• Best Rookie Seasons By Yankees Batters

    Posted by on March 3rd, 2013 · Comments (5)

    If they only had sabermetrics during the 1970′s!  Here is Top 20 for this group:

    Rk Player WAR/pos Year Age G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB BA OBP SLG
    1 Thurman Munson (RoY-1st) 5.3 1970 23 132 526 59 137 25 4 6 53 57 5 .302 .386 .415
    2 Willie Randolph 4.7 1976 21 125 499 59 115 15 4 1 40 58 37 .267 .356 .328
    3 Joe DiMaggio 4.6 1936 21 138 669 132 206 44 15 29 125 24 4 .323 .352 .576
    4 Gil McDougald (RoY-1st) 4.5 1951 23 131 473 72 123 23 4 14 63 56 14 .306 .396 .488
    5 Charlie Keller 4.5 1939 22 111 490 87 133 21 6 11 83 81 6 .334 .447 .500
    6 Tom Tresh (RoY-1st) 4.1 1962 23 157 712 94 178 26 5 20 93 67 4 .286 .359 .441
    7 Phil Rizzuto 4.1 1941 23 133 547 65 158 20 9 3 46 27 14 .307 .343 .398
    8 Earle Combs 3.5 1925 26 150 674 117 203 36 13 3 61 65 12 .342 .411 .462
    9 Billy Johnson 3.2 1943 24 155 655 70 166 24 6 5 94 53 3 .280 .344 .367
    10 Clyde Engle 3.2 1909 25 135 563 66 137 20 5 3 71 47 18 .278 .347 .358
    11 Joe Gordon 3.1 1938 23 127 521 83 117 24 7 25 97 56 11 .255 .340 .502
    12 Derek Jeter (RoY-1st) 3.0 1996 22 157 654 104 183 25 6 10 78 48 14 .314 .370 .430
    13 Andy Carey 3.0 1954 22 122 471 60 124 14 6 8 65 43 5 .302 .373 .423
    14 Bill Dickey 3.0 1929 22 130 474 60 145 30 6 10 65 14 4 .324 .346 .485
    15 Bob Meusel 3.0 1920 23 119 494 75 151 40 7 11 83 20 4 .328 .359 .517
    16 Wally Pipp 3.0 1915 22 136 560 59 118 20 13 4 60 66 18 .246 .339 .367
    17 Lou Gehrig 2.9 1925 22 126 497 73 129 23 10 20 68 46 6 .295 .365 .531
    18 Roberto Kelly 2.8 1989 24 137 498 65 133 18 3 9 48 41 35 .302 .369 .417
    19 Melky Cabrera 2.7 2006 21 130 524 75 129 26 2 7 50 56 12 .280 .360 .391
    20 Jerry Kenney 2.6 1969 24 130 509 49 115 14 2 2 34 48 25 .257 .328 .311
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
    Generated 3/3/2013.

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    Filed under Yankees History · ·

    Comments on Best Rookie Seasons By Yankees Batters

    1. KPOcala
      March 3rd, 2013 | 6:08 pm

      Melky being on this list, on this team, shows that WAR is missing something.
    2. Raf
      March 3rd, 2013 | 11:41 pm

      KPOcala wrote:

      Melky being on this list, on this team, shows that WAR is missing something.

      How so? Melky had a productive 2006, filling in for an injured Matsui. His BA & OBP were above league average, his SLG wasn’t.
    3. Evan3457
      March 4th, 2013 | 12:42 pm

      That DiMaggio’s 1936 is just 3rd on the list, just ahead of McDougald’s 1951 and behind Munson’s 1970 shows how large the difference was between the offensive levels in 1936 and 1970, or even 1951, DiMaggio’s final season, just 15 years later.
    4. KPOcala
      March 4th, 2013 | 6:25 pm

      @ Raf: Raf, it just is hard for me to fathom that with over 100 years of Yankee rookies that Melky could make the list. Not saying he was terrible. For me it just doesn’t meet the ‘smell test’ ;)

    5. Raf
      March 4th, 2013 | 6:56 pm

      @ KPOcala:
      To be fair, this chart WAR is relative to position. I suppose Melky’s WAR is in comparison to other Yankees rookie LF’ers.

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