1970 - Jesse Haines
1971 - Dave Bancroft
1971 - Chick Hafey
1972 - Ross Youngs
1973 - George Kelly
1974 - Jim Bottomley
1976 - Fred Lindstrom
1982 - Travis Jackson
Let’s play a little word association. When you see the list above, what’s the first word or phrase that comes to mind?
A: "Veterans’ Committee"
B: "Frankie Frisch"
C: "These were the absolute low point of Hall of Fame selections, setting a bar so low that even Twiggy couldn’t limbo beneath it".
OK…that last option was a little more than simple "word" association. But, you get the idea. Most people familiar with that list of names quickly identify it as a series of selections made by the Hall of Fame Veterans’ Committee in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. The commonality is that the players were all teammates of the legendary infielder, Frankie Frisch, first with the Giants (Bancroft, Youngs, Kelly, Lindstrom, Jackson) and then with the Cardinals (Haines, Hafey, Bottomley).
Frisch was a member of the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from the late ‘60’s to the early ‘70’s, and it’s apparent that he had a tremendous influence over that committee and many of its selections. Now, these were not the only selections made by those committees. Indeed, they were very busy during this general period – in the 1970’s, they inducted 32 individuals, or just over 3 per year.
Frisch was not on the committee when all of these players were elected. Frisch died in 1973, so the selections of Bottomley, Lindstrom, and Jackson came after his death. Still, it was felt that Frisch had some lasting impact and influence on the committee and several of its members (such as Bill Terry, J. Roy Stockton, and Fred Lieb) and the connections of these players to Frisch were certainly noticeable. It’s fair to say that, to many, this smacked of cronyism. The first I remember becoming aware of these selections was when reading Bill James’ "The Politics of Glory" in the mid-‘90’s, but I know others have referenced this group both before and after that.
Now, these were all good players, and they were contributors to successful teams. The Giants of the early 20’s won 4 consecutive NL pennants (and 2 World Series), and the Cardinals of the late ’20’s to the mid-30’s won 4 pennants (non-consecutive) and 2 World Series of their own. In all, Frisch played on 8 pennant-winners in his 16 seasons as a regular with 4 World Series titles, a tremendous record of success. Good players…..good teams.
I mentioned that I have been reading Jay Jaffe’s new book, "The Cooperstown Casebook", in which he leverages his "JAWS" methodology in analyzing Hall of Fame candidates. JAWS is a system that takes a player’s career rWAR and averages it with the total of his 7 highest rWAR seasons to come up with a composite figure that proclaims to reflect both career and peak value. He points out in one of the chapters that, for the most part, this series of selections fare quite poorly by that ranking system. Going down the list, we see:
Jesse Haines – 303rd among starting pitchers (between Matt Kilroy and Mike Hampton)
Dave Bancroft – 25th among shortstops (between Joe Tinker and Troy Tulowitzki)
Chick Hafey – 60th among left fielders (between Mike Smith and Topsy Hartsel)
Ross Youngs – 69th among right fielders (between Gavvy Cravath and Carl Furillo)
George Kelly –89th among first basemen (between Travis Hafner and Paul Konerko)
Jim Bottomley – 56th among first basemen (between Lu Blue and Kevin Youkilis)
Fred Lindstrom – 72nd among third basemen (between Martin Prado and Melvin Mora)
Travis Jackson – 31st among shortstops (between Vern Stephens and Jimmy Rollins)
Needless to say, if you put any stock in these rankings when it comes to the Hall of Fame, that’s a pretty bad track record, with the possible exception of the 2 shortstops.
I’m certainly not here to defend those selections. Most of them are pretty indefensible. They definitely reek of favoritism. However, one of the selections piques my interest because of the circumstances surrounding his life and career, and inspired me to dig a little deeper into his record. That player is Ross Youngs.
"Pep" Talk
Ross Youngs was born in 1897 in Shiner, Texas. He hit .356 for Rochester in the International League in 1917, then got his cup of coffee for the Giants in late September and hit .346 over 7 games for the NL champs. That led to a regular gig in 1918, and he proceeded to hit over .300 in every year of his big league career except for 1925 (more on that later), and finished with a .322 lifetime mark. He picked up the nickname "Pep" from John McGraw for the way he hustled.
Youngs, however, only ended up with a 10-year career including his 7-game stretch in 1917. It’s a very short career for a Hall of Famer, which is certainly at the heart of the issue. In 1924, he was exposed to a streptococcal infection (strep throat), and while we have much better ways to treat that today, in the 1920’s, it was very serious, and spread to other parts of his body. In 1926, McGraw hired a male nurse to accompany Youngs everywhere during the season. Youngs eventually became too ill to play, and played his final game in August of 1926. He died in October 1927 from Bright’s Disease, a kidney disorder. He was only 30 years old at the time of his death.
What intrigues me about Youngs’ Hall of Fame case is that he died so young, leaving his career cut off like a tree trunk absent its branches. Most people relegate Youngs to the bottom rung of Hall of Famers because his career was so short and his career totals so unimpressive. Generally, we just don’t like having Hall of Famers with short careers. There are exceptions, of course. Sandy Koufax, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Dizzy Dean, Ralph Kiner. They all had short careers, as did others. But, typically, for a Hall of Famer to be elected despite a short career, he really has to grab our attention. Koufax was the dominant figure of the early-to-mid ‘60’s, winning 3 Cy Youngs, an MVP, pitching no-hitters, setting strikeout records, and demonstrating postseason excellence. Jackie Robinson, in addition to being such a significant historical figure, was a multi-talented ballplayer, a leader on a successful team, a multi-year All-Star, and an MVP. Roy Campanella won 3 MVP’s in his 10-year career. Ralph Kiner won 7 consecutive home run titles. Dizzy Dean won 30 games, an MVP, and was runner-up twice. These players, despite short careers, had significant impact while they were active, and were ultimately very memorable.
Ross Youngs doesn’t seem to carry that same level of impact. He played his last game over 90 years ago. I doubt that anyone reading this article ever saw him play. We have no footage of him that I’m aware of. However, I felt compelled to dig a little deeper into his case. I wanted to explore it much in the same way that Bill James did in the original Historical Abstract (the one from the mid-‘80’s, not the "New" Historical Abstract from the early 2000’s) when he examined the career of Ray Chapman and wondered whether he was on a Hall of Fame track at the time that he was struck by that fatal pitch from Carl Mays in 1920. Like Chapman, Youngs played his last game at age 29. So, I started wondering what a full career of Ross Youngs might project to, and whether or not he was on a Hall of Fame track prior to his illness. That led to this article.
Ross Youngs Extrapolated (RYE)
From this point on, if you see "RYE", that’s my shorthand for "Ross Youngs Extrapolated". It also happens to be my bread of choice for corned beef sandwiches, so that’s a happy coincidence.
To level set the review, below is Ross Youngs’ batting record from baseball-reference.com (I cut out a few columns for space). This will be handy for future references later on:
|
Year
|
Age
|
G
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
SB
|
BB
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
WAR
|
Awards
|
|
1917
|
20
|
7
|
26
|
5
|
9
|
2
|
3
|
-
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
.346
|
.370
|
.654
|
215
|
0.4
|
|
|
1918
|
21
|
121
|
474
|
70
|
143
|
16
|
8
|
1
|
25
|
10
|
44
|
.302
|
.368
|
.376
|
128
|
3.0
|
|
|
1919
|
22
|
130
|
489
|
73
|
152
|
31
|
7
|
2
|
43
|
24
|
51
|
.311
|
.384
|
.415
|
140
|
3.9
|
|
|
1920
|
23
|
153
|
581
|
92
|
204
|
27
|
14
|
6
|
78
|
18
|
75
|
.351
|
.427
|
.477
|
159
|
6.4
|
|
|
1921
|
24
|
141
|
504
|
90
|
165
|
24
|
16
|
3
|
102
|
21
|
71
|
.327
|
.411
|
.456
|
128
|
3.8
|
|
|
1922
|
25
|
149
|
559
|
105
|
185
|
34
|
10
|
7
|
86
|
17
|
55
|
.331
|
.398
|
.465
|
120
|
3.8
|
|
|
1923
|
26
|
152
|
596
|
121
|
200
|
33
|
12
|
3
|
87
|
13
|
73
|
.336
|
.412
|
.446
|
126
|
3.6
|
|
|
1924
|
27
|
133
|
526
|
112
|
187
|
33
|
12
|
10
|
74
|
11
|
77
|
.356
|
.441
|
.521
|
159
|
5.9
|
MVP-5
|
|
1925
|
28
|
130
|
500
|
82
|
132
|
24
|
6
|
6
|
53
|
17
|
66
|
.264
|
.354
|
.372
|
89
|
(0.2)
|
|
|
1926
|
29
|
95
|
372
|
62
|
114
|
12
|
5
|
4
|
43
|
21
|
37
|
.306
|
.372
|
.398
|
109
|
1.6
|
|
|
Totals
|
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
153
|
550
|
.322
|
.399
|
.441
|
130
|
32.2
|
|
When looked at as a career, that’s obviously not very impressive by Hall of Fame standards. Fewer than 1,500 hits. rWAR of only 32.2. Only 1,200 games played. Not much "black ink"…..he led the league in runs once and doubles once. Not what we expect of our legends. Of course, by only playing though age 29…well, it’s tough to measure up to players who may have played twice as long as Youngs did.
One tool that can help is Similarity Scores. Now, for those of you who have used Similarity Scores, you know that it is not a perfect tool, because it focuses on basic, unadjusted hitting statistics, so it doesn’t take into account differences in time, place, or context. 100 home runs is 100 home runs, regardless of where or when they were hit. But, Similarity Scores are a good starting point for generating lists of players with comparable basic stats across different categories.
By the way….I used to use baseball-reference.com to look up Similarity Scores, but when they redesigned their site, it looks like some of the functionality surrounding Similarity Scores went away, unless I’m just not seeing it. So, I now use Seamheads.com / The Baseball Gauge. It’s more robust, and you can actually go beyond the "top 10" most similar players. The lists differ slightly vs. baseball-reference.com, so there must be some differences in the calculations, but I think they’re substantially the same method.
If you look at Youngs’ entire career as a whole, his top 10 comps (short for "comparison players") are:
|
#
|
Players
|
Pos
|
Score
|
G
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
BB
|
SB
|
BA
|
OBP
|
WAR
|
|
|
Ross Youngs*
|
RF
|
1000
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
|
1
|
Curt Walker
|
RF
|
934
|
1,359
|
4,858
|
718
|
1,475
|
235
|
117
|
64
|
688
|
535
|
96
|
.304
|
.374
|
21.9
|
|
2
|
Mike Smith
|
LF
|
927
|
1,234
|
4,684
|
912
|
1,454
|
196
|
136
|
37
|
663
|
636
|
232
|
.310
|
.398
|
42.9
|
|
3
|
Roy Johnson
|
LF
|
925
|
1,155
|
4,359
|
717
|
1,292
|
275
|
83
|
58
|
556
|
489
|
135
|
.296
|
.369
|
16.6
|
|
4
|
Tip O'Neill
|
LF
|
924
|
1,054
|
4,255
|
880
|
1,386
|
222
|
92
|
52
|
757
|
421
|
161
|
.326
|
.392
|
25.6
|
|
5
|
Chick Stahl
|
CF
|
922
|
1,304
|
5,069
|
858
|
1,546
|
219
|
118
|
36
|
622
|
470
|
189
|
.305
|
.369
|
31.7
|
|
6
|
John Stone
|
LF
|
916
|
1,200
|
4,494
|
739
|
1,391
|
268
|
105
|
77
|
707
|
463
|
45
|
.310
|
.376
|
25.1
|
|
7
|
Billy Southworth*
|
RF
|
906
|
1,192
|
4,359
|
661
|
1,296
|
173
|
91
|
52
|
561
|
402
|
138
|
.297
|
.359
|
21.0
|
|
8
|
Carl Reynolds
|
RF
|
902
|
1,222
|
4,495
|
672
|
1,357
|
247
|
107
|
80
|
699
|
260
|
112
|
.302
|
.346
|
20.9
|
|
9
|
Buddy Lewis
|
3B
|
902
|
1,349
|
5,261
|
830
|
1,563
|
249
|
93
|
71
|
607
|
573
|
83
|
.297
|
.368
|
26.7
|
|
10
|
Tommy Holmes
|
RF
|
901
|
1,320
|
4,992
|
698
|
1,507
|
292
|
47
|
88
|
581
|
480
|
40
|
.302
|
.366
|
34.3
|
Not a very impressive list. Billy Southworth is the only Hall of Famer, but he’s in primarily for his managerial record, not his playing record. There are some decent players on the list, but no one close to a Hall of Fame resume. However, this similarity score compares totals for careers as a whole.
So, what happens if you compare Youngs to others of the same age that he was when he stopped playing? Running similarity scores for players through age 29, you get the following (* denotes a Hall of Famer):
|
#
|
Players
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ross Youngs*
|
RF
|
1000
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
|
1
|
|
RF
|
933
|
1,080
|
4,086
|
735
|
1,306
|
206
|
120
|
43
|
612
|
444
|
240
|
.320
|
.397
|
40.4
|
|
2
|
|
LF
|
932
|
1,111
|
4,481
|
909
|
1,460
|
189
|
105
|
45
|
538
|
397
|
318
|
.326
|
.395
|
33.5
|
|
3
|
|
LF
|
912
|
1,015
|
3,922
|
776
|
1,211
|
197
|
108
|
34
|
556
|
527
|
254
|
.309
|
.395
|
26.7
|
|
4
|
|
3B
|
908
|
1,114
|
4,498
|
738
|
1,368
|
220
|
85
|
62
|
531
|
481
|
75
|
.304
|
.373
|
26.2
|
|
5
|
|
CF
|
905
|
1,031
|
4,155
|
888
|
1,306
|
136
|
96
|
55
|
617
|
494
|
338
|
.314
|
.390
|
22.1
|
|
6
|
|
LF
|
905
|
1,194
|
4,481
|
784
|
1,502
|
306
|
95
|
72
|
698
|
298
|
84
|
.335
|
.383
|
30.0
|
|
7
|
|
LF
|
903
|
1,259
|
4,976
|
771
|
1,550
|
319
|
86
|
64
|
819
|
486
|
23
|
.311
|
.375
|
21.5
|
|
8
|
|
LF
|
902
|
1,275
|
4,848
|
869
|
1,467
|
262
|
76
|
87
|
490
|
705
|
585
|
.303
|
.391
|
45.5
|
|
9
|
|
RF
|
902
|
1,060
|
4,078
|
617
|
1,354
|
192
|
51
|
45
|
416
|
382
|
221
|
.332
|
.389
|
35.4
|
|
10
|
|
CF
|
900
|
1,192
|
5,104
|
837
|
1,651
|
190
|
92
|
20
|
413
|
271
|
54
|
.323
|
.360
|
17.4
|
|
|
Average of Comps
|
|
|
1,140
|
4,478
|
794
|
1,424
|
223
|
92
|
52
|
571
|
458
|
213
|
.318
|
.381
|
30.1
|
|
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
Looks a little more promising, doesn’t it? 6 of his top 10 comps through age 29 are in the Hall of Fame. The average of the 10 comps looks like a pretty good basic statistical match for Youngs, although Youngs’ OBP is about 20 points better than that of the comps. 4 of the 10 have higher rWAR’s than Youngs, while 6 have lower, which is a reasonable balance. If a player is better (or worse) than all of his comps, then I think it’s a less than ideal list. All 10 comps in this case have scores of 900 or higher, implying a pretty high level of similarity, at least based on basic stats.
Let’s work with the list a little more. Some of the comps aren’t what I would call "great" comps. Youngs has a 32.2 rWAR through age 29. Tim Raines had 45.5. I think Raines though age 29 is significantly better than Youngs was, and certainly was in a much different class as a base stealer. However, by the same token, I think Lloyd Waner (17.4) rates as much worse than Youngs. They kind of cancel each other out anyway, but let’s use our judgment and eliminate them both from the comp list. Let’s also subjectively eliminate Buddy Lewis, as he’s the only infielder among the top 10, and he also had an unusual career path that included missing 3 years to military service. That would leave us with the following outfielders as comps:
|
Players
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HR
|
RBI
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ross Youngs
|
RF
|
1000
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
|
|
RF
|
933
|
1,080
|
4,086
|
735
|
1,306
|
206
|
120
|
43
|
612
|
444
|
240
|
.320
|
.397
|
40.4
|
|
|
LF
|
932
|
1,111
|
4,481
|
909
|
1,460
|
189
|
105
|
45
|
538
|
397
|
318
|
.326
|
.395
|
33.5
|
|
|
LF
|
912
|
1,015
|
3,922
|
776
|
1,211
|
197
|
108
|
34
|
556
|
527
|
254
|
.309
|
.395
|
26.7
|
|
|
CF
|
905
|
1,031
|
4,155
|
888
|
1,306
|
136
|
96
|
55
|
617
|
494
|
338
|
.314
|
.390
|
22.1
|
|
|
LF
|
905
|
1,194
|
4,481
|
784
|
1,502
|
306
|
95
|
72
|
698
|
298
|
84
|
.335
|
.383
|
30.0
|
|
|
LF
|
903
|
1,259
|
4,976
|
771
|
1,550
|
319
|
86
|
64
|
819
|
486
|
23
|
.311
|
.375
|
21.5
|
|
|
RF
|
902
|
1,060
|
4,078
|
617
|
1,354
|
192
|
51
|
45
|
416
|
382
|
221
|
.332
|
.389
|
35.4
|
|
Average of Comps
|
|
|
1,120
|
4,351
|
787
|
1,398
|
223
|
94
|
50
|
606
|
447
|
204
|
.321
|
.384
|
30.2
|
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
1000
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
Let’s work with those players as our comp list. What did those players do from age 30 and later?
|
Players
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HR
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RF
|
403
|
1,511
|
215
|
446
|
62
|
44
|
5
|
144
|
153
|
90
|
.295
|
.360
|
12.8
|
|
|
LF
|
1,131
|
4,087
|
710
|
1,212
|
172
|
115
|
22
|
477
|
477
|
188
|
.297
|
.370
|
34.3
|
|
|
LF
|
595
|
2,236
|
288
|
592
|
102
|
41
|
10
|
223
|
256
|
80
|
.265
|
.340
|
10.1
|
|
|
CF
|
957
|
3,879
|
754
|
1,228
|
150
|
65
|
14
|
397
|
377
|
245
|
.317
|
.377
|
20.1
|
|
|
LF
|
814
|
3,173
|
503
|
1,022
|
185
|
65
|
38
|
485
|
208
|
30
|
.322
|
.364
|
15.8
|
|
|
LF
|
155
|
496
|
47
|
132
|
16
|
6
|
1
|
55
|
28
|
-
|
.266
|
.305
|
(1.1)
|
|
Tony Gwynn
|
RF
|
1,380
|
5,210
|
766
|
1,787
|
351
|
34
|
90
|
722
|
408
|
98
|
.343
|
.391
|
33.4
|
|
Average of Comps
|
|
776
|
2,942
|
469
|
917
|
148
|
53
|
26
|
358
|
272
|
104
|
.312
|
.370
|
17.9
|
As you can see, typically when you do this type of technique, you get a wide range of results, since no 2 players age quite the same way. 2 of the players (Clarke and Gwynn) aged very well, and racked up some good post-age-29 totals. Others, like Vosmik, were just about finished as players, and in fact provided negative WAR from that point forward. But, that’s part of the reason why we want to pick several comps and not just one player, so that there’s a balance that helps smooth out the average future results.
So, what happens when you take Ross Youngs through age 29 and tack on the average post-29 performance of his comps? You get this:
|
Players
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HR
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ross Youngs through 29
|
1,211
|
4,627
|
812
|
1,491
|
236
|
93
|
42
|
592
|
550
|
153
|
.322
|
.399
|
32.2
|
|
Comps-Age 30 and after
|
776
|
2,942
|
469
|
917
|
148
|
53
|
26
|
358
|
272
|
104
|
.312
|
.370
|
17.9
|
|
Ross Youngs Extrapolated
|
1,987
|
7,569
|
1,281
|
2,408
|
384
|
146
|
68
|
950
|
822
|
257
|
.318
|
.385
|
50.1
|
In most of those categories, Youngs’ totals through age 29 represent roughly 60% of his extrapolated totals, a figure worth noting that we’ll revisit later. Now, again, this is speculation. No one knows what Ross Youngs would have accomplished in those years. Maybe his batting average would have come down more than that. Tony Gwynn had a rather high batting average after age 30, so you might be of the opinion that we should exclude Gwynn from the list. Fair enough. If we do exclude Gwynn, RYE’s batting average would come down to .315. In other words, not that great of an impact. Regardless of the exact numbers, I think Ross Youngs was on track for at least 2,400 hits, at least a .310 career batting average, and an rWAR north of 50. That seems like a reasonable projection to me, and might even be a little on the conservative side.
Another way to look at what part of Ross Youngs’ record is missing is to look at what % of a player’s career is still ahead of him at age 29, not so much from direct comparisons to a small group of similar players, but rather from a broader set. I downloaded some data from Fangraphs.com (which meant using fWAR instead of bWAR, so the individual figures are slightly different, but it was easier for me to download into a usable set), and grouped the values by age and by career fWAR tiers (I used non-pitchers only). Here’s how that distribution looks, using age 29 as the dividing line:
|
Career fWAR
|
% of fWAR
Age 29 and below
|
% of fWAR
Age 30 and above
|
|
Zero or Less
|
85%
|
15%
|
|
>0 through 10
|
79%
|
21%
|
|
> 10 through 20
|
73%
|
27%
|
|
> 20 through 30
|
67%
|
33%
|
|
> 30 through 40
|
61%
|
39%
|
|
> 40 through 50
|
60%
|
40%
|
|
> 50 through 60
|
56%
|
44%
|
|
> 60 through 70
|
56%
|
44%
|
|
> 70 through 80
|
59%
|
41%
|
|
> 80
|
54%
|
46%
|
|
Overall
|
65%
|
35%
|
So, what this implies is that, for position players overall, about 65% of their eventual career value (as represented by fWAR) is realized through age 29. However, it varies by level of career WAR. Generally speaking, the more career WAR a player achieves, the higher their post-age 29 % is (except for the "blip" in the 70-80 group). Intuitively, that makes sense….it implies that greater players tend to realize a higher % of their total career value later in their careers than lesser players do, which, since they’re greater players, stands to reason. Greater players tend to play longer, and they have the opportunity to accumulate more late-career value, and often post some excellent results in their 30’s, where as lesser players tend to stop playing sooner or at least become significantly less effective as they age, and may have less of a chance to accumulate value at an older age.
So, how does this relate to Ross Youngs? Well, Ross Youngs was a good player. He achieved a career rWAR of 32.2 by age 29. I think he belongs in one of the blue highlighted rows. He already had more than 30 career rWAR, and he doesn’t strike me as the type that could have exceeded much beyond 60. Players in that range (let’s say 30-70) on average tended to have realized about 60% of their career value through age 29, implying that about 40% of their career value would still be yet to come from age 30 and later. This simple assumption implies that Youngs would project to a career rWAR of about 53.7 (32.2 /.6), which isn’t all that different from the first approach, when we ended up with an estimate of about 50. So, we have two different approaches that would put Youngs in about the same overall range. I feel reasonably confident that RYE would project in the low-to-mid-50’s in career rWAR, and possibly higher.
So, let’s assume somewhere in the middle. Let’s assume RYE would have had a career rWAR of 52.0. Let’s also assume that his 7-year peak (currently 30.3) would bump up a little because he might have had a couple of post-29 seasons that would have been among his 7-best. Let’s nudge his "JAWS7" up just a little to 31.0, which is probably on the conservative side as well. His JAWS figure (average of 52.0 and 31.0) would be 41.5. Again, I think that’s being conservative.
Where would that leave him among right fielders? Here’s a right fielder JAWS listing (Hall of Famers in yellow, and probable Hall of Famers in blue) that shows where he would land:
|
Rank
|
Name
|
JAWS
|
|
1
|
Babe Ruth
|
123.9
|
|
2
|
Hank Aaron
|
101.3
|
|
3
|
Stan Musial
|
96.2
|
|
4
|
Mel Ott
|
80.3
|
|
5
|
Frank Robinson
|
80.0
|
|
6
|
Roberto Clemente
|
74.4
|
|
7
|
Al Kaline
|
70.7
|
|
8
|
Reggie Jackson
|
60.3
|
|
9
|
Harry Heilmann
|
59.6
|
|
10
|
Larry Walker
|
58.6
|
|
11
|
Paul Waner
|
57.5
|
|
12
|
Sam Crawford
|
57.4
|
|
13
|
Shoeless Joe Jackson
|
57.4
|
|
14
|
Tony Gwynn
|
54.9
|
|
15
|
Dwight Evans
|
52.0
|
|
16
|
Ichiro Suzuki
|
51.7
|
|
17
|
Reggie Smith
|
51.6
|
|
18
|
Sammy Sosa
|
51.0
|
|
19
|
Dave Winfield
|
50.8
|
|
20
|
Bobby Abreu
|
50.7
|
|
21
|
Vladimir Guerrero
|
50.2
|
|
22
|
Bobby Bonds
|
49.4
|
|
23
|
Gary Sheffield
|
49.1
|
|
24
|
Elmer Flick
|
47.3
|
|
25
|
Enos Slaughter
|
45.1
|
|
26
|
Willie Keeler
|
45.1
|
|
27
|
Brian Giles
|
44.1
|
|
28
|
Jack Clark
|
42.1
|
|
29
|
Sam Rice
|
41.8
|
|
30
|
Harry Hooper
|
41.5
|
|
|
Ross Youngs Extrapolated (RYE)
|
41.5
|
|
31
|
Tony Oliva
|
40.8
|
|
32
|
Kiki Cuyler
|
40.8
|
|
33
|
Chuck Klein
|
40.2
|
|
34
|
Rocky Colavito
|
40.0
|
Now, does this make him a slam dunk Hall of Famer? No, it certainly does not. fdsBut, it does put him into a section of the list where there are plenty of Hall of Famers around him – Flick, Slaughter, Keeler, Rice, Hooper, Cuyler, and Klein, not to mention Oliva, who I think will end up in the Hall one of these days via a Veterans Committee. Now, at least, he’s got ample company. He’s no longer on an island. And I think he was as good a player as the ones in that contingent.
I think most people would consider that cluster of right fielders to be "below" average Hall of Fame right fielders, and I think that’s fair. RYE would not rate as an elite Hall of Fame right fielder. I think he’d be outside the top 20. But I do think that RYE would have a chance to be in the 20-30 range of right fielders, and a "below average" Hall of Famer is still a Hall of Famer, and is still a great player. Speculation? For sure. But, I think that’s the group he truly belongs in, rather than sitting down around #70.
One more table. Since Youngs may have had his 1925 and 1926 seasons compromised by his illness, let’s back him up even further and take a look at the top right fielders through age 27 (which would take Youngs through 1924, presumably his last healthy season). Players had to play 60% or more of their games in right field through age 27 to qualify for this list (source: baseball-reference.com’s Play Index):
|
Rank
|
Player
|
rWAR
|
G
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
HR
|
RBI
|
BB
|
SB
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
|
1
|
Mel Ott*
|
59.0
|
1,438
|
5,076
|
1,032
|
1,615
|
275
|
1,095
|
815
|
51
|
.318
|
.415
|
.558
|
|
2
|
Hank Aaron*
|
55.9
|
1,194
|
4,717
|
829
|
1,506
|
253
|
863
|
397
|
57
|
.319
|
.371
|
.565
|
|
3
|
Al Kaline*
|
48.6
|
1,304
|
4,903
|
792
|
1,511
|
188
|
788
|
522
|
88
|
.308
|
.374
|
.493
|
|
4
|
Reggie Jackson*
|
36.0
|
926
|
3,251
|
533
|
858
|
189
|
536
|
447
|
101
|
.264
|
.360
|
.500
|
|
5
|
Shoeless Joe Jackson
|
35.4
|
729
|
2,700
|
498
|
986
|
26
|
395
|
292
|
144
|
.365
|
.434
|
.527
|
|
6
|
Bobby Bonds
|
33.7
|
864
|
3,480
|
668
|
961
|
165
|
481
|
405
|
222
|
.276
|
.354
|
.486
|
|
7
|
Giancarlo Stanton
|
33.6
|
972
|
3,523
|
565
|
943
|
262
|
653
|
479
|
36
|
.268
|
.359
|
.553
|
|
8
|
Jason Heyward
|
33.2
|
1,092
|
3,936
|
562
|
1,029
|
114
|
454
|
460
|
101
|
.261
|
.343
|
.412
|
|
9
|
Johnny Callison
|
32.6
|
1,095
|
4,025
|
622
|
1,102
|
145
|
522
|
386
|
49
|
.274
|
.340
|
.466
|
|
10
|
Sam Crawford*
|
32.4
|
1,001
|
3,902
|
560
|
1,207
|
37
|
566
|
278
|
131
|
.309
|
.357
|
.446
|
|
11
|
Rusty Staub
|
32.0
|
1,313
|
4,623
|
578
|
1,300
|
135
|
640
|
619
|
32
|
.281
|
.368
|
.433
|
|
12
|
Vladimir Guerrero
|
31.2
|
892
|
3,369
|
570
|
1,085
|
209
|
623
|
318
|
114
|
.322
|
.386
|
.588
|
|
13
|
Ross Youngs*
|
30.8
|
986
|
3,755
|
668
|
1,245
|
32
|
496
|
447
|
115
|
.332
|
.407
|
.454
|
|
14
|
Darryl Strawberry
|
30.1
|
957
|
3,361
|
570
|
875
|
215
|
625
|
510
|
176
|
.260
|
.358
|
.520
|
|
15
|
Tony Gwynn*
|
29.5
|
769
|
2,953
|
471
|
988
|
34
|
284
|
275
|
155
|
.335
|
.392
|
.444
|
|
16
|
Jack Clark
|
28.2
|
987
|
3,528
|
564
|
969
|
152
|
551
|
454
|
59
|
.275
|
.355
|
.474
|
|
17
|
Dave Winfield*
|
28.0
|
955
|
3,439
|
510
|
980
|
134
|
539
|
384
|
110
|
.285
|
.356
|
.466
|
|
18
|
Paul Waner*
|
28.0
|
747
|
2,946
|
605
|
1,057
|
46
|
473
|
349
|
55
|
.359
|
.430
|
.537
|
|
19
|
Jesse Barfield
|
26.3
|
874
|
2,915
|
460
|
789
|
156
|
460
|
296
|
48
|
.271
|
.341
|
.493
|
|
20
|
Rocky Colavito
|
26.1
|
845
|
3,007
|
490
|
815
|
209
|
600
|
441
|
8
|
.271
|
.364
|
.532
|
Now, I’m not looking to put everyone on this list in the Hall of Fame, and it’s easy to get carried away with projecting someone’s career based on their first several years. Sometimes players start out strong and don’t age particularly well, like Callison. Sometimes their careers unravel for a variety of reasons, like Strawberry. Sometimes they lose the ability to play acceptable defense, like Staub. Sometimes they start bouncing around to different teams every year like Bobby Bonds, and their images become tarnished. Sometimes you get someone like Jason Heyward who rates extraordinarily well defensively by WAR, but doesn’t carry the offensive skill that others do. But Ross Youngs did have a tremendous start to his career, and it certainly makes me wonder what he might have achieved absent his disease.
Peers
Another important part of a player’s Hall of Fame case relates to how he rates relative to peers. Let’s use 1918-1924, since there is some evidence that Youngs contracted his infection late in 1924, and his 1925 & 1926 seasons may have been compromised. During Youngs’ peak seasons of 1918-1924, then, this would be the best players by position among NL outfielders, based on rWAR:
|
Year
|
LF
|
CF
|
RF
|
|
1918
|
George Burns
|
Max Carey
|
B. Southworth
|
|
1919
|
George Burns
|
Edd Roush
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
1920
|
Zack Wheat
|
Edd Roush
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
1921
|
A. McHenry
|
Max Carey
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
1922
|
Zack Wheat
|
Max Carey
|
Curt Walker
|
|
1923
|
Zack Wheat
|
Max Carey
|
Ross Youngs
|
|
1924
|
Zack Wheat
|
Cy Williams
|
Ross Youngs
|
Drilling down further into just the NL right fielders, here are the top 5 each year.
|
Year
|
RF (1)
|
WAR
|
RF (2)
|
WAR
|
RF (3)
|
WAR
|
RF (4)
|
WAR
|
RF (5)
|
WAR
|
|
1918
|
B. Southworth
|
3.6
|
Ross Youngs
|
3.0
|
Al Wickland
|
2.5
|
Max Flack
|
1.9
|
J. Johnston
|
1.7
|
|
1919
|
Ross Youngs
|
3.9
|
Gavvy Cravath
|
3.4
|
Max Flack
|
2.7
|
Casey Stengel
|
2.4
|
Greasy Neale
|
1.0
|
|
1920
|
Ross Youngs
|
6.4
|
B. Southworth
|
2.6
|
Max Flack
|
2.3
|
Casey Stengel
|
2.0
|
Greasy Neale
|
1.8
|
|
1921
|
Ross Youngs
|
3.8
|
B. Southworth
|
2.8
|
Tommy Griffith
|
2.4
|
Jack Smith
|
2.3
|
P. Whitted
|
1.5
|
|
1922
|
Curt Walker
|
3.9
|
Ross Youngs
|
3.8
|
Reb Russell
|
2.7
|
G. Harper
|
2.6
|
Tommy Griffith
|
1.6
|
|
1923
|
Ross Youngs
|
3.6
|
Clyde Barnhart
|
3.4
|
B. Southworth
|
3.2
|
George Burns
|
2.0
|
Reb Russell
|
1.4
|
|
1924
|
Ross Youngs
|
5.9
|
George Harper
|
2.3
|
Eddie Moore
|
2.3
|
Curt Walker
|
2.3
|
Clyde Barnhart
|
0.9
|
So, during his peak years, Youngs was clearly the best right fielder in the league, often by a decent margin, and when he wasn’t #1, he was #2. This gave the Giants a decent advantage over other teams in terms of the quality of play they were getting at that position. If they had All-Star games during this time, I’m sure Youngs would have made several.
OK…Let’s broaden it a bit. How about all National League position players, 1918-1924? (Source=Seamheads.com, where they use "Off" to refer to Offensive Wins above Replacement, and "Fld" to refer to Fielding Wins above Replacement without the position adjustment)
|
Rk
|
Player
|
Years
|
Yrs
|
Pos
|
HOF
|
PA
|
WAR
|
Off
|
Fld
|
|
1
|
Rogers Hornsby
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
2B
|
✔
|
4,208
|
61.4
|
54.8
|
3.1
|
|
2
|
Ross Youngs
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
RF
|
✔
|
4,299
|
30.3
|
33.3
|
2.0
|
|
3
|
Frankie Frisch
|
1919 - 1924
|
6
|
2B
|
✔
|
3,316
|
29.2
|
19.8
|
6.8
|
|
4
|
Dave Bancroft
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
SS
|
✔
|
3,927
|
28.3
|
15.7
|
6.3
|
|
5
|
Edd Roush
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
3,477
|
27.6
|
29.3
|
0.6
|
|
6
|
Max Carey
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
4,130
|
26.5
|
26.5
|
2.5
|
|
7
|
Zack Wheat
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
✔
|
3,946
|
26.3
|
30.9
|
0.1
|
|
8
|
Heinie Groh
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
3B
|
|
3,810
|
24.6
|
20.0
|
1.4
|
|
9
|
Charlie Hollocher
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
SS
|
|
3,390
|
23.2
|
14.1
|
3.6
|
|
10
|
Cy Williams
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
|
4,041
|
21.3
|
25.7
|
(1.8)
|
|
11
|
Jack Fournier
|
1920 - 1924
|
5
|
1B
|
|
2,978
|
20.9
|
26.2
|
(2.4)
|
|
12
|
George Burns
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
|
4,376
|
20.1
|
19.1
|
5.5
|
|
13
|
Rabbit Maranville
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
SS
|
✔
|
3,810
|
18.8
|
8.0
|
5.1
|
|
14
|
Irish Meusel
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
|
4,180
|
17.5
|
23.2
|
(0.9)
|
|
15
|
High Pockets Kelly
|
1919 - 1924
|
6
|
1B
|
✔
|
3,298
|
17.3
|
18.5
|
2.2
|
|
16
|
Jimmy Johnston
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
3B
|
|
4,042
|
16.1
|
15.5
|
(1.6)
|
|
17
|
Billy Southworth
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
RF
|
|
3,235
|
15.8
|
16.2
|
3.3
|
|
18
|
Art Fletcher
|
1918 - 1922
|
4
|
SS
|
|
2,054
|
15.5
|
4.8
|
6.9
|
|
19
|
Jake Daubert
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
1B
|
|
3,968
|
14.7
|
18.3
|
0.4
|
|
20
|
Carson Bigbee
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
|
3,750
|
13
|
13.5
|
3.5
|
Hornsby kind of laps the field, especially offensively, but Youngs is #2, heading a group of his fellow Hall of Famers Frisch (who only had 6 seasons instead of 7 during this period, which does hurt him a little in the comparisons), Bancroft, Roush, Carey, and Wheat. These were the best position players over that period of time. I don’t think Youngs was any better than that group of players….but I think he belongs with them in the discussion of the top players in the NL at that time.
If you broaden it to include both leagues, the competition is of course stiffer as the top AL stars of the time like Ruth, Speaker, Cobb, Sisler, Collins, and Heilmann join the party, but Youngs is still top 10 material:
|
Rk
|
Player
|
Years
|
Yrs
|
Pos
|
HOF
|
PA
|
WAR
|
Off
|
Fld
|
|
1
|
Babe Ruth
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
✔
|
4,105
|
74.1
|
70.6
|
4.9
|
|
2
|
Rogers Hornsby
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
2B
|
✔
|
4,208
|
61.4
|
54.8
|
3.1
|
|
3
|
Tris Speaker
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
4,190
|
46.0
|
45.8
|
2.7
|
|
4
|
Ty Cobb
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
4,079
|
39.7
|
42.6
|
(0.4)
|
|
5
|
George Sisler
|
1918 - 1924
|
6
|
1B
|
✔
|
3,732
|
37.3
|
37.5
|
3.4
|
|
6
|
Eddie Collins
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
2B
|
✔
|
4,375
|
36.0
|
34.6
|
(1.1)
|
|
7
|
Harry Heilmann
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
RF
|
✔
|
4,030
|
35.8
|
41.6
|
(1.7)
|
|
8
|
Ken Williams
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
|
3,309
|
30.9
|
31.8
|
2.3
|
|
9
|
Ross Youngs
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
RF
|
✔
|
4,299
|
30.3
|
33.3
|
2.0
|
|
10
|
Frankie Frisch
|
1919 - 1924
|
6
|
2B
|
✔
|
3,316
|
29.2
|
19.8
|
6.8
|
|
11
|
Dave Bancroft
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
SS
|
✔
|
3,927
|
28.3
|
15.7
|
6.3
|
|
12
|
Edd Roush
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
3,477
|
27.6
|
29.3
|
0.6
|
|
13
|
Bobby Veach
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
|
4,153
|
27.0
|
28.8
|
2.7
|
|
14
|
Harry Hooper
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
RF
|
✔
|
4,183
|
26.7
|
28.1
|
3.1
|
|
15
|
Max Carey
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
4,130
|
26.5
|
26.5
|
2.5
|
|
16
|
Zack Wheat
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
LF
|
✔
|
3,946
|
26.3
|
30.9
|
0.1
|
|
17
|
Roger Peckinpaugh
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
SS
|
|
4,261
|
25.7
|
10.6
|
8.3
|
|
18
|
Heinie Groh
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
3B
|
|
3,810
|
24.6
|
20.0
|
1.4
|
|
19
|
Sam Rice
|
1918 - 1924
|
7
|
CF
|
✔
|
4,026
|
24.2
|
24.5
|
3.0
|
|
20
|
Baby Doll Jacobson
|
1919 - 1924
|
6
|
CF
|
|
3,742
|
23.7
|
22.7
|
3.4
|
Among outfielders, Ruth was king, of course (well, technically he was "Sultan"). Cobb and Speaker, though getting up in age, were still among the best outfielders in the game, and Heilmann was up there as well. I think Youngs belongs in the next tier of outfielders, with players like Williams, Roush, Veach, Hooper, Carey, Wheat, and Rice.
Again, the point of all of this is not to make Youngs something he’s not. He wasn’t Ruth or Hornsby or Speaker or Cobb or Collins. He wasn’t the best player in baseball or in his league. But he was a very valuable player in his time.
Other Considerations
One of the negatives about Youngs is that he rarely led the league in any offensive categories (once in runs scored, once in doubles)….however, he was often near the top in several categories. He came close to a couple of batting titles, which might have enhanced our image of him if he had managed to claim one or two :
- He finished 3rd in 1919 with a .311 mark, but was behind Edd Roush (.321) and Rogers Hornsby (.318).
- He finished 2nd in batting average in 1921 with a .351 mark. Unfortunately for him, Hornsby hit .370.
- He finished 3rd in 1924 with a .356 figure, his career high. Unfortunately, Hornsby had his legendary .424 season, and Zack Wheat also hit .375.
Hornsby, much like Cobb and Wagner did before, had a way of monopolizing NL batting titles and relegating all other contenders into a battle for runner-up status.
Although Youngs never led the league in walks and his walk totals don’t jump out at you as being particularly impressive (his career high was 77), he nevertheless was proficient in that area and was generally among the league leaders of his era. He finished in the top 10 in walks in 7 different seasons, often behind his teammate George Burns, who was the Giants’ primary leadoff hitter in that era.
Top 10 NL Base on Balls Finishes:
1918 NL 44 (10th) (NL leader: M. Carey 62)
1919 NL 51 (6th) (NL leader: G. Burns 82)
1920 NL 75 (2nd) (NL leader: G. Burns 76)
1921 NL 71 (2nd) (NL leader: G. Burns 80)
1923 NL 73 (3rd) (NL leader: G. Burns 101)
1924 NL 77 (3rd) (NL leader: R. Hornsby 89)
1925 NL 66 (4th) (NL leader: J. Fournier 86)
Combined with his shiny batting average and ability to take a walk, Youngs generally had strong On-Base Percentages. His lowest single season OBP was .354, and he was typically .380 or above. He finished just a hair under .400 for his career (.399). Youngs was top 10 in OBP in each of his first 7 seasons as a regular (1918-1924):
Top 10 NL OBP Finishes:
1918 NL .368 (6th) (NL leader: H. Groh .395)
1919 NL .384 (4th) (NL leader: G. Burns .396)
1920 NL .427 (2nd) (NL leader: R. Hornsby .431)
1921 NL .411 (3rd) (NL leader: R. Hornsby .458)
1922 NL .398 (9th) (NL leader: R. Hornsby .459)
1923 NL .412 (4th) (NL leader: R. Hornsby .459)
1924 NL .441 (2nd) (NL leader: R. Hornsby .507)
That Hornsby guy sure had a way of spoiling anyone else’s plans leading the league in these categories, didn’t he?
So, in batting average, walks, and OBP, Youngs was generally in the top 10, and often in the top 2 or 3….but never first.
During most of Youngs’ career, there weren’t annual awards given out in the National League. There was an "MVP" award that the NL gave out from 1924-1929, so that Youngs really only had a couple of seasons in which he would have even been reasonably considered, given his decline that began after 1924. In that 1924 season, Youngs did place 5th in the NL MVP voting behind Dazzy Vance, Rogers Hornsby, Frankie Frisch, and Zack Wheat, which is probably right about where he deserved to finish. It’s hard to say where he might have finished in the years prior to 1924 if awards were given out. He might have placed reasonably high in 1920. The other years, I’m not so sure.
Despite his brief career, Youngs ranks #6 in career assists by right fielders. Is that possibly influenced in some way by playing at the Polo Grounds? Perhaps. That might be an interesting study. Mel Ott had a lot of career assists while calling the Polo Grounds home as well. But Youngs really piled them up during his brief career.
Career Leaders, Assists by Right Fielders:
|
Rank
|
Player
|
Years
|
RF Assists (since 1913)
|
|
1
|
Roberto Clemente
|
18
|
254
|
|
2
|
Harry Hooper
|
17
|
250
|
|
3
|
Mel Ott
|
22
|
239
|
|
4
|
Paul Waner
|
20
|
238
|
|
5
|
Sam Rice
|
20
|
197
|
|
6
|
Ross Youngs
|
10
|
190
|
|
7
|
Tommy Griffith
|
13
|
186
|
|
8
|
Hank Aaron
|
23
|
179
|
|
9
|
Harry Heilmann
|
17
|
174
|
|
10
|
Chuck Klein
|
17
|
172
|
Here is how he placed annually among right fielders in assists during his career, leading the league more often than not.
1918 NL 16 (4th)
1919 NL 23 (1st)
1920 NL 26 (1st)
1921 NL 16 (4th)
1922 NL 28 (1st)
1923 NL 22 (1st)
1924 NL 17 (1st)
1925 NL 24 (2nd)
1926 NL 18 (5th)
In addition, Youngs had a very good general reputation as a defensive right fielder. This may not mean a whole lot, but when I was young I used to play a lot of "All Time All Star" board games (I played the Sports Illustrated version), and Youngs was one of the highest rated defensive corner outfielders. I suspect that their ratings were mostly based on a player’s reputation. As I recall, in that particular board game, only Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, and Harry Hooper had higher ratings among corner outfielders (the center fielders like Mays, Speaker, DiMaggio, etc., tended to have high ratings as well).
His manager, John McGraw, was quoted as saying about Youngs:
"He was the greatest outfielder I ever saw. He was the greatest fighter I ever saw on a baseball field. The game was never over with Youngs until the last man was out. He could do everything a baseball player should do and do it better than most players. As an outfielder, he had no superiors. And he was the easiest man I ever knew to handle. In all his years with the Giants he never caused one minute's trouble for myself or the club. And a gamer player than Youngs never played ball."
Is there some bias in that? I’m sure. But I do think he had a legitimately good defensive reputation. It’s easy to see him winning at least a couple of Gold Gloves had they existed at the time, although Edd Roush and Max Carey probably would have monopolized a couple of the outfield slots with their own reputations, and Youngs’ team mate George Burns might have been a contender as well.
What else? During his peak years prior to his decline, his OPS+, which adjusts OPS for time and place, was a healthy 137, meaning his adjusted OPS was 37% better than league average. His final career mark of 130 undoubtedly would have slid some more had he played longer and had a decline phase, but I suspect he’d have remained well over 120 for his career even if he had played for several more seasons.
Of course, there were no All-Star games during Youngs’ career, but I believe he would have made several of them. As mentioned before, he was generally the best NL right fielder during his prime, and usually among the top NL outfielders. I would put him in a group with Edd Roush, Zack Wheat, and Max Carey as the top NL outfielders of that time frame. I think he would have made several All-Star teams.
Youngs appeared 19 times on various Hall of Fame ballots between 1936 and 1956. Of course, those earlier ones were jam-packed with candidates as the Hall of Fame was just starting to induct its legends. His highest % total was realized in 1947, when he was named on 22.4% of the ballots, right in between his contemporaries that have been mentioned many times already in this article - Zack Wheat (23.0%) and Edd Roush (15.5%). Although not a high vote total, it does give some sense as to how the writers considered him compared to others. They didn’t just write him off as a non-candidate due to his short career.
One last note about Youngs is that he had some interesting batting splits. He was a little better hitter on the road, although he hit over 70% of his home runs at the Polo Grounds. On the road, he had many fewer home runs, but twice as many triples as he did at home. Other than those 2 categories, it’s a fairly even split:
|
Split
|
G
|
GS
|
PA
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
SB
|
BB
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
|
Home
|
605
|
602
|
2,564
|
2,212
|
378
|
702
|
118
|
32
|
30
|
307
|
82
|
270
|
0.317
|
.396
|
.440
|
|
Away
|
606
|
597
|
2,772
|
2,416
|
434
|
789
|
118
|
61
|
12
|
288
|
71
|
282
|
0.327
|
.401
|
.441
|
I think his batting order split is especially interesting.
|
Split
|
G
|
GS
|
PA
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
SB
|
BB
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS
|
|
Batting 1st
|
210
|
210
|
990
|
884
|
190
|
292
|
46
|
19
|
12
|
82
|
19
|
94
|
.330
|
.398
|
.466
|
.864
|
|
Batting 2nd
|
309
|
309
|
1,353
|
1,167
|
180
|
344
|
59
|
19
|
7
|
104
|
49
|
141
|
.295
|
.377
|
.396
|
.773
|
|
Batting 3rd
|
276
|
276
|
1,229
|
1,061
|
171
|
360
|
46
|
23
|
11
|
144
|
37
|
131
|
.339
|
.416
|
.457
|
.873
|
|
Batting 4th
|
223
|
222
|
971
|
824
|
142
|
256
|
41
|
20
|
5
|
146
|
30
|
114
|
.311
|
.395
|
.427
|
.822
|
|
Batting 5th
|
176
|
176
|
756
|
661
|
125
|
230
|
43
|
12
|
7
|
117
|
16
|
68
|
.348
|
.415
|
.481
|
.896
|
|
Batting 6th
|
7
|
6
|
27
|
22
|
3
|
5
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
.227
|
.346
|
.273
|
.619
|
|
Batting 8th
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
|
|
|
Batting 9th
|
9
|
-
|
10
|
9
|
1
|
4
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
.444
|
.444
|
.444
|
.889
|
That’s a pretty even split among the first 5 batting order positions – He batted 2nd and 3rd more than any in other position, but just barely. He batted leadoff as often as he hit cleanup. He never really was pigeonholed in a particular slot, and he was moved around pretty freely in the order by McGraw. I’m not mentioning this as supporting evidence of anything….I just thought it was interesting.
Wrapping it Up
In general, I’d have to say that I agree with the notion that the "Frisch related" selections were a low point for the Veterans Committee. We certainly should denounce cronyism where we see it. Unfortunately, one of the byproducts of this sentiment is that Ross Youngs tends to be diminished in the eyes of fans because of this broad sweep. Rather than remember him strictly as the beneficiary of favoritism, I prefer to also remember him as one of the better players of his era, a significant contributor to a team that won 4 consecutive pennants, and a player who unfortunately is missing a significant portion of his career due to a disease.
I know that it can be a dangerous path to go down when trying to project a player’s career based on his early performance. Many players look like potential Hall of Famers early in their careers. We can play the "what if" game with players like Tony Conigliaro, Pete Reiser, Darryl Strawberry, and Cesar Cedeno. But, somehow, the question of unfulfilled potential seems a little different when a player passes away too soon as opposed to an injury or some other issue. Maybe there shouldn’t be a distinction, and if you aren’t available to provide value to your team, then it’s just tough luck. Still, the premature loss of one’s life seems, to me, like a different category, and we should be open to treating it as such.
It’s funny, but in other fields, great performers who pass away too soon are still honored. In my previous article, I made a reference to Jimi Hendrix, who died at 27 but is the consensus choice for the best guitar player ever. However, look at others that are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that died at an early age: Janis Joplin died at 27. Otis Redding was 26. Tupac Shakur was 25. Hank Williams died at 29. Buddy Holly was a mere 22 and Ritchie Valens only 17 on "the day the music died". Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain are not enshrined as individuals, but as part of The Doors and Nirvana, respectively. They both died at 27. Some passed away from drugs, some from accidents, some from other causes.
In other forms of entertainment, you also see names like Jean Harlow and James Dean, who passed away at 26 and 24, respectively, but are honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They all were gone too soon, and they all put up bodies of work that appear small and limited when compared to others with longer careers, but they were all honored among the legends in their fields due to the impact they made during their brief time as performers.
I feel like Youngs didn’t have to get better to be a Hall of Famer…he just needed to stay around longer and add some bulk to his totals. He’s clearly not an "A" or a "B" level Hall of Famer. He’s a "below-average" Hall of Famer, I have no doubt about that. But a below-average Hall of Famer is still a Hall of Famer.
I think Youngs is of the same general quality as other Hall of Fame right fielders like Elmer Flick, Enos Slaughter, Sam Rice, Willie Keeler, Harry Hooper, Kiki Cuyler, and Chuck Klein. If you think that these players are below the line of where the Hall of Fame should be drawn, then that’s one thing. People are certainly entitled to think that way. But I think Ross Youngs, when you reasonably factor in the time he lost, stacks up favorably to the established Hall of Fame line at his position.
I prefer to think of him not as the beneficiary of cronyism, but as someone who had demonstrated and established a level of ability and accomplishment in this sport. He was the best at his position for a number of years. He was among the best outfielders in his era. He was arguably the 2nd best player on a great team that won 4 straight pennants and 2 World Series. I think he would have had a decent collection of All-Star games and Gold Gloves had they existed at the time. I prefer to think of him in that light, and to appreciate his career for what it was, despite its brevity.
As always, thanks for reading.
Dan