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Old guys can throw balls, man. 

You probably haven’t been to the gym in a minute, but just imagine/remember the locker room. 

Young guys’ tend to have a little less movement. More velocity, fewer wrinkles, less wiggle.

Ah, the pleasures of youth. 

Command is where the locker room analogy falters. Old guy pitchers’ balls have movement and command. They are stars of their own Viagra commercials, popping their car’s hood on the side of the road because they’ve learned a thing or two about engines by now and just plain know how to get stuff done. 

Youth reigns in dynasty baseball, but it’s nice to have some oldsters in the locker room when readying a crew for extensive ball-work. 

This old-balls bit is gaining momentum in my mind, and I’m not loving that, so let’s bounce to the first fifty.

 

Rank Player Age Team
1 Gerrit Cole 29 NYY
2 Walker Buehler 25 LAD
3 Jack Flaherty 24 STL
4 Shane Bieber 24 CLE
5 Jacob deGrom 31 NYM
6 Shohei Ohtani 25 LAA
7 Mike Clevinger 29 CLE
8 Lucas Giolito 25 CHW
9 Luis Castillo 27 CIN
10 Blake Snell 27 TB
11 Tyler Glasnow 26 TB
12 Jesus Luzardo 22 OAK
13 Stephen Strasburg 31 WAS
14 Chris Paddack 24 SD
15 Mike Soroka 22 ATL
16 Julio Urias 23 LAD
17 MacKenzie Gore 21 SD
18 Clayton Kershaw 32 LAD
19 Chris Sale 31 BOS
20 Frankie Montas 27 OAK
21 Trevor Bauer 29 CIN
22 Max Scherzer 35 WAS
23 Justin Verlander 37 HOU
24 Nate Pearson 23 TOR
25 Aaron Nola 26 PHI
26 Jose Berrios 25 MIN
27 Patrick Corbin 30 WAS
28 Brandon Woodruff 27 MIL
29 Zac Gallen 24 ARI
30 Yu Darvish 33 CHC
31 Noah Syndergaard 27 NYM
32 Charlie Morton 36 TB
33 Eduardo Rodriguez 27 BOS
34 Tarik Skubal 23 DET
35 Sonny Gray 30 CIN
36 Jameson Taillon 28 PIT
37 Zack Greinke 36 HOU
38 Spencer Howard 23 PHI
39 Forrest Whitley 22 HOU
40 A.J. Puk 25 OAK
41 Michael Kopech 24 CHW
42 Max Fried 26 ATL
43 Matt Manning 22 DET
44 James Paxton 31 NYY
45 Casey Mize 23 DET
46 Asa Lacy 20 ??
47 Dinelson Lamet 27 SD
48 Zack Wheeler 29 PHI
49 Hyun-Jin Ryu 33 TOR
50 Kyle Hendricks 30 CHC


Thanks for reading! I’m @theprospectitch on Twitter, Reddit and Words with Friends.