Saturday, May 14, 2016

Hank Greenberg vs. The Yankees

I got interested in this recently when David Ortiz became the sixth player to hit 50+ career HRs vs. the Yankees. It turns out that Greenberg is the only one of the six who never played for the Red Sox (Hat tip to Ryan Pollack for that info). Also, if anyone asks who hit the most career HRs by a guy who attended NYU, Greenberg is the answer.

Greenberg hit 331 career HRs and 1/7 of those would be 47.29. He had 53 against the Yankees. So a bit more than you would expect. The Yankees allowed a HR% of 1.52% over the years 1933-46 (he was in the military from 42-44 and good chunks of 41 & 45 so this is not quite right, but I hope it is close). The league average was 1.56%. So the Yankees were about average in terms of allowing HRs. Also, the Yankees and Tigers were just about tied for the lowest SLG allowed in the AL over these years, .351 (Tigers were 0.00064 lower-what teams allowed is in a table at the end of the post). They Yankees allowed the lowest average of .254. So against what might have been the best pitching staff of these years in the AL, Greenberg upped his game. Of course, the Yankee fielders might have helped.

He had a career HR% of 6.37% but against the Yankees it was 7.26%. So he did especially well against them. Here are his AVG-OBP-SLG against them: .333-.409-.667. His whole career was .313-.412-.605 (if we take out 1947, his year in the NL, they were .319-.412-.616). So he really hit alot better against them than other teams (probably walked less frequently)

In Yankee Stadium he had .319-.375-.608. Pretty good for a righty with that death valley they had, over 400 to left center. His HR% there was 5.45%. He probably had an SLG of over .700 against them at Tiger Stadium.

Why did he hit so well against them? Was it because he was from New York? Who knows.

Here are the top 25 guys in SLG vs. the Yankees since 1913 with 250+ PAs (from the Baseball Reference Play Index). SLGtot is their career SLG. Then the difference between their career SLG and what they did against the Yankees. Then how many PAs vs. the Yankees along with their BA and OBP.


Rk Player SLGvNY SLGtot Diff PA BA OBP
1 Hank Greenberg 0.667 0.615 0.052 826 0.333 0.409
2 Miguel Cabrera 0.665 0.570 0.095 255 0.335 0.412
3 Alex Rodriguez 0.651 0.581 0.070 374 0.334 0.386
4 Manny Ramirez 0.617 0.589 0.028 861 0.322 0.413
5 Albert Belle 0.611 0.564 0.047 503 0.301 0.366
6 Ted Williams 0.608 0.633 -0.025 1351 0.345 0.495
7 Ken Griffey 0.595 0.549 0.046 572 0.311 0.392
8 Curt Blefary 0.592 0.410 0.182 257 0.313 0.414
9 Jim Rice 0.582 0.506 0.076 714 0.330 0.387
10 Mike Napoli 0.580 0.482 0.098 299 0.300 0.418
11 Rafael Palmeiro 0.579 0.519 0.060 820 0.311 0.396
12 Jay Buhner 0.578 0.496 0.082 409 0.283 0.379
13 Jimmie Foxx 0.577 0.616 -0.039 1260 0.303 0.400
14 Jose Bautista 0.576 0.509 0.067 425 0.253 0.402
15 David Ortiz 0.576 0.550 0.026 1003 0.307 0.395
16 Mo Vaughn 0.569 0.526 0.043 484 0.285 0.380
17 Nomar Garciaparra 0.556 0.544 0.012 404 0.326 0.360
18 Ramon Hernandez 0.553 0.420 0.133 300 0.333 0.403
19 Paul Konerko 0.551 0.491 0.060 443 0.306 0.378
20 Ken Williams 0.544 0.543 0.001 763 0.303 0.380
21 Edgar Martinez 0.542 0.516 0.026 594 0.317 0.423
22 Larry Parrish 0.542 0.453 0.089 314 0.301 0.354
23 Magglio Ordonez 0.541 0.502 0.039 407 0.301 0.369
24 Rusty Staub 0.541 0.437 0.104 255 0.320 0.369
25 Earl Averill 0.540 0.535 0.005 1070 0.323 0.395


It was not until the 1990s and 2000s that anyone came close to what Greenberg did (Rodriguez and Cabrerra). Tiger's pitcher Frank Lary (from the 1950s and 60s) was called "The Yankee Killer." But maybe Greenberg should have had that nickname.

Here are the top 10 in terms of how much better they did against the Yankees


Rk Player SLGvNY SLGtot Diff PA
1 Curt Blefary 0.592 0.410 0.182 257
2 Jim Spencer 0.516 0.379 0.137 335
3 Ramon Hernandez 0.553 0.420 0.133 300
4 Ernie Whitt 0.530 0.418 0.112 274
5 Rusty Staub 0.541 0.437 0.104 255
6 Jonny Gomes 0.531 0.428 0.103 290
7 Mike Napoli 0.580 0.482 0.098 299
8 Miguel Cabrera 0.665 0.570 0.095 255
9 Larry Parrish 0.542 0.453 0.089 314
10 Dick Wakefield 0.530 0.447 0.083 349

Now those leaders with 400+ PAs


Rk Player SLGvNY SLGtot Diff PA
1 Jay Buhner 0.578 0.496 0.082 409
2 Ruben Sierra 0.529 0.453 0.076 531
3 Jim Rice 0.582 0.506 0.076 714
4 Jose Bautista 0.576 0.509 0.067 425
5 Paul Konerko 0.551 0.491 0.060 443
6 Rafael Palmeiro 0.579 0.519 0.060 820
7 Chili Davis 0.526 0.471 0.055 476
8 Charlie Maxwell 0.505 0.452 0.053 549
9 Hank Greenberg 0.667 0.615 0.052 826
10 Vernon Wells 0.516 0.467 0.049 730

Here are all the right-handed batters with a .500+ SLG and 200+ career PAs in Yankee Stadium (I think this includes only the original park but both before and after the renovations of the 1970s when LF center was brought in from like 450 to 400 or so). Again, Greenberg is up there and no one passed him until Jim Rice in the 1970s and 80s, after the wall got closer.


Rk Player SLG PA
1 Jim Rice 0.661 308
2 Albert Belle 0.645 258
3 Jay Buhner 0.623 235
4 Hank Greenberg 0.608 421
5 Manny Ramirez 0.605 440
6 Alex Rodriguez 0.597 1878
7 Mike Stanley 0.560 877
8 Harry Heilmann 0.557 315
9 Joe DiMaggio 0.547 3789
10 Edgar Martinez 0.545 303
11 Gary Sheffield 0.532 856
12 Al Simmons 0.532 646
13 Red Kress 0.520 439
14 Mariano Duncan 0.509 247
15 Ben Paschal 0.506 389
16 Shane Spencer 0.506 570
17 Roy Sievers 0.503 426

Here is what each AL team allowed opposing hitters from the years 1933-46. The league averages were BA .270, OBP .342, SLG .368


Team BA OBP SLG OPS
DET 0.263 0.335 0.351 0.686
NYY 0.254 0.325 0.351 0.676
CLE 0.265 0.339 0.359 0.699
BOS 0.271 0.344 0.365 0.709
WSH 0.273 0.344 0.365 0.709
CHW 0.269 0.336 0.371 0.706
SLB 0.285 0.357 0.386 0.743
PHA 0.278 0.353 0.397 0.750

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