1974 – Bob working up some hybrid careers (with Tigerlily)

Tigerlily

Mathews and Chipper Jones are the top two 3B in Braves history and both may be top 5 in major league history. Taking the best season by age between the two results in the following career stats:

G – 2954
AB -10674
RS – 1908
H – 3091
2B – 532
3B – 76
HR – 614
RBI – 1887
BB/K – 1839/1794
SB/CS- 105/45
BA – .290
OBP – .394
SLG – .526
OPS – .920
TB – – 5617
WS – 565

Larry Mathews’ 565 career WS ties him with Mantle.

Overall, Mathews beats Chipper 12 seasons to 9. If you only include seasons in which both played in the majors (and ignore age 21 when Mathews had a monster year and Chipper barely a cup of coffee), Mathews leads in seasons 9-5.

Bob

Tiger, I feel inspired, so I did Mickey DiMaggio:

2471 Games
8774 At Bats
1838 Runs
2722 Hits
418 Doubles
115Triples
554 Home Runs
1812 RBIs
1812/1628 Walks/Strikeouts
117/33 Stolen Bases/Caught Stealing
.310 Batting Average
.431 On Base Percentage
.574 Slugging Percentage
1.005 OPS
5032 Total Bases
603 Win Shares

In his 18-year career, Mickey DiMaggio went to the All-Star Game 17 times, won 4 MVPs and was the runner-up 5 additional times. He did retire at age 36, with bum knees and declining skills. Still, I think even with the shorter career, I’d take Mickey DiMaggio over Larry Mathews (as the Beaver).

Tigerlily

Me too – I’d take Mickey D over Larry Mathews every day of the week. It completely skipped my mind that Larry Mathews was also the name of a child actor. Actually, Larry Mathews’ television parents were Rob & Laura Petrie, not Ward & June Cleaver. Jerry Mathers was the Beav.

Bob

It’s what I get for being obscure and trying to be too clever with my puns. See, I was going for Larry MatheRs as the BeaveR, but changing it to Larry MatheWs as the BeaveW. You know, of course, that if I have to explain my puns, it takes all the fun out of it.

One more hybrid: Bill Berra (Yogi Dickey doesn’t flow)

2174 Games
7677 At Bats
1198 Runs
2279 Hits
375 Doubles
54 Triples
343 Home Runs
1371 RBIs
763/429 Walks/Strikeouts
40/30 Stolen Bases/Caught Stealing
.297 Batting Average
.364 On Base Percentage
.494 Slugging Percentage
.858 OPS
404 Win Shares

It’s more Yogi than Dickey. 15 of the 20 seasons were his.

Actually, my favorite hybrid is Rusie/McGinnity. Both were born in 1971, both are HOFers (and GORers), both won 246 games and both made their mark with the Giants. However, Rusie got his start at 18 and was basically done at 27. McGinnity didn’t get his start until age 28. I’ll add them up for you, but I’ll post Cy Young’s numbers next to theirs. How great was Cy Young? He bettered two dominant pitchers combined.

492 511 Wins
315 316 Losses
.610 .622 Winning Percentage
924 906 Games
806 815 Games Started
705 749 Complete Games
62 76 Shutouts
29 17 Saves
7198 7356 Innings Pitched
6622 7092 Hits Allowed
3481 3167 Runs Allowed
2282 2147 Earned Runs
3012 2803 Strikeouts
2516 1217 Walks
2.85 2.63 ERA
123 127 ERA+
562 634 Win Shares

Of course, the Rusie/McGinnity hybrid doesn’t include McGinnity’s 207 wins in the minors after he left the majors in ’08. So if you want to include those with their 492 MLB wins, that gives the hybrid 699 wins, which would have to be some sort of record, I would think. 699 wins and 10673 innings: Young was such a wimp.

3for3

How about Ted Yaz Rice?

Bob

Ask, and ye shall receive. It’s not all Ted; he had war years and injuries. The 24-year hybrid consists of 15 years for Williams, 5 for Yaz and 4 for Rice. It’s pretty damn impressive.

3346 Games
11783 At Bats
2413 Runs
3869 Hits
725 Doubles
113 Triples
684 Home Runs
2482 RBIs
2463/1295 Walk/Strikeouts
62/47 Stolen bases/Caught Stealing
.329 Batting Average
.447 On Base Average
.583 Slugging Percentage
712 Win Shares

One more, and then I gotta stop before it gets out of hand. These are the totals for Felmatjes Alou:

2293 Games
8414 At Bats
1131 Runs
2552 Hits
380 Doubles
60 Triples
157 Home Runs
846 RBIs
437/616 Walks/Strikeouts
150/102 Stolen Bases/Caught Stealing
.303.340/.419 Slash Numbers
287 Win Shares

11 seasons for Felipe, 6 for Matty and 2 for Jesus. I thought about adding Moises, but that was going too far. Actually, I’m not sure that doing a hybrid Alou brothers wasn’t going too far already.

I know someone is going to ask for a DiMaggio brothers hybrid, so I might as well do that too.

2258 Games
8908 At Bats
1724 Runs
2803 Hits
501 Doubles
142 Triples
379 Home Runs
1778 RBIs
1058/658 Walks/Strikeouts
73/?? Stolen Bases/Caught Stealing
.315/.390/.530 Slash Numbers
459 Win Shares

I gotta stop doing this before I do a Paul Waner/Roberto Clemente hybrid. Hmmm, now that I think about it, a Waner/Clemente clone doesn’t sound so bad….no, no, no, I gotta stop.

Terry

Yount/Molitor?

Bob

You know, these are actually kind of fun, in a bizarre sort of way.

Robin Molitor and Roberto Waner:

3447 2765 Games
13657 10332 At Bats
2229 1738 Runs
4166 3416 Hits
776 635 Doubles
161 217 Triples
320 166 Home Runs
1790 1464 RBIs
1312 1050 Walks
498 117 Stolen bases
.305/.368/.456 .331/.395/.482 Slash Numbers
547 461 Win Shares
91.6 86.0 WAR

How about combining a young slugger with an old one: Ralph Kiner and Hank Sauer?

2564 Games
8954 At Bats
1510 Runs
2443 Hits
362 Doubles
53 Triples
610 Home Runs
1735 RBIs
1422 Walks
29 Stolen Bases
.273/.375/.529 Slash numbers
380 Win Shares
66.1 WAR

Best guess: Harmon Killebrew if he hadn’t played in the ’60s.

I’m doing two more, then I’m going to bed. Babe Ruth/Ted Williams and Ty Cobb/Honus Wagner

3112 3493 Games
10657 13046 At Bats
2830 2368 Runs
3766 4541 Hits
695 800 Doubles
148 337 Triples
883 131 Home Runs
2817 2204 RBIs
2749 1290 Walks
122 1125 Stolen Bases
.353/.488/.695 .348/.409/.491 Slash Numbers
858 895 Win Shares
196.2 176.7 WAR

I’m not going to do it, the whole shebang that is. I’m just going to do a Win Shares hybrid of Ruth, Williams, Cobb and Wagner. By age, who had the most Win Shares (I’m not counting Ruth’s years as a pitcher):

18 04 Cobb
19 16 Cobb
20 41 Cobb
21 36 Cobb
22 44 Cobb
23 46 Williams
24 47 Cobb
25 51 Ruth
26 53 Ruth
27 49 Williams
28 55 Ruth
29 45 Ruth
30 46 Cobb
31 46 Wagner
32 46 Wagner
33 45 Ruth
34 59 Wagner
35 42 Wagner
36 38 Ruth
37 36 Ruth
38 38 Williams
39 25 Williams
40 22 Cobb
41 23 Wagner
42 17 Wagner
43 05 Wagner

975 Win Shares in 26 seasons. Cobb had 8 seasons, Ruth and Wagner had 7 and Williams had 4.

Tigerlily

I’m a little disappointed how Aaron Mathews came out. Hank is almost as valuable all by his lonesome.

G — 3300
AB -12215
RS – 2175
H – 3638
2B — 569
3B — 85
HR – – 807
RBI – 2316
SB/CS 223/64
BB/K – 1628/1535
BA – .298
OBP – .380
SLG – .557
WS – 667
WAR – 134.2

I wonder how seriously Hank would consider losing his .300 career average to regain his spot atop the home run leaderboard.

Longtime Pirates shortstop Vaughan Wagner had a terrific career:

G – 3282
AB -12198
RS – 2093
H – -4024
2B – – 717
3B – – 310
HR – – 140
RBI -1976
SB – – 679
BB/K – 1343/813
BA – .330
OBP- .396
SLG – .474
WS – 789
WAR – 154.1

Bob

Two more hybrids: Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson, and Vada Pinson and Willie Davis. Both are, like Kiner and Sauer, comparing young studs (Marichal and Pinson) with older studs (Gibson and Davis)

Juan Gibson (8 seasons of Marichal, 10 of Gibson):
318 Wins
179 Losses
4583.1 Innings
2.66 ERA
136 ERA+
3486/1228 Strikeouts/Walks
80 Shutouts
397 Win Shares
103.7 WAR
12 All-Star seasons

Vada Davis (10 seasons of Pinson and 9 seasons of Davis)
2646 Games
10461 At Bats
1536 Runs
3099 Hits
517 Doubles
168 Triples
273 Homers
1352 RBIs
586/1197 Walks/Strikeouts
386/128 Stolen Bases/Caught Stealing
.296/.337/.456 Slash Numbers
400 Win Shares
73.2 WAR
4 All-Star Seasons