The 1999 Kansas City Royals had an outfield of Jermaine Dye, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon, which I believe is the only time in baseball history a team has ever had three young outfielders who went on to careers of that quality.

While their careers weren't "of that quality", the 1973 Giants had an outfield of Gary Maddox, Bobby Bonds, and Gary Matthews. Bonds was gone after '74, Maddox in the middle of '75, and Matthews after '76. The Giants finished above .500 only once between 1974 - 1980 (inclusive).

DB

The 1999 Kansas City Royals had an outfield of Jermaine Dye, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon, which I believe is the only time in baseball history a team has ever had three young outfielders who went on to careers of that quality.

I'm not sure if he meant to exaggerate here, but off the top of my head, the 1994 Indians had Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, and Manny Ramirez. Those three went on to have pretty decent careers..

Maybe Belle and Lofton weren't "young" in the sense that he means it here (both were 27), but even so I think I would take the sum total of their careers from 1994 on than those Royals guys from 1999 on.

...but more impressive than Yaz...

Really? By bb-ref WAR, Yaz tied for the greatest season of all-time by a position player not named Ruth. 193 OPS+ and +23 defensively (I bet that's too high, but he was regularly in that range (Fenway?) - considered a good fielder and won a bunch of Gold gloves, including that year).

1975 Red Sox -- Jim Rice (22), Fred Lynn (23), and Dwight Evans (23).

I'd say that matches, if not trumps, the Royals trio.

Yea, I was taken aback by the Yaz comparison.

Also WAR and a bunch of others have Posey in a comfortable lead on McCutchen. granted i did not realize this until today, and was a bit surprised.

Really? By bb-ref WAR, Yaz tied for the greatest season of all-time by a position player not named Ruth.

Found the Triple Crown comparison article James refers to (here, for subscribers.)

A player’s Triple Crown score is:

Six times his home runs, up to a limit of 300, plus

Two times his RBI, up to a limit of 300, plus

Two for each point of batting average over .200, up to a limit of 400.

Sharp eyes may notice that this does not take into account that there wasn't much offense going on in 1967. (Yaz '67 is in fact at best 45th of all time [44th as of the writing of this article, and then we know Cabrera passed him]. He is behind Frank Robinson '66, and ahead of the others in James' "worse than Cabrera" group.)

I'm not sure in any event why we need a Triple Crown Score to determine the Triple Crowniness of a Triple Crown, when we already have several established ways to evaluate the value of seasons.

This is more for the Lounge, but I wonder what restaurants Bill goes to if he hears 12 Dylan covers to every Beatles cover. Is Lawrence, Kansas that obsessed with "All Along the Watchtower"?

1968-1970 A's had (1970 season ages) Reggie Jackson (24), Rick Monday (24) and Joe Rudi (23), and in 1971 added George Hendrick (21), all of whom had at least 6000 PA careers with greater than 112 OPS+ (Dye finished at 111, Damon is at 104).

It's interesting that, since 1901, there have only been 16 team-seasons in which a team had two future HOF players younger than 25 in their outfield simultaneously; never three. Of those, there are only 8 outfielder pairs, and that 8 counts things like Musial's 12 games in 1941.

I'm not sure if he meant to exaggerate here, but off the top of my head, the 1994 Indians had Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, and Manny Ramirez. Those three went on to have pretty decent careers..

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1975 Red Sox -- Jim Rice (22), Fred Lynn (23), and Dwight Evans (23).

I'd say that matches, if not trumps, the Royals trio.

Guys, guys. His point was that the Royals had a young outfield that good -- and yet sucked anyway. Those Red Sox and Indians teams won.

Thanks, the DA - I figured it had to be something like that. That's a pretty stupid system, for the reason you note, if nothing else.

I hear more Dylan covers than Beatles covers - the latter is a different kind of inimitable. Not 12:1, of course.

The big irony is that the Royal kid OF who had the worst year in '99 went on to have the best career (Beltran).

And for f's sake let's not forget that those end-times Royals had the original "party like it's 1999" sooperstar--Jeremy Giambi!

Quick--without looking it up--who did the Royals get from the A's for the Jere-meister??

I'm not sure in any event why we need a Triple Crown Score to determine the Triple Crowniness of a Triple Crown, when we already have several established ways to evaluate the value of seasons.

Hey, Bill James knows how to gild that lily...and don't you forget it.

Quick--without looking it up--who did the Royals get from the A's for the Jere-meister??

Brett Laxton? Is that a person? I remember being dumbfounded that Beane was able to get Jeremy G for such a low price.

Yovani Gallardo also started a post season game for the Brewers in 2008 despite having no regular season decisions.

I'm not sure in any event why we need a Triple Crown Score to determine the Triple Crowniness of a Triple Crown, when we already have several established ways to evaluate the value of seasons.

another opinion

And for f's sake let's not forget that those end-times Royals had the original "party like it's 1999" sooperstar--Jeremy Giambi!

Quick--without looking it up--who did the Royals get from the A's for the Jere-meister??

The Transaction Analysis write-up by Christina Kahrl for this trade is the funniest thing I ever remember reading at BP. I don't have the keys anymore over there, but it had words maybe being as exact as: "watch as the wolf approaches the slow-witted goat".

The 1910 Red Sox had an all-22 outfield of Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, and Duffy Lewis. They turned out all right.

1977 Expos had Andre Dawson (22), Warren Cromartie (23), and Ellis Valentine (22), then four years later subtracted Valentine & added 21-year-old Tim Raines.

One team that squandered a good(ish) young outfield was the 1966 Angels -- Rick Reichardt (then a 23-year-old god), Jose Cardenal (22), Ed Kirkpatrick (21), and Jay Johnstone (20). They also had a young rotation anchored by 25-year-old Dean Chance, and a good young infield w/ Fregosi, Knoop, Schaal, Rodgers (all 27 or younger). It was a pretty remarkable squanderage.

Update:

Bill, Lynn, Rice and Evans were all 22-23 in 1975. I'd say that all three clearly had better careers than Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon. Beltran is probably the best of the six players, but if you were to pick an outfield as a package, wouldn't you take Lynn, Rice and Evans?

By Career Win Shares Evans had 347, Rice 282, Lynn 280 (Total 909), whereas Damon has 307, Beltran 304 and Dye 175 (Total 786). So it appears that you're right, unless Damon wins the MVP Award in 2013. Which I assume that he probably will. ...