Placing the 2023 New York Yankees in the Franchises Storied History
August 26, 2023
Among the many Yankee teams I’ve followed in my lifetime, I consider the 1998 squad to have been the most successful, and the 1966 version to have been the least proficient. In 1966, League divisions hadn’t yet been introduced. The American and National Leagues each had ten teams, and the teams with the best winning percentages in each league met in a single-layered post-season best of seven world series. The 1966 Yankees finished dead last in the American League, 26.5 games behind the first place Baltimore Orioles, who went on to sweep the Dodgers in the Fall Classic. The comparisons below match the full season results of the 1966 Yankees against the first 125 games in 2023, which represents a little more than 75% of all regular season games to be played. A match-up of this year’s team, position by position, against the 1966 team suggests that there may be a new contender for last place on the leader board of Yankee teams. The 2023 Yankees are currently 18 games out of first place, so the final verdict is still to be determined.
Let’s first look at the batting lineups of the 1966 and 2023 teams.
After 125 games, this year’s starting first baseman was batting 0.255 versus 0.244 for the 1966 team. Advantage 1966.
The batting average of the main second baseman on the 2023 team edged out 1966, 0.265 to 0.251. Advantage 2023.
At short-stop, 1966’s batting average was 0.266 compared to 0.215 on the 2023 team. Big advantage for 1966.
At third pace, 1966 barely edges out 2023, 0.240 to 0.238. That’s essentially a draw.
The catcher’s batting average is won by the 1966 team’s 0.256 versus 0.232 in 2023. Advantage 1966.
The famed but fading Yankee center field Mickey Mantle was still the team’s best 1966 hitter at 0.288 versus 2023’s 0.249. Big advantage for 1966.
Left field is won by the 2023 team’s 0.253 versus 0.225 on the 1966 team. Big advantage for 2023.
And right field also had a better batting average this year 0.271 than in 1966 0.233.
The batting lineups are pretty evenly balanced, with each team owning four advantages and the third baseman position being a draw. But in starting pitching this year’s team more clearly falls short when the five starters from 1966 are compared to six starters on the 2023 team (six rather than five on 2023 because it has more injuries, and German is gone for the rest of the season). To compare pitchers, this analysis looked at earned run averages.
The first starter in the pitching rotation is the only one with a lower ERA in 2023 (3.03) than 1966 (3.80). Advantage 2023.
For the number two starters, the 1966 ERA of 3.31 was almost a run and a half less given up than 2023 (4.68). Huge advantage 1966.
Third starter comparison is the one with a split in 2023. Those two offerings of 4.56 and 5.43 are well above 3.56 in 1966. Another commanding 1966 lead.
Moving to starter #4, 1966 enjoys an even wider proficiency advantage with a 4.13 ERA versus 7.98 runs allowed in 2023. Huge advantage for 1966.
Among #5 starters, 1966 also was significantly better with an ERA of 2.69 to this year’s 4.97. Another discernibly large advantage for 1966.
One drawback to comparing these two years over fifty years apart is that pitchers, who tended to have weaker hitting skills, had to bat back then but have been replaced by the designated hitters. This important change in the rules should translate into higher earned run averages in 2023 than 1966. This analysis did not compare the batting stats of the DH to those of starting pitchers. Another difference between now and then is the diminished innings pitched of modern starting pitchers and the greatly enhanced use of relief pitching now. The whole point of that shift, a strategic step encouraged by analytical-dominated team front offices, was intended to improve the quality of pitching over all nine innings. If batters face starting pitchers fewer times in a game, the advantage is presumed to go to the starters and against the batters. Why then particularly in the Yankees case are the starters, aside from Cole, giving up so many more runs now than then? The deterioration seems to exceed what the DH should have caused. Another objective of holding down a starter’s pitch count per game and per season is to promote the health of pitchers, but that result has proven elusive,too. The more the Yankees have focused on analytically generated decision-making regarding pitchers, the more injury-prone the team has become.
While the chance of the Yankees making the playoffs has all but vanished in 2023, there is still a chance for this year’s team to replace the 1966 team as the weakest Yankee squad in the past seven decades. But they will have to play consistently better over the final quarter of the 2023 season. That was not the case in 2022 and several other recent seasons. In fact, the failure to make the World Series in 18 of the last 19 seasons suggest a systematic bias against playing their best ball late each season.
Copyright 2023, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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