Quickest Tickets to the Majors - Atlanta and Seattle

Pitching:
If you’re a young pitching prospect looking for an early debut in the bigs, you clearly want to be drafted and developed by the Atlanta Braves. Of the 33 Braves pitchers that debuted with the club in the last 10 years, 15 of them (46%) have been under age 23 including such youngsters as Julio Teheran, Kyle Davies, Tommy Hansen, and Craig Kimbrel. The average Braves pitcher making his debut is 23.6 which, along with the Florida Marlins, is the youngest average team debut age. Twins pitchers, on average, are 24.3 when they debut with only 6 of 34 having been younger than 23. (17.6%) Both of these numbers are near average as the typical MLB pitcher over the last 10 years debuts at 24.3 and 20.2% have been under 23. At the bottom of the age spectrum, the Houston Astros have had only two of their 33 pitchers debut before the age of 23. (8.6%) Guessing this is not as much by plan as by lack of talent.


Hitting:
Atlanta is also near the top in debuting young hitters, ranking 2nd overall to the Seattle Mariners. The M’s have had 12 of their 37 position players reach the majors before their 23rd birthday over the last 10 years (32.4%) including Rene Rivera, Adam Jones and Shin-Soo Choo. The worst team is the Pittsburgh Pirates who have only had two of their 36 position players (Jose Tabata and Anfrew McCutcheon) make entrances before the age of 23 - which may be for the same reason as for the Astros pitchers. The Twins are again middle of the back in this category with an average player debut of 24.8 (MLB Average is 24.3) and 20.0% of the debuts being made by players younger than 23. (MLB Average 20.3)