1950 Yankees: who was the best player: Berra, DiMaggio or Rizzuto?

[9RoyHobbsRF]

1950 Yankees: who was the best player: Berra, DiMaggio or Rizzuto?
(the year, not the decade)

Rizzuto was voted AL MVP

Rizzuto
.324/.418/.439
7 HR 7 3B 36 2B 92 BB 66 RBI

Berra
.322/.383/.533
28 HR 6 3B 30 2B 55 BB 124 RBI

DiMaggio
.301/.394/.585
32 HR 10 3B 33 2B 80 BB 122 RBI

(honorable mention Johnny Mize, Hank Bauer, Whitey Ford)

[chicagowhitesox1173]

I went with Dimaggio.

[leecemark]

1) Rizzuto
2) Berra
3) DiMaggio

[9RoyHobbsRF]

1) Rizzuto
2) Berra
3) DiMaggio

would you care to punch that vote in the poll?

[brett]

Berra caught 148 games that year. That's huge.

Rizzuto and Berra might have been the 2 most valuable players in the league that year. I'd rate them 1 and 2 in a virtual tie. Doby 3rd and Dimaggio and Rosen basically tied in the 4th slot.

[leecemark]

--Rizzuto was a great defender and the best leadoff man in the league. Berra I'm not sure if was fully polished defensively yet, but was at least a good defensive catcher and, as Brett notes, an incredible workhorse behind the dish. DiMaggio was still the best hitter of the three, but no longer a particularly good defender. Still any of them would be solid MVP choices.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

I was leaning
1. Berra
2. Rizzuto
3. DiMaggio

then I wanted to look at their splits to get a feel
I saw Rizzuto did much better at home
Berra moderately better at home
and DiMaggio did much better on the road

hmmm seems almost a 3 way toss up to me now

[leecemark]

--Why does that matter? Its kind of important to be good in your home park. I believe you actually play half your games there.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

--Why does that matter? Its kind of important to be good in your home park. I believe you actually play half your games there.

agree but disagree

Yankee Stadium was particularly created and designed to favor LH hitters particularly power hitters

was Johnny Blanchard a great player in 1961 because he hit .340 with 14 HR in limited AB in Yankee Stadium or was his pedestrian .266 with 7 HR in road games a better indication of his talents?

was Dante Bichette a great player because he hit 31 HR and slugged over .700 at Coors but only 9 HR and a lot lower slugging average in road games in 1995?

I think park illusions matter

[leecemark]

--It matters when comparing two players from different parks. Its worth considering when you are trying to figure a players place in history. When deciding which player from a team was more valuable in a given season then I think their overall numbers are all that really need to be considered.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

--It matters when comparing two players from different parks. Its worth considering when you are trying to figure a players place in history. When deciding which player from a team was more valuable in a given season then I think their overall numbers are all that really need to be considered.

excellent points

plus I got and agree with your PM

[brett]

Berra and Rizutto both have normal home-road split for their careers. Maybe Rizutto got a big boost in his career season.
It is actually better for a team to have their value spread out evenly across splits. A 1 run edge in 154 games should produce more wins than a 2 run edge in 77 and a 0 run average edge in the other 77.
Dimaggio's road splits WERE huge.

If Dimaggio had had normal splits he would have produced around .9 more WAR which still leaves him a little behind the other two.

Perhaps we might say that he was more valuable, but that the park cost some value, though it probably helped the Yanks overall.

We also could argue that it helped the Yankees extra to have Dimaggio because he provided some right handed balance to the lineup. It could have lead to them facing more lefties for example. Also because the rest of the team hit worse on the road he stabilized their overall splits which is worth a little more than face value.

[Yankillaz]

I go with Berra in this one, again by position. Scooter did well, but he was a tad below.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

close poll, anyone else care to vote?

[1905 Giants]

Joltin' Joe for me.