All the young dudes

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 16, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Much like the Cubs of 2016, the Dodgers great season is being fueled by youth.  The team is 50 games over .500 and the lineup is loaded with players 26 or younger.

Chris Taylor and Yasiel Puig are both 26

Joc Pederson is 25

Corey Seager is 23

Cody Bellinger is 21

Five of the regular lineup is 26 or younger.  The two catchers are 28 and 27 and Barnes is enjoying his first full season in the majors at 27.

The outliers are at 2nd base where either greybeards like  Logan Forsythe or Chase Utley hold court,  or the redbeard at 3rd base.

For example. At age 21 Cody Bellinger has the most home runs for any Dodger at the age of 21. He could double the previous record of 20 by future HOF Adrian Beltre.

Player           HR Year Age  Tm  PA  OPS
Cody Bellinger   34 2017  21 LAD 411 .975
Adrian Beltre    20 2000  21 LAD 575 .835
Willie Davis     12 1961  21 LAD 380 .767
Tommy Davis      11 1960  21 LAD 374 .728
Howie Schultz    11 1944  21 BRO 556 .680
Ed Stevens       10 1946  21 BRO 340 .728

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.
At age 22, Corey Seager had the most home runs by a Dodger at the age of 22. I’d expect Cody Bellinger to smash that record in 2018. Along with every other Dodger home run record.  Yasiel Puig is also on the list with his nineteen home runs in only 432 plate appearances in 2013.

Player            HR Year Age  PA  OPS
Corey Seager      26 2016  22 687 .877
Duke Snider       23 1949  22 615 .854
Willie Davis      21 1962  22 666 .787
Yasiel Puig       19 2013  22 432 .925
Tommy Davis       15 1961  22 508 .738
Pete Reiser       14 1941  22 601 .964
Adrian Beltre     13 2001  22 515 .720
Willie Crawford   11 1969  22 440 .732
Wayne Belardi     11 1953  22 180 .796
Jimmy Sheckard    11 1901  22 609 .944
Matt Kemp         10 2007  22 311 .894
Ron Fairly        10 1961  22 301 .956

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.
Three current Dodgers on the list for most home runs by a Dodger at the age of 23. Corey Seager still has eight weeks to climb up this ladder. He won’t catch HOF Duke Snider but he might catch the all-time LAD home run leader Tommy Davis at 27.

Player          HR Year Age  PA  OPS
Duke Snider     31 1950  23 684 .932
Tommy Davis     27 1962  23 711 .910
Joc Pederson    26 2015  23 585 .763
Frank Howard    23 1960  23 487 .784
Adrian Beltre   21 2002  23 635 .729
Corey Seager    19 2017  23 475 .917
Matt Kemp       18 2008  23 657 .799
Mike Marshall   17 1983  23 518 .782
Yasiel Puig     16 2014  23 640 .863
Raul Mondesi    16 1994  23 454 .849
James Loney     15 2007  23 375 .919

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.

I could go on and on with leaderboard after leaderboard, but I’ll leave that for November.