Born after June 1, 1980

Not much happening the last few days in sports…I could continue writing about things that I’ve written about before or I could do something fun. I’m tired of Kellen Winslow II and his accident. I don’t feel like writing about the NBA playoffs until we get to the finals. So let’s talk some baseball.

I was sitting there in my fiancé’s apartment the other night watching my beloved Mets lose to the Braves. But all I could think about was how excited I was that the Mets have two youngsters who have gobs and gobs of potential and will hopefully be with my team for a long time. I’m talking about 22-year old third baseman David Wright and 21-year old shortstop Jose Reyes.

Last night I saw the stat lines from a few other games and was amazed how many young guys are doing so well in the big leagues. It was something that I decided to take a deep look into…and then after my research it was time to figure out the Under-25 Major League Baseball Team.

Here’s what I’ve come up with…and to tell you the truth I couldn’t believe at how many positions I had to make a tough decision.
C Joe Mauer 22 years old Minnesota Twins
1B Justin Morneau 24 years old Minnesota Twins
2B Jorge Cantu 23 years old Tampa Bay Devil Rays
SS Jose Reyes 21 years old New York Mets
3B David Wright 22 years old New York Mets
LF Miguel Cabrera 22 years old Florida Marlins
CF Willy Taveras 23 years old Houston Astros
RF Carl Crawford 23 years old Tampa Bay Devil Rays
DH Hank Blalock 24 years old Texas Rangers

RHP Jake Peavy 24 years old San Diego Padres
LHP Dontrelle Willis 23 years old Florida Marlins
RHP Carlos Zambrano 23 years old Chicago Cubs
LHP C.C. Sabathia 24 years old Cleveland Indians
RHP Brett Myers 24 years old Philadelphia Phillies

LHP Gustavo Chacin 24 years old Toronto Blue Jays

CL Francisco Rodriguez 23 years old LA Angels of Anaheim
CL Chad Cordero 23 years old Washington Nationals

It’s amazing to realize that every guy on this list (with the exception of Taveras & Cantu) are All-Star quality players already. I know some of you probably realized that I have Carl Crawford listed at RF but he actually plays LF. My reasoning for this is simple – Carl deserves to be on this list but he’s not better than Miguel Cabrera so I’ve moved him to the opposite corner OF position. I’m sure Carl would be cool with my decision. I’ve also listed a sixth starting pitcher, Gustavo Chacin. It’s inevitable that during the long 162 game MLB season that one if not more of your starters will go down with an injury. Until that happens we’ll just use Chacin as our ‘long’ reliever out of the bullpen. I also listed All-Star 3B Hank Blalock as our DH. Honestly, Hank might be the best hitter on this list but since he plays in the American League and David Wright doesn’t I made the executive decision to put Hank in the DH spot.

Of the seventeen players that are listed only six of them are even 24 years old. This spells big things for major league baseball in the next decade … and you know who will be closely watching their progress from the field level.