The Yankees Franchise Deep Six

A few days ago I put up the first post in this series for the Braves, and now it's time for the redone version of the Yankees' all-time positional depth chart that I mentioned.

	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
1st	Whitey Ford	Yogi Berra	Lou Gehrig	Robinson Cano	Alex Rodriguez	Derek Jeter	Charlie Keller	Mickey Mantle	Babe Ruth
2nd	Red Ruffing	Bill Dickey	Don Mattingly	Joe Gordon	Graig Nettles	Phil Rizzuto	Roy White	Joe DiMaggio	Tommy Henrich
3rd	Ron Guidry	Thurman Munson	Bill Skowron	Willie Randolph	Home Run Baker	Roger Peckinpaugh	Brett Gardner	Earle Combs	Roger Maris
4th	Lefty Gomez	Jorge Posada	Jason Giambi	Tony Lazzeri	Wade Boggs	Kid Elberfeld	Hideki Matsui	Bernie Williams	Hank Bauer
5th	Bob Shawkey	Elston Howard	Wally Pipp	Gil McDougald	Red Rolfe	Bucky Dent	Gene Woodling	Rickey Henderson	Dave Winfield
6th	Mike Mussina	Mike Stanley	Mark Teixeira	Snuffy Stirnweiss	Clete Boyer	Tony Kubek	Bob Meusel	Bobby Murcer	Reggie Jackson

The pitchers I could probably change around depending on what mood I'm in, but I'm fairly confident in my rankings for the other positions. Some of you might be surprised not to see Andy Pettitte here, given how many years he spent with the Yankees, but I felt he didn't have enough peak value.

The toughest choice was at second base. I originally had Joe Gordon on the 1st Team, but I went with Cano after considering his peak value and longevity. Gordon unfortunately lost two prime years to the war which might have given him the edge. It is a bit hard to believe at first that three quarters of the 2009 Yankees' infield consisted of their best ever players at the position, but it's quite believable after looking at the data.

I was a bit surprised at how weak left field was. If I could count players at multiple positions, Babe Ruth would probably be their best left fielder, but he played more games in right field, so that's where I put him.

The 6th Team here isn't too shabby. Whenever I finish this project, I might try to see which franchise has the best 6th Team. The Yankees seem like they'd be the obvious choice, but perhaps we'll be surprised.