Bill James uses some weird stats and numbers, while factoring in age to rank this top fifty young players. He says the talent level in young players is the highest since 1964.

He rankes Matt Cain #8

8. Matt Cain, San Francisco starting pitcher (22).
His 7-16 record disguises one of the league's best pitchers; his slider is probably his best pitch. He had the same number of quality starts last year as Brandon Webb (22), but whereas Webb was 17-2 with three no-decisions in those games, Cain was 6-8 with eight no-decisions.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/02/billjames.talent/index.html