Yankee Killers

Manny being Manny

George Brett. Edgar Martinez. Manny Ramirez. Throughout the years, there have been certain players who the Yanks just can’t seem to get out with the game on the line. To be sure, the rest of baseball had loads of trouble getting those three out as well, all were great hitters. But as great as they were, as a Yankee fan it seemed like they raised their game facing the Bronx Bombers. In some cases it was mere perception, in others reality. George Brett had a .857 OPS for his career, and hit a very similar .869 facing the Yanks. Edgar Martinez sported a .933 career OPS and .965 against the Yanks. Manny Ramirez had a .996 OPS for his career and 1.030 facing the Bronx Bombers. Brett was the only lefty, so the extra pop displayed by Manny and Edgar can’t be chalked up to hitting in Yankee Stadium. Though both had great power to all fields, especially Edgar.

The big night Billy Butler had yesterday got me to wondering who the current Yankee killers are. Here’s the list sorted by OPS from 2006 to today, courtesy of the BR Play Index:

Rk                      Games AB  R   H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS  BA  OBP  SLG   OPS                  Tm
1           Manny Ramirez 41 140 35  63 12  0 14  42 23 32  0  0 .450 .557 .836 1.393             BOS-LAD
2          Miguel Cabrera 33 118 20  44  7  1 11  31 18 14  0  1 .373 .441 .729 1.170             FLA-DET
3         Ramon Hernandez 44 150 23  56  9  1 11  33 17 17  1  2 .373 .439 .667 1.105             BAL-CIN
4             Mike Napoli 30  93 22  30  7  0  5  19 26 22  4  4 .323 .458 .559 1.017             LAA-TEX
5            Paul Konerko 39 139 22  46  9  0  9  27 26 17  0  0 .331 .405 .590  .995                 CHW
6             Carlos Pena 67 232 41  60 11  1 23  53 82 37  1  0 .259 .373 .612  .985     BOS-TBD-TBR-CHC
7             David Ortiz 99 377 60 116 31  0 22  76 72 62  0  0 .308 .400 .565  .965                 BOS
8               Jason Bay 37 128 25  42  9  2  5  26 26 16  4  0 .328 .411 .547  .957         PIT-BOS-NYM
9          Kevin Youkilis 89 314 68  99 21  2 12  59 57 63  1  2 .315 .444 .510  .954                 BOS
10          Jose Bautista 50 166 32  41  4  1 13  30 36 46  2  1 .247 .419 .518  .937             PIT-TOR
11          Evan Longoria 66 228 41  67 13  0 14  40 53 36  4  0 .294 .393 .535  .928                 TBR
12         Justin Morneau 45 163 23  48 12  1  9  27 25 20  0  0 .294 .368 .546  .914                 MIN