I was watching the 9/30/67 game between the Twins and Red Sox on Youtube this morning and Yaz had a great game - 3-4, hr. I got thinking about how good Yaz was. I only really saw his last handful of seasons ('76 til the end) and so I never got to see the *great* Yaz. But he had three years representing his peak that were just incredible. Dominating seasons.
1967 - 112 r, 44 hr, 121 rbi, .326/.418/.622/1.040, 193 ops+, 12.4 bWAR, Triple Crown, MVP
1968 - 93 r, 23 hr, 74 rbi, .301/.426/.495/.922, 171 ops+, 10.5 bWAR, Batting crown
1970 - 125 r, 40 hr, 102 rbi, .329/.452/.592/1.044, 177 ops+, 9.5 bWAR
He easily should have won the MVP award in 1970. It went to Boog Powell instead. Powell had an ops of .962 (vs. Yaz' 1.044) and a bWAR of 5.1 (vs. Yaz' 9.5).
He probably should have won it in 1968 as well. Denny McLain (7.3 bWAR vs. Yaz' 10.5) won it unanimously with his 31-6, 1.96 season. And yet Yaz had a far better WAR. But those were old school days when they counted wins and rbi heavily.
Long story short, Yaz was not only a very good player for a very long time (thus his counting numbers ended up great), but his peak years were pretty amazing as well.
A very worthy successor to Ted Williams. I wish I could have seen him play at his peak.
1967 - 112 r, 44 hr, 121 rbi, .326/.418/.622/1.040, 193 ops+, 12.4 bWAR, Triple Crown, MVP
1968 - 93 r, 23 hr, 74 rbi, .301/.426/.495/.922, 171 ops+, 10.5 bWAR, Batting crown
1970 - 125 r, 40 hr, 102 rbi, .329/.452/.592/1.044, 177 ops+, 9.5 bWAR
He easily should have won the MVP award in 1970. It went to Boog Powell instead. Powell had an ops of .962 (vs. Yaz' 1.044) and a bWAR of 5.1 (vs. Yaz' 9.5).
He probably should have won it in 1968 as well. Denny McLain (7.3 bWAR vs. Yaz' 10.5) won it unanimously with his 31-6, 1.96 season. And yet Yaz had a far better WAR. But those were old school days when they counted wins and rbi heavily.
Long story short, Yaz was not only a very good player for a very long time (thus his counting numbers ended up great), but his peak years were pretty amazing as well.
A very worthy successor to Ted Williams. I wish I could have seen him play at his peak.