YankeesDerek Jeter: He won the Rookie of the Year in 1996 and brought winning back to the Bronx. He's finished in the Top-11 in MVP voting 8 different times. He won the All-Star MVP in 2000...and then won the World Series MVP the same year. He's a 3-time Gold Glove winner (probably undeserving), a 2-time Hank Aaron Award winner (also probably undeserving), and a 3-time Silver Slugger (definitely deserving). He's also won a Babe Ruth award and a Roberto Clemente award so he's got a lot of the legends in the game covered. Jeter's a career .317/.388/.459 hitter in the regular season with a .375 wOBA--the only shortstops in history with higher in Major League history (min. 4000) are Honus Wagner, Alex Rodriguez, and Arky Vaughan (meaning higher than Nomar Garciaparra, Ernie Banks, Barry Larkin, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken, Jr., etc.). Jeter has 2,747 hits which means he should reach 3,000 sometime in 2011--and become the first Yankee to hit 3,000. He doesn't just lead in hits amongst Yankee middle infielders either; he also leads in runs (1,574---4th among active players and 49th in ML history), doubles (438), HR (224), RBI (1068), HBP (143--5th among active players and 21st All-time), and SB (305--9th among active players). And no Yankee middle infielder hit over .293 (min 800 games) so no one is within 20 points of his average (which is 6th among active players) and his .388 OBP (15th among active players) is tops among Yankee middle infielders as well. He's now played 138 games in the postseason (which is approaching a full season) and his numbers are great there too with a .313/.383/.479 slashes, .377 wOBA, and 20 HR against superior pitching. Amazingly, 2008 was the only year he didn't get to the playoffs in his sure-to-be Hall of Fame career and last year collected his 5th World Series ring. Since FanGraphs started tracking it in 2002, Jeter has been worth 40.1 wins (only Albert Pujols, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, and Chipper Jones have had higher totals over this period), equaling about $144.7 million--but he's truly been invaluable. The Yankees captain is still going and going strong so these numbers are sure to increase as time goes on. (picture from the NY Daily News)
Joe Gordon: Gordon or Lazzeri? The choice is tough. Lazzeri left after that 1937 year and Gordon took over for him in 1938. He would win 4 World Series with the Yankees and won an MVP in 1942 with a .322/.409/.491 average, 18 HR and 103 RBI. Gordon missed the 1944, 1945 and part of the 1946 season while fighting overseas and was not the same hitter for the Yankees when he came back. The Yankees traded him in 1946 to Cleveland for Allie Reynolds. And while Gordon regained his form in Cleveland and helped them win their last World Series (1948), Reynolds went on to become a mainstay in the Yankees rotation. One wonder where Gordon may have ranked on this list if he hadn't lost those prime seasons (when he was 29 and 30) to fighting overseas. Gordon's 121 OPS+ is the same as Jeter's and Lazzeri's and his .377 wOBA is another impressive mark for a middle infielder. Gordon's best World Series was in 1941 against the Dodgers when he hit .500/.667/.929 to lead the Yankees against their cross-town foes. Gordon made 6 straight All-Star games while with the Yankees and was elected to the Hall of Fame this past year. (picture from House of Gordon, Virginia) Just missed: Willie Randolph (really good player for a long time but just does have the numbers of these Hall of Famers), Phil Rizzuto (not the overall hitter that any of the top three were but a great player, nonetheless including an MVP award in 1950), Robinson Cano (a fine resume so far, but needs more time to reach the level on this list) and Snuffy Stirnweiss (in 1945 led the American league in runs, hits, BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+ and TB and the Majors in 3B and SB...and somehow came in 3rd in the MVP voting).
Mets
Jose Reyes: A career .286/.337/.435 hitter (.342 wOBA), Reyes is amazingly not even 27 just yet (he turns it in mid-June). His best season came in 2006 when he hit .300/.354/.487 with 17 3B (led majors--one of three times he's done that) and 64 steals (also led majors--also one of three times he did that), helping to lead the Mets to the NLCS. Reyes' biggest problem has been staying healthy and if he can do that, he will have a chance to move up on this list. Baseball-Reference lists similar batters through age 26 as Jimmy Rollins, Alan Trammell, Ryne Sandberg and Lou Boudreau so Reyes is in good company at this young age. He's already 10th on the active list with 301 stolen bases. He led the league in hits in 2008 and his 919 hits through age 25 was 8th most for a shortstop in Major League history. It is too soon to judge Reyes' place in history but it's a good start for the man who is probably the best middle infielder the Mets have ever seen. (picture from the New York Times)
Wally Backman: The nicest thing I can say about Backman's hitting was he was about average--and sometimes just above. A career .283/.353/.344 hitter with the Mets, Backman's two best years were 1986 and 1988--and the Mets made the playoffs both years with Backman serving as a top-of-the-lineup "spark". Backman, a first round pick for the Mets, also had some speed stealing 32 bases in 1984 and 30 the next season. Backman was just recently made the manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones and will try to remake his reputation after serving for only for a day as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004 due to a myriad of troubles he failed to disclose to the team. Amazin' Avenue (where the picture to the right comes from) has some nicer things to say about Backman on their blog."Just" missed: Rey Ordonez (fantastic with the glove and completely useless with the bat. Won 3 gold gloves while with the Mets) and Bud Harrelson (who put up the 5th worst OPS--min 1500 games--since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier).
Who do you think was the best infielder in New York? Vote on the right side and leave your comments below!
Here are the poll results from catcher:
Who is New York's Best Catcher?
Yogi Berra | 71% |
Bill Dickey | 14% |
Jorge Posada | 0% |
Mike Piazza | 14% |
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