Combined career WAR for Rookie of the Year tandems. Over at my site I was wondering if Albert...

Combined career WAR for Rookie of the Year tandems.

Over at my site I was wondering if Albert Pujols and Ichiro made up the best Rookie of the Year duo ever, and casually came to the conclusion that they've got a decent shot if you're using WAR as the measuring stick. Tom Seaver and Rod Carew though.. sheesh.

I'm not a big saber-dude so I thought I'd kick it over here for some more thorough examination. Also, I just quickly scanned the ROY lists and picked out the names that stood out to me, so I could have missed some good tandems.

2 months ago JonBBT 2 comments 0 recs |

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You missed the obvious one:

1951: Willie Mays(154.7) and Gil McDougald(39.9) for a grand total of 194.6. I’d probably rather have Seaver/Carew on my team but it would be very close.

All the others over 100 WAR according to Rally:
1991- Jeff Bagwell 79.9. Chuck Knoblauch- 41.1 (121)- This surprised me as the 4th best combo.
1982- Cal Ripkin 89.8, Steve Sax 17.5 (107.3)
1964- Dick Allen 61.1, Tony Oliva 42.4 (103.7)- What could have been if not for knee injuries and volatile tempers
1997- Scott Rolen 57.4 Nomar Garciaparra 42.6 (100) and slowly counting
1959- Willie McCovey 65.1, Bob Allison 34.2 (99.3)

1963 Pete Rose/Gary Peters, 1968 Bench/Steve Bahnsen, 1978 Sweet Lou/Bob Horner, and 1993 Piazza/Salmon all made it above 90 WAR. Going forward, 2006 Hanley/Verlander and 2007 Braun/Pedroia could make things interesting.

by JopeX37 on Sep 13, 2009 2:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, but with Willie Mays carrying the entire thing it kind of gets away from the point.

I obviously stopped scrolling when I got to Willie’s name, but Gil McDougald, while good, didn’t seem to fit as one half of “the best Rookie of the Year duo ever” in my mind, so I didn’t calculate it. I’ll add a note to my original post.

by JonBBT on Sep 13, 2009 3:21 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs