The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Narrowing Down The Candidates

Last night the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ended but we're still finishing up with our New York Baseball Bracket Challenge. We're going to pit the best against each other so you can declare the best in New York. We'll list all the candidates this round, have you pick three and then we'll list arguments for those three players and have you vote for the top baseball player in New York (Mets or Yankees) history.

I decided to cheat a little and forgo the outfield vote. The Yankees own the three best outfielders in Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Just missed includes: Charlie Keller, Roger Maris, Dave Winfield, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Murcer, Earle Combs, and Darryl Strawberry. But we're just going to go ahead and put the Yankees top three into the finals.

So here's the list (click on the link to find their original argument):

• Catcher: Yogi Berra
• First Base: Lou Gehrig
• Middle Infielder: Derek Jeter
• Third Base (results below): Alex Rodriguez
• Outfield: Babe Ruth (picture from Babe Ruth.com)
• Outfield: Joe DiMaggio
• Outfield: Mickey Mantle
• Righthanded Starter: Tom Seaver
• Lefthanded Starter: Whitey Ford
• Closer: Mariano Rivera

Remember, on the right side, pick your top 3 New York baseball players and we'll pit the top 3 all together head-to-head, to see who is the best baseball player in New York history. And let us know why you chose the way you did in the comments below!

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Catcher

The NCAA tournament is heating up and so is The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge here at NYaT. The preliminary rounds are about done for the pitchers (more poll results below) after closers, right-handed starters and left-handed starters were all voted upon, so now it's time to move on to their battery-mates. One rule for the hitters in our bracket challenge: only offense is rewarded. We'll mention defense as we see fit, but since I can't tell you how good a catcher Bill Dickey was, we'll just have to compare him to Jorge Posada on the offensive merits. And this one was a difficult category for that.

The Yankees have had 5 catchers play 1000 games for them and all 5 were legitimate candidates for this poll. Elston Howard and Thurman Munson both won MVPs, Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra both are in the Hall of Fame and Jorge Posada is one of the best offensive catchers of his generation. I decided to take three from them and only one from the Mets. So, without further ado, let's get to the candidates (all stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs):

Yankees:

Yogi Berra: 3 MVP awards. 18 All-Star games. 10 World Series rings. And from 1951-1956 when he won 3 MVPs, came in second twice, third once and fourth once, there was perhaps not better player in the American League--especially considering the position Berra played. 358 HR and 1430 RBI were amazing numbers for a catcher and his 704 BB to 411 SO ratio was simply amazing for any position. A .370 wOBA (weighted on base average from FanGraphs) ties him for 10th all-time among catchers with Jorge Posada (min. 5500 PA) and his 5.5% strikeout percentage is a great testament to his ability to make contact. Berra was a great postseason performer too, putting up a .357 OBA and batting .274/.359/.452 with 12 HR across 14 World Series. His best World Series was probably in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers where he hit .360/.448/.800 with 3 HR and 10 RBI. Amazingly, it took Berra two ballots to get into the Hall of Fame and even when he was elected, it was only 85.6% of the vote. But he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown in 1972. (picture from Dave's Dugout)

Bill Dickey: I didn't realize how good Bill Dickey was until I went back and looked through the statistics. His .394 career wOBA is second all-time among catchers to Mickey Cochrane (min. 2000 PA). That's higher than Mike Piazza, Joe Mauer, Jorge Posada, Berra or almost any other catcher. Dickey leads all Yankee catchers in the slashes Triple Crown: batting average (.313), OBP (.382), and SLG (.486). His 617 XBH ranks him second behind Berra and despite over 1500 less ABs, Dickey only trails Berra by 179 hits. Here's one of the most amazing stats: Dickey only struck out 289 times in his career (to 678 walks) and only struck out more than 22 times twice in his whole career. Dickey never won an MVP award, but playing next to Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gerhig really hurt him in that cause. Dickey's 1936-1938 was one of the best three-year runs a catcher has put up in Major League history. Dickey was an 11-time All-Star and won 7 World Series rings (in 8 chances). The two most amazing parts are that Dickey only played catcher in his 17 years in the bigs and that it took a ridiculous 9 years to get Dickey into the Hall of Fame. (picture from CharlesPaolino's Blog)

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Robinson Cano: The Next Carlos Baerga or the Next Yogi Berra?

According to Baseball-Reference, only Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Ben Chapman, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and Lou Gerhig have more hits at age 26 than Robinson Cano and only DiMaggio and Gerhig had more doubles (also according to B-R). Cano came out of no place to have a great start to his career. So where does Cano go from here? Baseball-Reference lists the most similar players and I found it interesting to see Carlos Baerga and Yogi Berra's name both on there.

Through age 26, Carlos Baerga was a rising star in baseball. He had been named to three All Star Games, had four .300 seasons in a row, and posted two 100-RBI seasons. Then, in 1996, he struggled in the first half, was traded to the Mets, and was never a productive player again. Baerga's biggest problem? Lack of patience at the plate. He walked over 35 times once in his career and that was at age 22.

Yogi Berra was a very good hitter in his first few seasons but in his fourth season, at age 25, he took a huge leap thanks to a .388 OBP and never looked back. Yogi would never be a big walk guy (his highest total was 65), but he continued to develop as a hitter while Baerga seemed to regress.

Let's look at the stat comparison of Cano, Baerga, and Berra and add in Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter to the mix:

Stats through age 25

Player         From  To Yrs   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+
+--------------+---------+--+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+----+
Robinson Cano  2005-2008  4  573  2218  303  671 151  15  62  309   99  272  .303  .335  .468  109
Joe Mauer      2004-2008  5  561  2059  325  653 128  14  44  301  292  233  .317  .399  .457  128
Carlos Baerga  1990-1994  5  684  2628  404  796 137  13  78  415  143  320  .303  .342  .454  116
Yogi Berra     1946-1950  5  482  1796  289  540  90  21  75  371  116   74  .301  .347  .499  123
Derek Jeter    1995-1999  5  638  2537  486  807 122  31  63  341  273  473  .318  .389  .465  121

The averages are all around the same, but Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer lead in OBP while Cano and Berra lead in slugging. I took out stolen bases because Jeter's the only one here who really relies on speed. But when you put them together, they all have their plusses and minuses. To be fair, age 25 was a down year for Robby. So let's see how they bounced back.

Stats through age 26

Player         From  To Yrs   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+
+--------------+---------+--+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+----+
Robinson Cano  2005-2009  5  731  2846  406  873 199  17  87  394  129  334  .307  .339  .480  113
Joe Mauer      2004-2009  6  694  2564  414  838 157  15  72  394  361  293  .327  .407  .484  138
Carlos Baerga  1990-1995  6  819  3185  491  971 165  15  93  505  178  351  .305  .345  .454  115
Yogi Berra     1946-1951  6  623  2343  381  701 109  25 102  459  160   94  .299  .348  .498  125
Derek Jeter    1995-2000  6  786  3130  605 1008 153  35  78  414  341  572  .322  .394  .468  122

So this includes the year that Mauer and Cano are now finishing up. As you can see, Mauer is definitely better than Cano and so is Jeter (though Cano had more power), but Berra and Baerga are right there. Let's see what happened the next year for those bottom 3.

Stats through age 27 (with the exception of Mauer and Cano who are not yet 27)

Player         From  To Yrs   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+
+--------------+---------+--+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+

Robinson Cano  2005-2009  5  731  2846  406  873 199  17  87  394  129  334  .307  .339  .480  113
Joe Mauer      2004-2009  6  694  2564  414  838 157  15  72  394  361  293  .327  .407  .484  138
Carlos Baerga  1990-1996  7  945  3692  550 1100 193  15 105  571  199  378  .298  .338  .444  108
Yogi Berra     1946-1952  7  765  2877  478  847 126  26 132  557  226  118  .294  .350  .494  127
Derek Jeter    1995-2001  7  936  3744  715 1199 188  38  99  488  397  671  .320  .392  .470  122

And this is where you can separate the men from the boys. Can Cano take that next step next year? This year he's cut down on the strikeouts and some of the poor decision-making at the plate, but his walks have no risen. Part of that is due to hitting in such a potent lineup, but his anxiety and failures with runners in scoring position has done nothing to help that out.

Still, he had his first 200-hit season this year and looks much more comfortable at the plate (and in the field as well). With no one on base, his slashes of .379/.410/.615 are very good. Also good for Robby, he's improved his ratios a lot: his HR%, XBH%, X/H%, AB/SO, LD%, and HR/FB have all gone up and his SO%, SO/BB, AB/HR, and GB/FB have all gone down. Even his BB% is higher than last year, albeit less than his high in 2007.

The key will be to continue on this positive path with much better walk rates and with better numbers with RISP (and if he's motivated, it seems Cano can continue to improve). If Cano can take that next step, he may still not be Yogi Berra (or Joe Mauer or Derek Jeter), and we may not be talking about him as a great all-time Yankee...but at least he won't become the Next Carlos Baerga.