Remember Domingo Jean?

On January 10, 1992, Jean was traded by the Chicago White Sox with Melido Perez and Bob Wickman to the New York Yankees for Steve Sax. (On November 27, 1993, the Yankees would later trade Jean and Andy Stankiewicz to the Houston Astros for Xavier Hernandez.)

I was just looking at old standings to find the last time the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were within two games of each other in the standings at this time (meaning August 18th) of a season. (The answer is: 1993.) And, in the process, I came across this box score of a game Domingo Jean pitched for the Yankees on August 20, 2003.

Some game, huh? Jean, then only 24-years old, got his first and only major league win that day. It was just his third appearance, ever, in the majors at that time. Domingo Jean would go on to pitch in seven more games for the Yankees in 1993 – and then never pitch in the majors again.

This whole thing got me curious as to how many times, recently, have the Yankees had a 24-year old or younger starting pitcher take the mound, with less than three big league games under his belt, where the guy went 7+ innings, allowed 2 runs or less, and got the win.

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Game Finder, here are the recent pitchers to pull this off:

  Cnt CarGm AgeY.D Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----+------+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
       1     1 22.256 Ian Kennedy       2007-09-01 NYY  TBD W  9-6  GS-7  ,W   7    5  3  1  2  6  1  96  66   63       27 25  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  1  0  0  0  0   1.29
       2     3 24.223 Domingo Jean      1993-08-20 NYY  KCR W  7-2  GS-7  ,W   7    5  2  2  1  3  2  84  56   61       27 26  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   2.57
       3     1 23.167 Mark Hutton       1993-07-23 NYY  CAL W  5-2  GS-8  ,W   8    3  2  1  4  5  0 117  68   71       29 23  0  0   0   0  1  1   1  3  1  0  0  0   1.12
       4     2 22.263 Sam Militello     1992-08-15 NYY @CHW W  4-2  GS-8  ,W   8    6  2  2  3  4  1 103  65   63       32 29  0  0   0   0  0  0   1  1  0  0  0  0   2.25
       5     1 22.257 Sam Militello     1992-08-09 NYY  BOS W  6-0  GS-7  ,W   7    1  0  0  3  5  0  98  59   77       27 23  0  0   0   1  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
       6     3 24.319 Jeff Johnson      1991-06-19 NYY @TOR W  3-0  GS-8  ,W   7    5  0  0  1  3  0  96  60   69       27 26  2  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   0.00
   
      

Wow. Jeff Johnson, Sam Militello, Mark Hutton, and Domingo Jean were the ones to do this just before Ian Kennedy did it last season. That’s not exactly a group that went on to have Hall of Fame careers, is it?

Just goes to show…sometimes a young pitcher having a great game in the majors, early in his career, is just a flash in the pan…and not a golden nugget to bank on…right?