By Paul Semendinger
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Number 57 just seems like a relief pitcher’s number. It seems natural that a quality relief pitcher should wear #57.
And numerous Yankee relief pitchers have…
John Habyan wore it in 1991.
Steve Howe (who was a Yankee longer than most people remember) wore #57 from 1991 to 1996.
Ramiro Mendoza, Joe Borowski, Mark Wohlers, Scott Proctor, Chad Green… the list can go on and on. A bunch of Yankees’ relief pitchers, no doubt, have worn number 57.
36 different players have worn #57 on the Yankees, but only two for any significant time- Steve Howe and Chad Green. A lefty reliever (Howe) and a righty (Green).
One of them was the best ever at this number. It’s my job to figure out who. It might be closer than the reader thinks.
(All stats as of July 9, 2021 when this was written. Note – sometimes these sit in a queue for a while before being posted.)
GAMES PITCHED – Howe wins 229 to 226
INNINGS – Green is the easy winner 329 to 227
ERA – Green 3.06 to 3.57 wins again
WINNING PERCENTAGE – It’s actually Howe here .643 (18-10) to .581 (25-18)
SAVES – Howe in a landslide 31 to 7
WHIP – Green is the master here with a fantastic WHIP of 1.008 which defeats Howe’s impressive enough 1.185.
WAR – Howe accumulated a WAR of 4.0 in the Bronx. Green is at 7.7.
In the end, it’s all Chad Green.
It’s fun to know that the greatest player to wear a uniform number is the guy actually wearing that number.
Green will soon best Howe in games pitched, he already has pitched 100 more innings, makes him the clear winner.
Steve Howe made it closer than one might think, but it’s Chad Green all the way.
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Most of the background research for this project came from Baseball-Reference.com.
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