Taking a swing at Yankee history
With Stanton aboard, New York is ready to be judged against all-time juggernauts
TAMPA, FLA.— The Yankees scored 858 runs last season, second in the majors to the Astros and now they’ve added Giancarlo Stanton, the most prolific home-run hitter in baseball.
But in addition, they hope to have Greg Bird healthy all season; they might have a blossoming slugger in Miguel Andujar; they believe Brandon Drury has 30-home run potential; and they are convinced Gleyber Torres will be an excellent allaround hitter.
Which raises the question: where might this offence stack up, in 2018 and years to come, with some of the famous teams in Yankee history? Can they outslug, say: The 2009 team, the most recent championship team, that had perhaps the best offensive infield in history with Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira?
The 1998 team that set a standard for excellence by winning 114 games?
The1961team of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris fame?
The 1936 team that scored the most runs in Yankee history of any that won a championship?
The 1927 team of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and the famed Murderer’s Row lineup, to which all others are compared, at least in Yankee lore?
“I really can’t say I’ve seen anything like it,” said former Yankees second baseman Willie Randolph, who is in camp as a special instructor. “I was around when the Core Four was here. I saw that mix. And I think there’s more overall talent here than when that team was coming together.
“Don’t get me wrong. I want to see how things play out. I always want to see how young guys deal with adversity, but I’m really excited about what I see.”
Randolph noted, Stanton’s willingness to hit the ball the other way makes you wonder if he can top last year’s total of 59 home runs now that he has that right-field porch at Yankee Stadium.
Considering the Judge-led Yankees racked up a MLBmost 241home runs last season, this team should be a lock to eclipse that total.
But can this team outscore great teams from the past that made more contact while they flexed their own long-ball mus- cles?
Going by the average age of the aforementioned lineups, the 2018 team could wind up being the youngest of them all.
As it is, the 1927 Yankees were the youngest of those championship teams — the average age of all the at-bats taken that year was 27.8.
And since the average position-player age for last year’s team was 28.6, it figures to be younger with the likes of Drury, Andujar and Torres expected to get a lot of at-bats. Just how high is high? The ’36 Yankees, led by Gehrig and a 21-year-old rookie named Joe DiMaggio, scored1,065 runs in a 154-game schedule. They hit 182 home runs but more remarkably had a .381 on-base percentage as a team.
Only the ’31 team scored more runs in Yankee history, with 1,067, but they didn’t win the AL pennant, finishing 131⁄ games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. The ’ 27 Yankees, meanwhile, scored 975 runs while giving up only 599, making for the largest run differential of any of these teams. The Mantle and Maris Yankees in ’61 scored 827 runs, relatively low by comparison to the others.
More recently, the ’98 Yankees scored 965 runs — second only to the 2007 team (968) in this modern era.
Finally, the 2009 Yankees scored 915 runs with a team whose average age offensively was 30.6.
Obviously preventing runs with pitching is crucial to any championship season, and it remains to be seen how the Yankees’ starting pitching fares this season.
But it will be fascinating to see if the Judge/Stanton/ Sanchez/Bird/Didi Gregorius Yankees can top 900 runs and perhaps outscore some of these famous teams.