2011: The year of the 24-year-old center fielder

Baseball history is filled with great young center fielders. For some reason, they seem to capture the excitement of the fans more than any other position players. Think of a great young center fielder from baseball's past--chances are good that you thought of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Kirby Puckett, or Ken Griffey Jr.

This past season, two more young center fielders put up great seasons.
Here are players in their Age 24 seasons who primarily played CF and had a WAR of at least 5:

Rk	Player	Year	WAR/pos	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	OPS
1	Peter Bourjos	2011	5.0	LAA	147	552	502	72	136	26	11	12	43	32	124	22	9	.765
2	Andrew McCutchen	2011	5.5	PIT	158	678	572	87	148	34	5	23	89	89	126	23	10	.820
3	Matt Kemp	2009	5.8	LAD	159	667	606	97	180	25	7	26	101	52	139	34	8	.842
4	Grady Sizemore	2007	6.1	CLE	162	748	628	118	174	34	5	24	78	101	155	33	10	.852
5	Carlos Beltran	2001	5.9	KCR	155	680	617	106	189	32	12	24	101	52	120	31	1	.876
6	Ken Griffey	1994	6.6	SEA	111	493	433	94	140	24	4	40	90	56	73	11	3	1.076
7	Eric Davis	1986	5.2	CIN	132	487	415	97	115	15	3	27	71	68	100	80	11	.901
8	Kevin McReynolds	1984	5.5	SDP	147	571	525	68	146	26	6	20	75	34	69	3	6	.782
9	Tim Raines	1984	5.4	MON	160	718	622	106	192	38	9	8	60	87	69	75	10	.830
10	Lloyd Moseby	1984	6.2	TOR	158	688	592	97	166	28	15	18	92	78	122	39	9	.837
11	Dale Murphy	1980	7.1	ATL	156	633	569	98	160	27	2	33	89	59	133	9	6	.858
12	Chet Lemon	1979	5.3	CHW	148	632	556	79	177	44	2	17	86	56	68	7	11	.887
13	Cesar Cedeno	1975	5.1	HOU	131	576	500	93	144	31	3	13	63	62	52	50	17	.811
14	Amos Otis	1971	5.3	KCR	147	607	555	80	167	26	4	15	79	40	74	52	8	.789
15	Willie Davis	1964	7.6	LAD	157	652	613	91	180	23	7	12	77	22	59	42	13	.729
16	Vada Pinson	1963	6.5	CIN	162	695	652	96	204	37	14	22	106	36	80	27	8	.861
17	Al Kaline	1959	6.0	DET	136	595	511	86	167	19	2	27	94	72	42	10	4	.940
18	Mickey Mantle	1956	12.9	NYY	150	652	533	132	188	22	5	52	130	112	99	10	1	1.169
19	Willie Mays	1955	9.3	NYG	152	670	580	123	185	18	13	51	127	79	60	24	4	1.059
20	Richie Ashburn	1951	5.6	PHI	154	712	643	92	221	31	5	4	63	50	37	29	6	.819
21	Joe DiMaggio	1939	8.9	NYY	120	524	462	108	176	32	6	30	126	52	20	3	0	1.119
22	Heinie Manush	1926	5.1	DET	136	563	498	95	188	35	8	14	86	31	28	11	5	.985
23	Edd Roush	1917	5.3	CIN	136	567	522	82	178	19	14	4	67	27	24	21	0	.833
24	Tris Speaker	1912	11.0	BOS	153	675	580	136	222	53	12	10	90	82	0	52	28	1.031
25	Ty Cobb	1911	11.4	DET	146	654	591	147	248	47	24	8	127	44	0	83	0	1.088
26	Roger Bresnahan	1903	5.6	NYG	113	486	406	87	142	30	8	4	55	61	46	34	0	.936
27	Emmet Heidrick	1901	5.3	STL	118	539	502	94	170	24	12	6	67	21	32	32	0	.837

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/23/2011.

Bourjos and McCutchen join an incredibly impressive list of more than 10 current or future Hall of Famers plus a bunch of other really good players.

McCutchen's been a good player for several years now and just had his best season. Bourjos's numbers are bit more of a concern to me--I can live with 120+ strikeouts but only with a little more power and a few more walks (see, again, McCutchen.)

I'll take this opportunity to say one more time that Cesar Cedeno is one of the most underrated players of the last 40 years. From 1972 to 1980, he posted a 135 OPS+ over 1179 games. Over those years, here are the only players with an OPS+ of at least 130 over at least 1100 games:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	OPS+	G	Age	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	Pos	Tm
1	Joe Morgan	64.6	144	1295	28-36	5535	4469	882	1267	237	32	163	661	430	*4	CIN-HOU
2	Mike Schmidt	60.3	144	1234	22-30	5158	4261	778	1104	208	39	283	787	129	*5/643	PHI
3	Rod Carew	54.5	145	1304	26-34	5692	4983	796	1719	247	74	57	611	266	*34/D7	MIN-CAL
4	Johnny Bench	49.3	133	1242	24-32	5124	4422	667	1175	222	12	242	872	53	*2/9357	CIN
5	Reggie Jackson	48.2	153	1284	26-34	5357	4650	783	1306	242	23	278	887	142	*9D8	OAK-BAL-NYY
6	Cesar Cedeno	45.8	135	1179	21-29	5025	4460	717	1305	263	45	141	621	438	*8/35	HOU
7	Ted Simmons	42.2	132	1342	22-30	5543	4914	643	1476	292	30	162	825	8	*2/3795	STL
8	Gene Tenace	40.9	136	1259	25-33	4729	3753	556	900	145	20	174	581	33	*23/59D4	OAK-SDP
9	Ken Singleton	37.0	142	1377	25-33	5858	4899	730	1444	233	18	177	747	20	*97/D	MON-BAL
10	Dave Winfield	30.4	134	1117	21-28	4512	3997	599	1134	179	39	154	626	133	*987/3	SDP
11	Bob Watson	29.3	136	1297	26-34	5274	4674	636	1427	239	32	142	762	24	*37/D2	HOU-TOT-NYY
12	Greg Luzinski	19.5	133	1253	21-29	5187	4518	605	1267	245	21	220	796	27	*7/39	PHI

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/23/2011.

Ranked by WAR, you can see that Cedeno was pretty much right there with the best players of the era.