David N. Townsend
Baseball Journal

September 12, 1997
Nomar and Nothing More: The Greatest Rookie?

Because there's nothing else to care about here in Boston baseball, 1997, let's dwell some more on this Nomar Garciaparra phenomenon.  Has anyone penned the nickname "NoMore Nomar" yet?  Or "No Mas" Nomar?  I never saw anyone else comment on the fact that, when the Red Sox play the Indians, the shortstops are Nomar and Omar.  We all know that his first name is Ramon spelled backwards, but did you know that his last name is Ara Parsegian spelled sideways?  (Made you look!)

But enough about his name.  As usual, I have What You Really Want to Know:  Just how great is Garciaparra's rookie season, anyway?  Sure, he's got the leadoff hitter RBI record, the A.L. rookie hitting streak record, the right-handed rookie Mexican glove-adjusting record.  But is this the greatest rookie season of All-Time?  Is it the greatest Red Sox rookie season?  Is it the greatest rookie shortstop season?  Where does Nomar's performance fit?  Once again, I expect that someone else somewhere (that is, someone who gets paid to do this stuff) has already put together this information.  But since I haven't seen it, I'm looking it up myself.  So what follows is some data on The Rookies.

The first chart below gives the best rookie position player seasons of all time, taking into account differences in eras (dead ball, juiced ball, etc.).  Of course, it's impossible to compare pitchers with hitters, so I ignore the rookie years of such greats as Christy Mathewson (20-17, 2.41) and Mark Fidrych (19-9, 2.34).  The second chart gives the best rookie shortstop seasons, and the third gives all Red Sox Rookies-of-the-Year.  All of the players in the charts were either Rookie-of-the-Year winners, or would have been, according to Total Baseball's Bill Deane, if the award had existed before 1947.  (Bold figures indicate league leader.)

Now, let's compare Garciaparra's 1997 season to all of the above (by the way, he finished even better than I projected in the original, Sept. 9, version of this article):

Analysis:  I must say, as an all-around season, it's real hard to find one as good as Garciaparra's.  Sure, Hal Trosky, Ted Williams, and Walt Dropo had over 140 RBIs (the latter two for the Red Sox).  But Garciaparra's got 98 as a leadoff hitter, which is the all-time record for any leadoff man, not just a rookie (breaking, incidentally, Harvey Kuenn's record).  And Garciaparra steals bases, while those guys didn't.  His 209 hits are not far from the all-time rookie record, Lloyd Waner's 223 in 1927, and Waner didn't lead the league that year (his brother Paul did, at 237).  Sure, he isn't close to McGwire's amazing 49 rookie home runs in 1987, but that was a juiced-ball year (not that McGwire's ever needed a juiced ball), and Garciaparra's 30 homers are quite respectable, and his non-power numbers are much better than McGwire's (and he's a shortstop).

Perhaps the closest all-around rookie season to Garciaparra's is Tony Oliva's 1964 campaign:

• Garciaparra:  .306, 122 R, 209 H, 30 HR, 98 RBI, 22 SB
  Oliva:            .323, 109 R, 217 H, 32 HR, 94 RBI, 12 SB

Oliva led the league in Runs and Hits, while Garciaparra led in Hits and was a close second to Griffey in Runs.  Here, I would again give Garciaparra the slight edge, for being a shortstop and leadoff hitter who contributes great fielding and outstanding power numbers for the position.

So, it stands to reason, of course, that if we can make a strong case for Garciaparra's being the best all-around rookie season ever, then it must also be the greatest rookie shortstop and rookie Red Sox season ever, right?  Let's double check:

In terms of power, few shortstops have ever come close to Garciaparra's '97 numbers, let alone as rookies.  Only Ripken (who played a lot of 3B that year) and Tom Tresh are in range of Nomar, and he clearly beats them on other measures.  Only a couple of guys beat him for total hits and batting average, and there just by a small margin.  None of the shortstops scored nearly as many runs as Nomar, and surprisingly, only Listach stole more bases.  For overall numbers, it would appear that perhaps Pesky comes closest to Garciaparra, but he didn't have any power.  On this item, then, there can be little dispute: Nomar Garciaparra is the greatest rookie shortstop in the history of baseball!

As for the Red Sox comparison, it's a pretty heavy claim to suggest that Nomar's 1997 season surpasses Teddy Ballgame's 1939 debut, or Fred Lynn's 1975 reign as the only rookie MVP ever. Well, let's see.  Lynn was an excellent center fielder as well, so that negates the shortstop edge, and he did lead the team to the World Series.  Also his slugging average lead the league in addition to his doubles and runs.  And he batted 23 points higher than Nomar, with almost twice as many walks (.405 OBP vs. .342).  The lower OBP actually cuts against Nomar more because he's a leadoff hitter, who's supposed to get on base.  The more I look at them, the harder it is to make a choice.  By definition, if you're the only rookie to win an MVP, I suppose you must be the best rookie, relative to the year you played, that there ever was.  In terms of pure numbers, however, I'm still leaning toward the 30 HR and 98 RBIs from a leadoff shortstop as just a fraction more impressive rookie season.

Then there's the Ted Williams comparison.  Clearly, his raw numbers are superior to Nomar's, with the exception of stolen bases and total hits.  Ted also had 107 walks to Nomar's 35, for a .436 OBP, which accounts for most of the 120 fewer ABs, and 24 fewer hits.  Garciaparra has the shortstop-leadoff factors in his favor, but in the end, I think that Ted's numbers are so overwhelming, you really can't put him second, even for those reasons.  By the way, Williams was only 20 years old in 1939, Garciaparra is 23; that should count for something, too.

So, that's where I'm going to leave it, and I welcome your response: Nomar Garciaparra has just completed the greatest rookie season by a shortstop ever, and the second greatest rookie season of all time, period (as well as the second greatest by a Red Sox), trailing only the immortal Kid, Ted Williams. Not a bad start to a career, wouldn't you say?

Comments? Questions? Impassioned, hyperbolic overreaction?
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DNT@DNTownsend.com

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