C- Yogi Berra (Hall of Fame); that was easy, even with Bill Dickey (Hall of Fame) a close second; most over-rated: Thurman Munson (MVP); under-rated: Jorge Posada, borderline Hall of Famer. Honorable mention to Elston Howard (MVP).
1B - Lou Gehrig (Hall of Fame); over: Don Mattingly; under: Wally Pipp who won first two Yank home run titles.
2B - Tony Lazzeri (Hall of Fame); over: none; under: Bobby Richardson, who set batting records in TWO of his five World Series. Willie Randolf gets honorable mention.
3B- Graig Nettles (Obviously Alex Rodriguez will replace Nettles but there's no rush); over: none; under: Red Rolfe. Point on Nettles: in his two biggest home run seasons, 1976-77, his splits do not suggest that he got a big boost from the short porch in Yankee Stadium: 32 - 18 home, 14 road; 37 - 18 home, 19 road.
CF - Mickey Mantle (Hall of Fame); over: Joe DiMaggio (Hall of Fame); under: Earl Combs (Hall of Fame). Honorable mention Bernie Williams.
LF - none; Charlie Keller was on his way to the Hall of Fame but injuries defeated him. No one over-rated. Under, maybe Bob Meusel or Roy White. Ricky Henderson (Hall of Fame) played only 4.5 seasons with the Yanks and some of that was in CF.
Pitcher - Whitey Ford (Hall of Fame); over: none; under: Lefty Gomez (Hall of Fame), 6-0 in WS, TWO triple crowns. I looked at Herb Pennock (Hall of Fame), Waite Hoyt (Hall of Fame), Red Ruffing (Hall of Fame), Allie Reynolds and Dave Righetti but could not label any as over-rated as a Yankee.
Manager - Casey Stengel (Hall of Fame); over: Buck Showalter; under: Joe Torre. Honorable mention Joe McCarthy (Hall of Fame), Miller Huggins (Hall of Fame) and Ralph Houk.
General Manager - Ed Barrow (Hall of Fame); over: Brian Cashman; under: Gabe Paul. Honorable mention George Weiss (Hall of Fame).
Owner - Three way tie: Col. Jacob Ruppert (Hall of Fame), Dan Topping/Del Webb, George Steinbrenner. Worst: CBS.
1 comment:
I dunno if I'd say Combs was underrated, although I suppose his reputation has diminished in the sabermetrics era. In any event, fun read. Thanks for posting
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