The 10 Best Young Players in Major League Baseball - Part 1
Sadly most baseball fans would not know the name of Craig Kimbrel (Atlanta Braves) which really is a shame. 2010 was quite a year for the 22-year-old rookie who had one of the best seasons a reliever in baseball has ever had. He struck-out 40, pitched 20.2
innings, allowed 9 hits and had a 0.44 ERA. He set a Major League record when he had 17.4 strike-outs per 9 innings and his ERA of 914 is the 3rd highest in all of Major League Baseball history. He will play in the 2011 season with the Atlanta Braves
and would probably make the lefties of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley worry.
At 22, Elvis Andrus (Texas Rangers) has already played two full seasons. When he was a 20-year-old rookie, he played 145 games, stole 33 bases, batter .265 and topped the league in hits and earned his very first All Star selection. He played a crucial part
in leading the Texas Rangers to their World Series by batting .333 in the American League championships. His has short comings as well. Andrus makes a lot of errors and does not necessarily have a lot of power or walk in him. Hopefully he will improve with
time and if he can manage to increase his batting average by 20 points or so, he will definitely be an All Star for years to come.
Jose Tabata (Pittsburgh Pirates) has played in 102 games, batted at .299 and managed to come 8th in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2010. He led the National League in left fields in fielding percentage and range factor and stole
19 bases. He is the youngest player of the team that has 13 of their position players under 30.
To begin with, Neftali Feliz (Texas Rangers) wasn’t even the closer for the Texas Rangers in the start of 2010 but within six months, he managed to achieve a lot. He helped the team reach the first even World Series and had a rookie record of 40 games for
the Rangers. His ERA is of 2.42 and Feliz was named an All Star in 2010. He also finished first place in the Rookie of the Year Award.
Starlin Castro of the Chicago Cubs did not receive the same amount of hype that the other rookies received in 2010 like Strasburg or Buster Posey. He has the same amount of potential as the rest of them which showed when he belted a home-run worth three
runs when he batted for the very first time in the Major League. For the rest of the season he batted .300 and stood fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting. He doesn’t come without flaws and definitely needs to improve his short-stop errors that he commits
plenty of as well as his defence. With that being said, it cannot be argued that he is seen as someone who would receive multiple All Stars over the span of his career.
Continued in Part 2
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