Yankees All-Time Win shares

Sporting Goods

Readers of my previous blog may remember my "fun with win shares" series, which sometimes didn't say much but hopefully helped to put the contributions of today's players in perspective. At my parents house in CT, I don't have access to my reference books to update all of those posts, but I can start by looking at the Yankees, with a little help from last year's post, and hardballtimes.com.

For a brief explanation of win shares, a useful measure for quantifying and comparing players' overall performance, see here. Note that Win Shares listed are only for the player's win shares while with the Yankees.

Yankees Career Win Shares leaders: through 2005

1. Babe Ruth - 574 - Shocking. It's only this close because he played for the Sox for so many years before coming to the Bronx.
2. Mickey Mantle - 565 - Mick's contribution to the pinstripes was almost as large as Ruth's, and well above anyone else.
3. Lou Gehrig - 489
4. Joe Dimaggio - 387
5. Yogi Berra - 375 - it doesn't get much more impressive than the Yankee top 5.

6. Bill Dickey - 314 - You think of the Yankees having scores of legends, but the rest of the old timers I would consider less than legends. The difference between the Yankees and everyone else is their top 5. Most teams are lucky to have 2 guys wih the impact of the guys in the Yankees top 5.
7. Bernie Williams - 303 - Last year I expressed shock that Bernie was #7 on the Yankee list, and despite a mediocre year, he crept closer to #6 in 2005. He would need to repeat his 2005 number in 2006 to reach Dickey. However, about 20% of his value came from his fielding, which will be significantly reduced assuming that our friend Mr. Damon stays healthy and Bernie stays at DH.

8. Red Ruffing - 265
9. Don Mattingly - 263 - I will not debate that he meant a lot to the team and Yankee fans, but his career win shares total is less than Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, Larry Walker, Jeff Kent, Jim Thome, Jim Edmonds, Chipper Jones, and John Olerud, to name a few. While some of these guys have probably held on a bit too long, others are still kicking along. Would you consider any of them but Kent and Jones even potential hall of famers?
9. Roy White (tie with Mattingly)
11. Whitey Ford - 261
12. Willie Randolph - 251 - Chill's favorite Yankee turned manager.
13. Derek Jeter - 245 - Captain Intangible tangibly climbed from 16 to 13 in 2005, and now holds a lock on "greatest Yankee SS of all time" rights. A repeat of his strong year, and we'll find him at #8 next year. No offense to Willie, but I'd think that Jeter already holds the title of greatest middle infielder in Yankee history.
14. Tony Lazzeri - 243
15. Phil Rizzuto - 231

I'm never sure what to make of closers and Win Shares, but Mariano is 4-5 years from making this list. In other words, it ain't gonna happen.