"This is a special time for young players in baseball."

[weams]

Mark Viviano points this out today.

How important is it to a team to be young and to have future stars as opposed to past one?

[Going Underground]

The Cub have many young stars.

Which is how they’re built. The guts of the Cubs’ lineup consists of Bryant (23), Kyle Schwarber (22), Starlin Castro (25), Anthony Rizzo (26) and Jorge Soler (23) — and it’s a group that would include 21-year-old Addison Russell if he wasn’t out for this round of the playoffs with an injury. The earliest one of those players could leave for free agency is 2020 and only then if the club doesn’t pick up an option for that season on Castro’s contract. So get used to this lineup.

Jake Arrieta, the ace Chicago didn’t even know it had? He’s making $3.6 million this year and won’t be a free agent till after 2017. Lester is signed through 2020, though it’s worth keeping an eye on his workload over the years. Kyle Hendricks, their best pitching prospect, is in his first full season. The core has not just arrived. It’s staying.

The Mets, too, will have continuity, and that will breed a new expectation here. For a decade, they seemed wayward, unsure of who they were and where they wanted to go. Ownership became crippled by the Madoff financial scandal. They watched the Phillies build an NL East power, then the Nationals drag themselves up from 100-loss seasons. Where did New York stand?

Now it brings into this series three starting pitchers who could front almost any rotation in the game. Jacob deGrom won’t be a free agent till after 2020, Noah Syndergaard till after 2021 and Game 1 starter Harvey after 2018. And we haven’t even talked about rookie Steven Matz, who will pitch in this series, and the talented Zack Wheeler, recovering from Tommy John surgery. That alone will allow them to contend annually in a division that includes the completely rebuilding Phillies, the messy Marlins, a Braves organization that is targeting 2017 to compete and the Nationals, who were knocked down a peg this season.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/2015/10/16/4a28f13a-73fc-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html

[weams]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Phillies?src=hash">#Phillies</a> did in fact interview <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a> AGM J.J. Piccolo and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Angels?src=hash">#Angels</a> AGM Matt Klentak for their vacant GM position, per <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS">@JonHeymanCBS</a>.</p>— Devan Fink (@DevanFink) <a href="

">October 18, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[weams]

Mark Viviano points this out today.

How important is it to a team to be young and to have future stars as opposed to past one?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=park--000byu&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-

[weams]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=park--000byu&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-

Not young. But special?