COUNTING DOWN: The Best Yankee At Each Uniform Number (#19)

By Paul Semendinger

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I'm going to do this differently this time. I'm going to cut to the chase. The best Yankee at #19 is a pitcher.

It has to be a pitcher, but which one?

The Yankees have had a number of very good pitchers wear uniform #19. The best of the bunch are highlighted on this list:

• Johnny Murphy (1934-46)

• Bob Turley (1955-1962)

• Fritz Peterson (1967-1974)

• Dick Tidrow (1974-1979)

• Dave Righetti (1981-1990)

• Masahiro Tanaka (2014-2020)

Let's have some fun. Stop reading for just a moment and make a list ranking these pitchers in order from best to worst. Then, let's see if your list compares to my final rakings.

Let's take a look at various statistical categories:

Years:

1. Murphy - 12

2. Righetti - 11

3. Peterson -9

4. Turley - 8

5. Tanaka - 7

6. Tidrow - 6

Games Pitched:

1. Righetti - 522

2. Murphy - 383

3. Peterson - 288

4. Turley - 234

5. Tidrow - 211

6. Tanaka - 174

Innings Pitched:

1. Peterson - 1,857.1

2. Turley - 1,269

3. Righetti - 1,136.2

4. Tanaka - 1,054.1

5. Murphy - 990

6. Tidrow - 711.1

ERA:

1. Peterson - 3.10

2. Righetti - 3.11

3. Murphy - 3.54

4. Tidrow - 3.61

5. Turley - 3.62

6. Tanaka - 3.74

Wins:

1. Peterson - 109

2. Murphy - 93

3. Turley - 82

4. Tanaka - 78

5. Righetti - 74

6. Tidrow - 41

Saves:

1. Righetti - 224

2. Murphy - 104

3. Tidrow - 23

4. Turley - 13

5. Peterson - 1

6. Tanaka - 0

WHIP:

1. Tanaka - 1.130

2. Peterson - 1.146

3. Righetti - 1.295

4. Tidrow - 1.305

5. Murphy - 1.373

6. Turley - 1.407

So, just for fun. If I assign 6 points for first place, 5 points for second place, and etc... and total up the numbers for the pitchers from the categories above, the following is the list of the best Yankees pitchers:

1. Fritz Peterson - 33

2. Dave Righetti - 32

3. Johnny Murphy - 29

4. Bob Turley - 21

5. Masahiro Tanaka - 17

6. Dick Tidrow - 15

Just for more fun. This was my list before I started this exercise:

1. Dave Righetti

2. Fritz Peterson

3. Masahiro Tanaka

4. Bob Turley

5. Johnny Murphy

6. Dick Tidrow

I knew Fritz Peterson was a good pitcher, but was surprised that he ranked first overall in the categories above. Johnny Murphy, one of the first great Yankees relief pitchers, also did better than I thought.

Let's now see what WAR has to say:

1. Dave Righetti - 22.9

2. Fritz Peterson - 19.6

3. Masahiro Tanaka - 17.5

4. Bob Turley - 14.0

5. Johnny Murphy - 13.9

6. Dick Tidrow - 4.6

HOLY COW! THAT'S MY LIST! Hooray for WAR!

But there are other factors to consider:

• Masahiro Tanaka - 2x All-Star

• Dave Righetti - No-Hitter, 2x All-Star, 2x Best Relief Pitcher, Once Held Saves Record (season), Led League in Saves once

• Dick Tidrow - 2x World Series Winner

• Fritz Peterson - 1x All-Star, Won 20 Games once

• Bob Turley - 4x World Series, 3x All-Star, Cy Young Award

• Johnny Murphy - 6x World Series, 3x All-Star

I think some of these factors change things.

As such, all things considered from Sixth Place to First Place, Here are my final Official Rankings:

6. Dick Tidrow

5. Masahiro Tanaka

4. Fritz Peterson

3. Johnny Murphy

2. Bob Turley

and the greatest pitcher to wear #19 as a Yankee was

Dave Righetti.

***

Most of the background research for this project came from Baseball-Reference.com and the SABR BioProject.

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