Ted Williams -- who no doubt had a soft spot for Yaz, too -- said in the '90s that Paul Molitor had the best right-handed swing in baseball.

As I've mentioned before, I would take the Carl Yastrzemski from September 1967 over any other player in the history of the game.

Otherwise, OK, Molitor.

I knew there would be a Molitor bias on Da Box, but I think it's pretty clearly Yaz:

OPS+: Yaz, 130 to 122
BA: Molly, .306 to .285
SLG: Yaz, .462 to .448
RBI: Yaz, 1844 to 1307
AB/RBI: Yaz, 6.5 to 8.3
Hits: Yaz, 3419 to 3319
Homers: Yaz, 452 to 234

Even if you discount the last two entirely as "counting stats" pumped up by Yaz's health, longevity and drug-free-ness, it's that AB per RBI that really hammers it home.

Yeah, yeah, I can twist the numbers this way, and nine of you can twist them nine other ways. Go ahead. Or find different numbers, or whatever. I think, even outside that last magical week of 1967, and forgiving him for making the final out of the 1978 Bucky Dent Game, Yaz was the second-best Red Sox hitter, ever. Molitor, with any of the teams he was one, not quite at that level.

But isn't batting average the only thing matters here?  All we're looking for is a single, so all of those numbers that reflect the fact that Yaz had a little more pop in his bat don't strike me as all that important in this context.  I never saw him play though, so I don't know whether he or Molly would have the advantage sneaking out an infield single to score the run.

But isn't batting average the only thing matters here?  All we're looking for is a single, so all of those numbers that reflect the fact that Yaz had a little more pop in his bat don't strike me as all that important in this context.

How about the guy who can work the count the longest to increase the chances of a passed ball or wild pitch.

Or the guy who strikes out the least and has the best chance of putting the ball in play thereby getting a hit or inducing an error.

I knew there would be a Molitor bias on Da Box, but I think it's pretty clearly Yaz.

vs. RHP : Yaz.

vs. LHP : Molly.

Simple.

How about the guy who can work the count the longest to increase the chances of a passed ball or wild pitch.

Of course!  How silly of me.  That's obviously a crucial element in this situation.  One player or the other might have a massive advantage of one-half of one pitch more per at-bat on average, giving the equivalent of one whole extra point of batting average in this situation.  If Molly thereby becomes a .301 hitter instead of a .300 hitter, my trusty spreadsheet will know all about it and I can plan my managerial decision accordingly!

I never saw him play though, so I don't know whether he or Molly would have the advantage sneaking out an infield single to score the run.

Since you never saw him play,

Molitor = one of the fastest baseball players in history

Yaz = ran about as fast as Frank Catalanotto (imagine a 43-year-old Frank Catalanotto, and that's about how fast Yaz ran in the early 80s when I saw him.  Faster than Bengie and Jason Phillips, but that's about it).

You know, I thought Cat had a big SB season while in Texas, but I'm wrong about that. He has 39 career in 61 attempts (63.9 percent) at the age of 31. It's not quite fair to compare that to Yaz's career 168 steals (in 284 attempts, 59.2 percent) so at the age of 31, Yaz had swiped 111 (50 more than Cat) in 179 tries (62 percent). Cat's career best to date is 15, unlikely to be bested going forward, while Yaz had what would be a career best of 23 by this point.

Cat, a fraction more efficient. Yaz, a little more in the raw numbers. Guess that's a draw. Can't imagine Cat will play until he's in his early 40's, but that's hardly relevant to this discussion.

I'd go with the platoon answer, too.  Not that it would matter, because they would both be walked unless the bases were loaded.  With the bases loaded, I'd prefer to have Yaz at his 67 peak against a righty than Molitor against a lefty. 

Mick, unless I am very much mistaken, teams ran more - much more - with marginal players in the 1960s and 1970s than they do now.  Also, Yaz could steal bases OK (never well, but OK) becaue he had a baseball brain the size of a watermelon.

The point I made about Yaz's speed when he got older was just that he was slooooooooow.  Really, really slow.  "We'll gladly play Dave Stapleton because Yaz is too slow even to play first base" slow.  And my understanding is that he was never fast after the age of 25 or 26... his speed was always his weakness, which is why he played left in Fenway.  Yaz could have played right - he had the arm for it - but he played left becaue it was the smaller field and therefore easier for a slower guy to play.  Guys like Conigliaro were considered faster than Yaz was.

By the way, Mike, you remember more of Yaz than I do, right?  What do you remember of his speed?

I remember the '67 Yaz as having roughly average speed, but he definitely lost speed in his late 20s (insert lame racial stereotyping).  By the early-mid 70s, he was definitely slow.

Magpie would know much better than I.  We got our TV set in 1967 (I was 8), and fans back then had only the Game of the Week on Saturdays.  I might have seen the Bosox maybe 3 times a year- I remember watching the Cardinals a lot.  The World Series consisted mostly of day games, and so I was listening with my transistor radio (in school, of course).  Anyways, my very subjective impression of the 67 Red Sox club was that it was an average AL (slowish) club and that Yaz was about average on the club.  The curious thing is that he reached his high in stolen bases at 23 at age 30, although he was never really an effective base-stealer.