Eclectic baseball analyst and stat guru Bill James apparently isn't buying into the Orioles youth movement. In his latest Young Talent Inventory, he ranks the Orioles inventory of young major league players 20th in the major leagues -- only four spaces better than last season.
"The Orioles are making extremely good progress in their young position players," he explained in an e-mail blast, "but their failure to develop hard-throwing young pitchers has been a disappointment. Their top five: Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz and Nolan Reimold."
Nevertheless, James ranks Markakis No. 10 on his list of the top 20 young players in the majors, ahead of David Wright (No. 15) and Joe Mauer (No. 16). It's important to note that James has a fairly loose definition of what constitutes a young player. Markakis is going into his fifth full major league season and he's 26, though the news release lists him as 25.