth, Weisman, Luft, BProfree content and now one cool excerpt form Bill James’ latest Handbook. Why 33 years old, rather than 30? I tried it the other way and it doesn’t work. Suppose that you have a 27-year-old player and a 24-year-old player of the same accomplishment...Jose Reyes and Albert Pujols, or Justin Verlander and Josh Beckett, or Edwin Encarnacion and Felipe Lopez. The 24-year-old is more valuable, and we want him to rank higher, but he’s ...

Bill James Ranks the Top 50 Young Stars
Published 11/2/2007 by Shyster at ShysterBall
Bill James being Bill James, which means a lot of sophisticated and rigorous analysis, communicated with ease, clarity, and a dash of humor. Here's some of the latter:21. C. C. Sabathia, Cleveland lefty (26). I have to tell you, as a baseball fan, I absolutely adore C. C. Sabathia. I always have. I've compared all these players to somebody else. It is sacrilege to compare C. C. Sabathia to any other pitcher. He is totally unique. For one thing, although listed weights of baseball players are so bogus that it's hard to see the point of listing them, C. C. has to be the heaviest player in major league history. He's huge -- 6'7"and has ...

Bill James Lists Top 50 Young Stars
Published 11/2/2007 by Anthony De Rosa at Hot Foot
On SI.com, analyst Bill James, senior baseball operations advisor for the World Series champion Red Sox, lists his top 50 young players in baseball today. David Wright comes in at 4th overall, Prince Fielder tops the list. Jose Reyes clocks in at 7th James also ranks teams in terms of young talent. The Mets come in at 17th. The Rockies top the list. Share This

Two Tigers Make Bill James’ ‘Young Talent Inventory’
Published 11/2/2007 by Mike McClary at The Daily Fungo | A Detroit Tigers Blogazine
... So says Bill James. In fact, says James in a SI.com column titled “Young Talent Inventory“, 2007’s crop of 25-and-under studs is the best since 1964. ...

Saturday (Early) Morning Mets Newsstand
Published 11/3/2007 by Eric Simon <amazinavenue@gmail.com> at Amazin' Avenue: Front Page Posts
... At SI.com, Bill James previews his Young Baseball Inventory from the forthcoming edition of his baseball annual. David Wright clocks in at #3; Jose Reyes at #7. ...

Bill James makes his rankings
Published 11/5/2007 by craig <info@fishstripes.com> at FishStripes: Front Page Posts
... It is interesting to me that six of the teams listed in the top seven are in the NL.  I'm getting extremely tired about hearing how superior the AL is to the NL.  For the most part, the best young talent in baseball is in the NL.  Of course, that doesn't mean they won't end up in the AL eventually,  But should that happen it isn't because they are better, it just means they have more money. Bill James went on to breakdown his projection of top up-and-coming stars.  And by my count, two Marlins made the list. (H/T Sports News ...

Monday Morning Headlines/Open Thread
Published 11/5/2007 by carlheartscubs at A League of Her Own - Front Page
... You might find yourself interested in Bill James' list of the top 25 young players today. Though none of them are Cubs (and none in the top 50), you can read it here. ...

Where Do Your Tigers Rank?  Pick the List
Published 11/6/2007 by Ian Casselberry <info@blessyouboys.com> at Bless You Boys: Front Page Posts
...  On Bill James' list of the best young players in baseball at SI.com, Detroit's Justin Verlander is ranked #15, while Curtis Granderson is 22nd on the list. ...

Reasons to be Thankful
Published 11/22/2007 by Jim McLennan <info@azsnakepit.com> at AZ Snakepit: Front Page Posts
... Young players Obviously, this is a topic particularly dear to our hearts, with the likes of Chris Young, Micah Owings, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds on our roster. But I enjoy watching good, up-and-coming players on any team; they're the future of the sport, and so the likes of Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Felix Hernandez and...[grits teeth] Troy Tulowitzki are tremendous talents. Bill James thinks, "Arguably, there is more outstanding young talent around right now than at any other moment in baseball history," and it's hard to argue with that as an ...

Bill James: Papi is Clutch
Published 12/1/2007 by YF at YFSF
... I couldn't agree more with those 2 grafs; I hope the are guiding principles here. At least they are for me. James also offers his look at the top 50 young players in the game, along with a team-by-team breakdown of young talent. It's light on both Sox and Yanks. Again, the methodology seems kind of dubious (Melky is graded as an "A" level talent, Youkilis "B"), but I suppose any purely mechanical system is going to create anomalies. Makes for interesting conversation, in any case. If it's written by Bill James, it's worth your time. ...

Why so many out-of-work free agents? I’ll tell you why.
Published 3/3/2008 by Sarah Green at umpbump.com
... We are in the midst of an explosion of young baseball talent. According to Bill James, “arguably, there is more outstanding young talent around right now than at any other moment in baseball history,” or at least since 1964 (James is nothing if not specific).  So really, this so-called “mystery” is just old fashioned supply and demand. There ain’t as much demand for the Francos, Loftons, and Wellses of the world in a market flush with a supply of ...