Bleacher Report recently listed their top 12 pitchers under 25:
12) Phil Hughes
11) Brian Matusz
10) Ricky Romero
09) Jaime Garcia
08) Tommy Hanson
07) Gio Gonzalez
06) Trevor Cahill
05) Yovani Gallardo
04) Clayton Kershaw
03) Mat Latos
02) David Price
01) Felix Hernandez
For reference I created a list of pitchers from 2007 - 2010 who had an ERA+ of at least 100. I removed all the pitchers who are now over 25. This list only shows pitchers 25 and younger at the end of the year. This would be my top ten list, what is yours and why?
1. Felix Hernandez
2. Clayton Kershaw
3. Brett Anderson
4. Yovani Gallardo
5. Tommy Hanson
6. Mat Latos
7, David Price
8. Chad Billingsley
9. Matt Cain
10. Max Scherzer
Bumgarner, Cahill, Matusz, Chacin, and Garcia are all exciting young pitchers but can they repeat their success? The best of the debut pitchers this year was Matt Latos so he makes the list but I'm wary. David Price seems to be way overrated, a good young pitcher but is he really in the Kersahw/Anderson class behind the King? On the surface Buchholz looked to be the king of the class in 2010, but his 3.60 FIP and 4.20 xFIP keeps him off the list. At 25 he's had only this one good year at age 25. Many of the players on this list have been good pitchers since the age of 22.
Player ERA+ IP Year Age Tm G GS CG SHO W L W-L% BB SO ERA HR OPS+
Clay Buchholz 187 173.2 2010 25 BOS 28 28 1 1 17 7 .708 67 120 2.33 9 64
Felix Hernandez 174 238.2 2009 23 SEA 34 34 2 1 19 5 .792 71 217 2.49 15 62
Felix Hernandez 174 249.2 2010 24 SEA 34 34 6 1 13 12 .520 70 232 2.27 17 65
Jair Jurrjens 159 215.0 2009 23 ATL 34 34 0 0 14 10 .583 75 152 2.60 15 79
Matt Cain 151 217.2 2009 24 SFG 33 33 4 0 14 8 .636 73 171 2.89 22 77
Brett Anderson 148 112.1 2010 22 OAK 19 19 0 0 7 6 .538 22 75 2.80 6 78
David Price 145 208.2 2010 24 TBR 32 31 2 1 19 6 .760 79 188 2.72 15 77
Jaime Garcia 145 163.1 2010 23 STL 28 28 1 1 13 8 .619 64 132 2.70 9 80
Tommy Hanson 143 127.2 2009 22 ATL 21 21 0 0 11 4 .733 46 116 2.89 10 80
Clayton Kershaw 142 171.0 2009 21 LAD 31 30 0 0 8 8 .500 91 185 2.79 7 63
Jhoulys Chacin 142 137.1 2010 22 COL 28 21 0 0 9 11 .450 61 138 3.28 10 70
Trevor Cahill 139 196.2 2010 22 OAK 30 30 1 1 18 8 .692 63 118 2.97 19 69
John Danks 138 195.0 2008 23 CHW 33 33 0 0 12 9 .571 57 159 3.32 15 75
Madison Bumgarner 136 111.0 2010 20 SFG 18 18 0 0 7 6 .538 26 86 3.00 11 101
Chad Billingsley 133 200.2 2008 23 LAD 35 32 1 1 16 10 .615 80 201 3.14 14 87
Player ERA+ IP Year Age Tm G GS CG SHO W L W-L% BB SO ERA HR OPS+
Brad Bergesen 132 123.1 2009 23 BAL 19 19 1 0 7 5 .583 32 65 3.43 11 87
Clayton Kershaw 132 204.1 2010 22 LAD 32 32 1 1 13 10 .565 81 212 2.91 13 74
Matt Cain 130 223.1 2010 25 SFG 33 33 4 2 13 11 .542 61 177 3.14 22 77
Gio Gonzalez 128 200.2 2010 24 OAK 33 33 1 0 15 9 .625 92 171 3.23 15 77
Mat Latos 126 184.2 2010 22 SDP 31 31 1 1 14 10 .583 50 189 2.92 16 73
John Danks 123 200.1 2009 24 CHW 32 32 1 0 13 11 .542 73 149 3.77 28 86
Matt Cain 123 200.0 2007 22 SFG 32 32 1 0 7 16 .304 79 163 3.65 14 78
Felix Hernandez 123 200.2 2008 22 SEA 31 31 2 0 9 11 .450 80 175 3.45 17 95
Yovani Gallardo 121 110.1 2007 21 MIL 20 17 0 0 9 5 .643 37 101 3.67 8 79
Max Scherzer 120 195.2 2010 25 DET 31 31 0 0 12 11 .522 70 184 3.50 20 89
Kyle Kendrick 118 121.0 2007 22 PHI 20 20 0 0 10 4 .714 25 49 3.87 16 100
Jesse Litsch 118 176.0 2008 23 TOR 29 28 2 2 13 9 .591 39 99 3.58 20 92
Player ERA+ IP Year Age Tm G GS CG SHO W L W-L% BB SO ERA HR OPS+
Matt Cain 118 217.2 2008 23 SFG 34 34 1 1 8 14 .364 91 186 3.76 19 94
Tommy Hanson 117 202.2 2010 23 ATL 34 34 1 0 10 11 .476 56 173 3.33 14 81
John Danks 117 213.0 2010 25 CHW 32 32 1 1 15 11 .577 70 162 3.72 18 75
Rick Porcello 116 170.2 2009 20 DET 31 31 0 0 14 9 .609 52 89 3.96 23 90
Tommy Hunter 116 128.0 2010 23 TEX 23 22 1 0 13 4 .765 33 68 3.73 21 96
Jair Jurrjens 115 188.1 2008 22 ATL 31 31 0 0 13 10 .565 70 139 3.68 11 92
Travis Wood 114 102.2 2010 23 CIN 17 17 0 0 5 4 .556 26 86 3.51 9 70
Tommy Hunter 114 112.0 2009 22 TEX 19 19 1 0 9 6 .600 33 64 4.10 13 89
Felix Hernandez 112 190.1 2007 21 SEA 30 30 1 1 14 7 .667 53 165 3.92 20 100
Ian Kennedy 111 194.0 2010 25 ARI 32 32 0 0 9 10 .474 70 168 3.80 26 88
Ricky Romero 111 210.0 2010 25 TOR 32 32 3 1 14 9 .609 82 174 3.73 15 84
Max Scherzer 111 170.1 2009 24 ARI 30 30 0 0 9 11 .450 63 174 4.12 20 95
John Lannan 110 182.0 2008 23 WSN 31 31 0 0 9 15 .375 72 117 3.91 23 95
Johnny Cueto 110 185.2 2010 24 CIN 31 31 1 1 12 7 .632 56 138 3.64 19 101
Player ERA+ IP Year Age Tm G GS CG SHO W L W-L% BB SO ERA HR OPS+
John Lannan 108 206.1 2009 24 WSN 33 33 2 1 9 13 .409 68 89 3.88 22 102
Yovani Gallardo 108 185.2 2009 23 MIL 30 30 1 0 13 12 .520 94 204 3.73 21 92
Brett Anderson 108 175.1 2009 21 OAK 30 30 1 1 11 11 .500 45 150 4.06 20 87
Chad Billingsley 107 191.2 2010 25 LAD 31 31 1 1 12 11 .522 69 171 3.57 8 89
Yovani Gallardo 103 185.0 2010 24 MIL 31 31 2 2 14 7 .667 75 200 3.84 12 93
David Price 102 128.1 2009 23 TBR 23 23 0 0 10 7 .588 54 102 4.42 17 87
Phil Hughes 102 176.1 2010 24 NYY 31 29 0 0 18 8 .692 58 146 4.19 25 87
Ricky Romero 101 178.0 2009 24 TOR 29 29 0 0 13 9 .591 79 141 4.30 18 110
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/20/2010.