Will Yankees Greg Bird be more Moose Skowron or Nick Johnson?

Honorable Mention

Joe Collins played his entire career with the Yankees (1948-57). His teams went to the World Series seven times and won five of them, which is a feather. But, while I could point out his poor postseason performances as a reason to rank him so low, it would be unnecessary.

Collins was a platoon player during those years, only getting more than 400 AB’s twice in that time. And he never had 500 in any season. Joe was obviously a valuable player, but his contributions to the Yankees can place him no higher.

Joe Pepitone played well with the Yankees (62-69). He was an All-Star three times and earned three Gold Glove awards. But he did not play enough first, spending too much time in the outfield for real consideration here.

It was important to consider time spent on the bag. Otherwise, Mickey Mantle would be the Yankees greatest at this position since he spent his last two years anchored up the line.

And Joe just didn’t have enough production to be seriously ranked. His best season was 1963 when he was 22 and hit .271/.304/.448. Those are solid numbers, but they aren’t nearly good enough to make the Yankees top four.