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What Does the Latest Baseball America Honor Mean for Wil Myers?

Wil Myers finds himself in unique company after being named the 2012 Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year.

Presswire

Since 1981, 30 players have been named the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year. As noted previously, Wil Myers won the award this season after he posted a .314/.387/.600 season with 37 home runs and 109 RBI between AA Northwest Arkansas and AAA Omaha.

When Myers reaches the major leagues, he will actually be the sixth player of the 30 who have spent time in their careers as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Current left fielder Alex Gordon won the award in 2006.

It's hard to judge what will happen to Myers in his major league career, as it has yet to start...however he will be in good company.

Looking a the career WAR of the winners, it's a list of many of the games great players over the past three decades:

Frank Thomas 69.7 WAR 19 major league seasons

Derek Jeter 69.1 WAR 18 seasons

Manny Ramirez 64.8 WAR 19 seasons

Andruw Jones 59.5 WAR 17 seasons

Dwight Gooden 45.1 WAR 16 seasons

Jose Canseco 39.2 WAR 17 seasons

Tim Salmon 37.1 WAR 14 seasons

Joe Mauer 35.9 WAR 9 seasons

Eric Chavez 33.9 15 seasons

Tom Gordon 32.5 WAR 21 seasons

Josh Beckett 31.3 WAR 12 seasons

Paul Konerko 25.1 WAR 16 seasons

Gregg Jefferies 17.0 WAR 14 seasons

Alex Gordon 15.6 WAR 6 seasons

Jason Heyward 13.4 WAR 3 seasons

Sandy Alomar Jr 11.6 WAR 20 seasons

Derek Bell 11.3 WAR 11 seasons

Matt Wieters 10.6 WAR 4 seasons

Jay Bruce 10.0 WAR 5 seasons

Mike Trout 9.9 2 seasons

Jeff Francis 9.8 8 seasons

Rocco Baldelli 9.1 WAR 7 seasons

Mike Marshall 8.3 WAR 11 seasons

Jon Rauch 6.5 10 seasons

Mike Bielecki 6.4 WAR 14 seasons

Jeremy Hellickson 5.3 WAR 3 seasons

Rick Ankiel 4.9 WAR 10 seasons

Ron Kittle 3.5 WAR 10 seasons

Delmon Young 1.5 7 seasons

As you can see many enjoy atleast a decade in the major leagues, and over two-thirds of those who were previously named the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year have gone on to stardom in their major league careers.

The average service time among that list? 11.66 years and a WAR of 25.04. That also doesn't taken into account the continued improvements in the numbers by those who are still active in the game (16 of the previous 29 winners).

Does that mean Myers will enjoy a Mike Trout like season in 2013? Not likely, but looking at the WAR of the players listed, odds are that Myers will enjoy a solid big league career.