Greatness times two
Bagwell, Biggio among top tandems of all time
As the two greatest Astros, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio are inextricably linked by their concurrent Hall of Fame careers. But where do they rank among baseball’s top postitionplayer tandems?
As the most useful tool for examining players across the eras, Wins Above Replacement provides a good measuring stick. Thus, a three-step methodology: 1) finding baseball’s top 30 duos, based on accumulated WAR during their time together as lineup regulars; 2) reordering the list based on average annual WAR to account for varying spans during which the players were teammates; and 3) arriving at a final ranking by giving two-thirds weight to accumulated WAR and onethird weight to average annual WAR.
To ensure no one could ride a superstar’s coattails just because he was a longtime teammate, each player in the duo had to account for at least 30 percent of accumulated WAR (disqualifying, for example, pairings such as Stan Musial/ Enos Slaughter and Ted Williams/Bobby Doerr).
In cases where a team like the 1960s/1970s-era Reds might have multiple qualifying tandems ( Johnny Bench/ Pete Rose, Rose/Tony Perez, Joe Morgan/ Bench, etc.), only the top tandem made the list.
Bottom line: Bags and Bidge were among the best.
1 Hank Aaron/Eddie Mathews 1954-66 Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves
Cumulative WAR: 179.8 (1st) Average annual WAR: 13.83 (3rd) Talk about a power combo. Aaron and Mathews averaged a combined 66 home runs and 202 RBIs during their 13 seasons together. They drove Milwaukee to a World Series title in Aaron’s MVP year of 1957 and a National League pennant the next season. It’s an extremely close call to put them at the top of the list, but the three extra years they had on the No. 2 tandem serve as the difference maker.
2 Babe Ruth/Lou Gehrig 1925-34 New York Yankees
Cumulative WAR: 168.1 (3rd)
Average annual WAR: 16.8 (1st) The heart of Yankees teams that won championships in 1927, 1928 and 1932 (and an AL pennant in 1926), Ruth and Gehrig were positively fearsome. Consider that in a seven-season span from 1926 to 1932, Ruth hit at least 41 homers annually and had an OPS of at least 1.128 each year, while Gehrig topped 150 RBIs four times. With Ruth on what for him was a decline in 1934 (his OPS was a mere .985), Gehrig won an AL triple crown, boasting a .363/.465/.706 slash line with 49 homers and 165 RBIs. It would be hard to take umbrage with anyone wanting to rank them No. 1.
3 Willie Mays/Willie McCovey 1959-71 San Francisco Giants
Cumulative WAR: 160.0 (4th)
Average annual WAR: 12.30 (7th) Check out Mays’ finishes in the NL MVP voting from 1959-66: sixth, third, sixth, second, fifth, sixth, first, third. He drove in no fewer than 103 runs annually during that span and won NL home run crowns in 1962 (49), 1964 (47) and 1965 (52). McCovey also won three homer crowns, in 1963 (44), 1968 (36) and 1969 (45). He led the NL in OPS and slugging for three straight years from 1968-70 and was MVP in 1969. They never won a World Series together (Mays got a ring in 1954) but did help bring the Giants the NL pennant in 1962.
4 Honus Wagner/Fred Clarke 1897-1911 Louisville Colonels/ Pittsburgh Pirates
Cumulative WAR: 169.9 (2nd) Average annual WAR: 11.32 (12th) Turn on the Way Back Machine for this one. Wagner, still regarded as baseball’s greatest shortstop, won eight NL batting titles and six slugging crowns between 1900 and 1911. Besides posting a lifetime .312 batting average and .386 on-base percentage, Clarke skippered the Pirates to NL pennants in 1901, 1902 and 1903 and a World Series title in 1909. Excelling in the deadball era, Wagner (252) and Clarke (220) rank third and seventh all-time in triples.
5 Ty Cobb/Sam Crawford 1906-16 Detroit Tigers
Cumulative WAR: 138.6 (8th) Average annual WAR: 12.6 (5th) Speaking of triples, meet the top two men on the leader board. Cobb, who had 295, would have won every AL batting title from 1907 to 1919 if not for his paltry .371 average in 1916. He also led the league in slugging and OPS every year from 1907-1912 and topped 75 stolen bases three times while paired with Crawford, the career triples king with 309 and a three-time AL RBI champion. They led Detroit to three straight pennants from 1907-09 but never claimed a World Series title.
6 Mickey Mantle/Yogi Berra 1951-63 New York Yankees Cumulative WAR: 140.2 (7th)
Average annual WAR: 10.78 (17th) When it comes to winning, no one beats this duo. In their 13 years together, Mantle and Berra played in 11 World Series, winning seven. Each won three MVP awards (Berra, highly regarded for his offense and defense as a catcher, was never out of the top four in voting from 1951-56), with the Mick’s Triple Crown season of 1956 topping the bill. Mantle eclipsed 100 runs in each season from 1953-61 and won four home run crowns.
8 Johnny Bench/Pete Rose 1968-78 Cincinnati Reds
Cumulative WAR: 123.7 (12th) Average annual WAR: 11.2 (13th) Bench, the NL’s Rookie of the Year in 1968 and MVP in 1970 and 1972, set at unprecedented defensive standard behind the plate and could slug with the best of his contemporaries, winning two homer titles and driving in 100 runs six times. The 1973 NL MVP, Rose had seven of his 10 200hit seasons and eight of his nine 100-run seasons while Bench’s teammate. After helping the Reds to NL pennants in 1970 and 1972, they won it all in 1975 and 1976.
9 Jackie Robinson/Duke Snider 1947-56 Brooklyn Dodgers
Cumulative WAR: 114.5 (14th) Average annual WAR: 11.45 (10th) Robinson, who hit .311 lifetime with an onbase percentage of .409, scored at least 99 runs in each of his first seven big league seasons and was the NL’s MVP in 1949. From 1953-56, Snider averaged 122 runs, 41 homers and 123 RBIs. They were part of six NL pennant winners and helped bring Brooklyn its lone championship in 1955.
10 Eddie Collins/Frank Baker 1909-14 Philadelphia Athletics
Cumulative WAR: 97.8 (18th) Average annual WAR: 16.3 (2nd) Collins and Baker led the A’s to four AL pennants and three titles in their six seasons together. Collins saw his on-base percentage fall below .416 in only one of those campaigns, and he led the AL in runs for three straight years from 1912-14. Baker won four straight homer crowns from 191114 and twice led his league in RBIs.