New York Yankees
The 1932 New York Yankees will not be on any greatest teams list but they were a lot better than they looked. This team won 96 games despite losing a massive amount of games to injury and even led the World Series 3 games to 1 before the injury bug struck again. Some call it poetic justice, given the way this team bought so many of its stars, but in doing so the Yankees are helping the rest of the league - the cash infusion they gave to the St. Louis Browns in exchange for Carter Keeton probably saved them from folding.
Obviously, they're the odds-on favorite to repeat. It's tough to imagine them getting more injured than last year. Their pitching stood up to the Year of the Hitter and put forward a dead ball era looking earned run average. And the much-maligned offense somehow managed to score 916 runs. Look for 4 pennants in 6 years... and counting.
Code:
Record overall 96-58, .623 PCT 1st, - GB
Home 44-33, .571 PCT
Road 52-25, .675 PCT
X-inning games 9-5, .643 PCT
One-run games 16-17, .485 PCT
Versus LHP 31-14, .689 PCT
Versus RHP 65-44, .596 PCT
April 6-3, .667 PCT
May 17-12, .586 PCT
June 18-10, .643 PCT
July 19-9, .679 PCT
August 17-11, .607 PCT
September 13-11, .542 PCT
October 6-2, .750 PCT
Team Batting Stats & Rankings
Batting Average .303 - 1st in AL
On-Base Percentage .365 - 2nd in AL
Slugging Percentage .433 - 2nd in AL
On-Base + Slugging .798 - 3rd in AL
Runs Scored 916 - 2nd in AL
Hits 1703 - 2nd in AL
Extra-Base Hits 484 - 5th in AL
Home Runs 82 - 6th in AL
Bases-On-Balls 546 - 2nd in AL
Strikeouts 431 - 2nd in AL
Stolen Bases 58 - 2nd in AL
Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 3.37 - 1st in AL
Starters' ERA 3.30 - 1st in AL
Bullpen ERA 3.38 - 1st in AL
Runs allowed 657 - 1st in AL
Hits allowed 1372 - 1st in AL
Opponents AVG .254 - 1st in AL
BABIP .274 - 1st in AL
Home Runs allowed 63 - 1st in AL
Bases-On-Balls 457 - 3rd in AL
Strikeouts 572 - 1st in AL
Pitching
Even losing Alan Hack and Ken Wilcher for most of the season, the 1-2 punch of Eeyore Meyers and Steve Krug was more than enough to keep the Yankees in the game. Meyers finished 2 strikeouts behind Bob Hinman for #1 in the major leagues. Still only 26, Meyers already has his name mentioned on future Hall of Fame lists. And why not? He has a fastball that tops 98 miles per hour, is unflappable on the mound, and has pinpoint control. He even hit a career-high 5 doubles last year.
Krug takes a slightly different approach. Rather than overpower his opponents, he tosses whatever he can come up with that day: he throws five pitches for strikes. His main move is mixing up a two-seam fastball with a pitch that looks like a two-seamer but runs a little slower and dips a bit more. Hitters expecting the former drive the latter into the ground. His strikeout total, then, is deceptively low: this is a man who does in one pitch what other guys take at least three to do.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA VORP
Steve Krug 32 22 11 0.667 36 36 0 299.1 293 98 10 63 90 2.95 79.2
Bob Meyers 26 21 8 0.724 33 32 0 268.1 262 73 10 26 150 2.45 87.0
Gary Scurry 29 9 9 0.500 34 22 0 171 195 76 7 74 81 4.00 22.9
Tim Bunker 23 9 6 0.600 22 16 0 125.2 123 64 9 101 44 4.58 8.2
Elvin Gram 41 8 6 0.571 17 17 0 115 113 52 6 34 36 4.07 13.1
Alan Hack 32 10 1 0.909 14 14 0 113.1 92 31 8 22 43 2.46 36.8
Lowell May 23 5 5 0.500 43 0 13 67.2 58 12 2 30 38 1.60 28.8
Juan Hernández 28 2 0 1.000 25 0 0 54 54 26 2 16 30 4.33 5.2
Johnny Watson 25 4 2 0.667 24 0 0 47 36 25 2 32 30 4.79 1.8
Barry Ruth 28 2 4 0.333 15 5 0 46 62 21 2 25 8 4.11 5.6
Ken Wilcher 36 2 1 0.667 4 4 0 27 21 6 1 13 3 2.00 9.1
Keenan Hubbard 37 1 2 0.333 5 4 0 24 34 17 2 6 5 6.38 -3.9
Cristóbal Rodríguez 27 1 1 0.500 2 2 0 16 10 6 2 7 9 3.38 2.2
Keith Lamb 24 0 2 0.000 2 2 0 10.1 14 10 0 7 3 8.71 -5.2
Pedro Hernández 29 0 0 0.000 3 0 1 3.2 5 3 0 1 2 7.36 -1.0
Team Totals 29.3 96 58 0.623 279 154 14 1388.1 1372 520 63 457 572 3.37 289.7
Catcher/First Base
Phil Foster may not have the prototypical swing of a cleanup hitter but that's where he played after Carter Keeton went down for the year. Foster was Keeton's teammate last year in St. Louis and came to the Yanks in '32 as a free agent. Despite a stroke designed more for extra-base hits than homerun, he just missed the century mark in RBIs. As it was, 99 was a career high.
Mike Kennedy did everything the Yankees asked of him. Well, almost everything. He opened the year at shortstop, moved to first base after Jesus Vazquez failed to win the hearts and minds of Yankees fans, and then moved back to shortstop with the late-season emergence of Michael Taylor. We say "almost" because Kennedy's initial switch to first was due as much to Kennedy's troubles at short as anything wrong with the converted catcher. Kennedy commited 31 errors in 77 games at the hardest position to field in baseball, and even then his .919 fielding average went up about 15 points in the last month. Clearly the Yankees need to move him somewhere else, but where? The infield is full.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
C Phil Foster 36 136 135 581 97 192 38 2 7 99 0 0 40 32 0.330 0.372 0.439 0.811 30.1
C Bob Weaver 30 17 9 39 7 11 2 1 0 3 1 0 4 5 0.282 0.364 0.385 0.748 1.1
1B #Mike Kennedy 28 150 150 645 125 209 39 10 17 116 2 6 67 18 0.324 0.387 0.495 0.882 44.6
1B *Jesús Vásquez 29 71 53 230 25 62 12 0 3 38 0 1 17 8 0.270 0.315 0.361 0.676 -4.2
1B Michael Taylor 24 23 23 96 14 36 11 2 1 14 0 0 7 7 0.375 0.417 0.563 0.980 9.9
1B Willis Collins 29 35 12 65 13 12 5 1 2 14 0 0 7 5 0.185 0.284 0.385 0.668 -5.3
Infield
Earl Race was having the kind of season kids only dream about but it turned into a nightmare in the World Series. The Garden City, New York native played in the 2-hole all year long, scored 106 times, and played some fantastic second base en route to winning the Rookie of the Year award. Like a lot of young players, staying focused was a problem and he seemed to lose it in the 9th inning of Game Seven. The Giants hit baseball after baseball at him and to be honest it was a bit of charity on the part of the scorer to only charge him with one error in that fatal frame. An elite team like the Yankees have little use for that lack of clutch; the chances that Race will start the year as a Yankee are very slim.
Part of what makes Race expendable is the play of Quincy Hudson and Gilbert Nelson. Hudson came over in yet another lopsided trade plus cash; his former team was the Boston Braves. All he did was hit .327 with 17 homeruns combined; his 14 circuit clouts with the Yanks were second on the team. Gilbert Nelson proved he still has it at the ripe old age of 34. Nelson works counts, aggravates opposing pitching with foul tips, and finds a way to reach base 200+ times a year. He's just as pesky with the glove.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
2B Earl Race 24 150 149 648 106 210 43 6 2 73 3 2 33 57 0.324 0.361 0.418 0.779 36.0
2B Jeff Godfrey 26 22 5 36 8 14 0 1 1 9 2 0 2 2 0.389 0.421 0.528 0.949 5.1
3B *Quincy Hudson 27 79 79 321 58 104 13 3 14 72 0 2 22 29 0.324 0.369 0.514 0.883 17.6
SS Gilbert Nelson 34 152 152 564 85 172 37 10 0 79 1 2 87 57 0.305 0.394 0.406 0.800 23.7
SS *Henry Adams 23 7 5 23 4 9 1 0 0 4 1 0 1 3 0.391 0.417 0.435 0.851 2.2
Team Totals 27.8 1648 1386 5616 916 1703 322 80 82 864 58 44 546 431 0.303 0.365 0.433 0.798 263.0
Outfield
Carter Keeton was so good, he missed the last month of the season and still finished 2nd in MVP voting. His slugging percentage last year set a Yankees record. One can only imagine the kind of numbers he's going to put up in a full season at Yankee Stadium where he doesn't have to spend the first month or so acclimating himself to his surrounding. Nathan Behnke was the club leadoff hitter; like so many other members of this team, he specialized in getting deep into counts without ending at-bats in strikeouts. He also won the Gold Glove in center field for the first time in his young career.
Right field is, how shall we say, a position of improvement for 1933. The Yanks never could find a guy who was really up to the task. Last year's starter John Faber did the best of the crowd and figures to get better as he gets older, but the Yanks are not in a position where they should be waiting for youngsters to develop.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
LF *Carter Keeton 26 127 123 464 115 155 25 10 22 103 3 7 103 52 0.334 0.458 0.573 1.031 61.5
LF Oscar Nickel 24 27 21 87 13 23 2 2 2 18 1 0 5 2 0.264 0.309 0.402 0.711 -2.5
LF #Shelby West 20 5 1 8 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.250 0.333 0.250 0.583 -0.6
CF Nathan Behnke 25 138 137 598 109 193 37 11 4 69 25 16 76 21 0.323 0.398 0.441 0.840 30.5
RF *John Faber 22 90 89 341 47 105 19 14 1 46 11 5 27 21 0.308 0.355 0.455 0.809 6.1
RF *Roberto Silva 24 81 53 216 36 60 9 1 2 30 5 1 21 5 0.278 0.336 0.356 0.693 -1.1
RF Bill Gwaltney 24 57 36 168 24 44 6 4 3 26 3 2 16 27 0.262 0.324 0.399 0.723 -1.5
Code:
- *Scot Jones 34 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -0.1
- *Bill Michael 23 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -0.1
Team Totals 27.8 1648 1386 5616 916 1703 322 80 82 864 58 44 546 431 0.303 0.365 0.433 0.798 263.0