The List of 'Under 27' Up-and-Coming Hitters - Pt. 1

This is the first post in a series that will analyze the top young hitters in baseball. The analysis will focus on hitters who will still be under 27 years old as of June 30th of the upcoming season.

The goal of this analysis is to identify what hitters are poised for a breakout season. Now there are breakout seasons, and there are BREAKOUT seasons. Obviously a number of names on this list have already broken out, but that doesn't mean they've peaked by any means. Still others on this list have yet to take any monster steps developmentally, but could be on the verge of doing just that during the 2008 season.

Here's a quick example to illustrate the point: heading into the 2006 season, Matt Holliday would have appeared on 'Tier 2' of this list with 879 career at-bats at that point. Holliday's breakout season occurred in 2006 and he continued improving in 2007, but the breakout really started the second half of the 2005 season - here's the breakdown:

2005 Pre All-Star --- .291 BA --- 4 HR -- 23 RBI -- .782 OPS
2005 Post All-Star -- .318 BA -- 15 HR -- 64 RBI -- .925 OPS
2006 Season --------- .326 BA - 34 HR - 114 RBI -- .973 OPS
2007 Season --------- .340 BA - 36 HR - 137 RBI - 1.012 OPS

Obtaining Holliday prior to the 2006 season was really the right time to buy - and that's the real purpose of this analysis: to identify who to buy now to maximize return on your investment.

The Tier 1 group consists of 21 hitters who have amassed more than 1,200 at-bats so far in their young career. First the list:

1. Carl Crawford ------- 3,343 career at-bats
2. Miguel Cabrera ----- 2,694
3. Jose Reyes ----------- 2,518
4. Grady Sizemore ----- 2,061
5. David Wright -------- 2,024
6. Jhonny Peralta ------ 1,914
7. Rocco Baldelli ------- 1,656
8. Robinson Cano ------ 1,621
9. Jeff Francoeur ------- 1,550
10. Joe Mauer ------------ 1,523
11. Aaron Hill ------------ 1,515
12. Willy Taveras -------- 1,494
13. Adrian Gonzalez ---- 1,408
14. Wily Mo Pena -------- 1,395
15. Mark Teahen --------- 1,384
16. Ryan Zimmerman --- 1,325
17. Yuniesky Betancourt - 1,305
18. Jorge Cantu ----------- 1,299
19. Yadier Molina -------- 1,290
20. Hanley Ramirez ------ 1,274
21. Prince Fielder -------- 1,201

The discussion will follow in the next post.....