Phil Rizzuto

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Phil Rizzuto

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Phil Rizzuto

Phil Rizzuto was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1994.

Five highlights of Phil Rizzuto's career:

Phil Rizzuto was named to five All-Star teams. He was the starting shortstop for the American League in two All-Star games, in 1950 and 1952.

Rizzuto received MVP votes eight times with three top-10 finishes. He finished second in MVP voting in 1949 and won the American League MVP in 1950 when he batted .324/.418/.439 with 200 hits and 125 runs scored. All of the numbers in the previous sentence were career highs for Rizzuto.

Rizzuto played in nine World Series of which his team (the Yankees) won seven of them. Rizzuto batted over .300 in four World Series (1942, 1947, 1951, and 1953)

Rizzuto led the American League in double plays turned by a shortstop three times, in putouts and fielding percentage twice each, and in assists once.

After his 13-year playing career, all with the Yankees, Rizzuto did radio commentary for the Yankees for 40 years. His combined 53 years working for the Yankees is the most in Yankees' history. Rizzuto's baseball commentary is featured in the 1977 Meatloaf song, Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

The first two tables below present Phil Rizzuto's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1941	NYA	23	133	16.7	15.4	3.4	1.7
1942	NYA	24	144	21.0	16.1	7.4	5.5
1943	-	25	-	-	-	-	-
1944	-	26	-	-	-	-	-
1945	-	27	-	-	-	-	-
1946	NYA	28	126	15.4	15.5	1.9	0.4
1947	NYA	29	153	20.4	17.8	4.8	2.9
1948	NYA	30	128	15.1	15.5	1.6	0.0
1949	NYA	31	153	20.7	17.9	5.3	3.3
1950	NYA	32	155	22.1	17.7	7.1	5.0
1951	NYA	33	144	19.8	17.0	5.3	3.4
1952	NYA	34	152	19.8	18.3	4.0	2.0
1953	NYA	35	134	15.0	13.0	3.9	2.4
1954	NYA	36	127	10.4	10.1	1.8	0.7
1955	NYA	37	81	4.9	5.0	0.6	0.1
1956	NYA	38	31	1.9	1.9	0.2	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,661	203.1	181.1	47.3	27.3
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			52	6.1	5.7	1.2	0.6
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			1,713	209.1	186.8	48.5	27.9

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1941	NYA	23	133	16.1	16.0	2.3	0.7
1942	NYA	24	144	19.3	17.8	4.3	2.3
1943	-	25	-	-	-	-	-
1944	-	26	-	-	-	-	-
1945	-	27	-	-	-	-	-
1946	NYA	28	126	15.2	15.7	1.7	0.1
1947	NYA	29	153	19.6	18.6	3.3	1.4
1948	NYA	30	128	15.1	15.5	1.7	0.1
1949	NYA	31	153	19.6	18.9	3.4	1.4
1950	NYA	32	155	21.8	18.0	6.4	4.3
1951	NYA	33	144	18.3	18.5	2.4	0.5
1952	NYA	34	152	18.9	19.2	2.3	0.3
1953	NYA	35	134	14.4	13.7	2.6	1.1
1954	NYA	36	127	9.6	10.9	0.3	-0.8
1955	NYA	37	81	4.9	4.9	0.6	0.1
1956	NYA	38	31	1.7	2.0	-0.1	-0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,661	194.4	189.8	31.2	11.2
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			52	6.0	5.8	1.0	0.4
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			1,713	200.4	195.5	32.1	11.6

Phil Rizzuto is a difficult player to evaluate. After two solid seasons at ages 23 and 24, Rizzuto then missed three seasons - Rizzuto's age 25, 26, and 27 seasons - because he was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Looking at the above table, it looks like World War II may have not only cost Rizzuto three prime seasons, but it may have affected his play afterward. At a minimum, Rizzuto's 1946 season (age 28) seems to have been a step below his 1941 and 1942 (age 23-24) seasons as Rizzuto tried to re-adjust to major-league baseball after three years away. I have never read anything about a specific war injury, but, for example, using the oldest of old-school stats, Phil Rizzuto's batting average prior to World War II was .295 (.307 in 1941, .284 in 1942). His average in 1946 was .257 and, outside of his MVP season of 1950 when he batted .324, his next-highest post-World War II batting average was .275 (in 1949).

To be as fair as possible, then, to Rizzuto without outright making up numbers, I will limit the comparisons in this article to Rizzuto's 1947 - 1956 seasons and compare those seasons to other players' careers from age 29 onward.

It is also important to evaluate players within the context in which they played. I think it is best to compare players across a long enough time period to minimize the risk of "cherry picking" a time period most favorable to a player. Ideally, one would want to center the relevant time period over the player's career. Unfortunately, this is difficult in the case of Phil Rizzuto, because the years immediately prior to this time period encompass World War II and the years before that are plagued by segregation and less reliable play-by-play data. Taking all of this into account, I chose a 30-year period from 1947 through 1976 and compared Rizzuto to other players aged 29 and older within these seasons. This is, admittedly a bit weird and/or forced, but I'm not making an advocacy case for or against Phil Rizzuto's Hall-of-Fame membership here; I'm just trying to get a good sense of what his strengths were as a player and how good he was at those things.

Phil Rizzuto was good at the "little things" - as you'd perhaps expect from a player whose listed height and weight were 5'6", 150 lbs - including baserunning and fielding.

Baserunning

The next table shows the top 25 players in baserunning wins over non-pitcher average after age 29 from 1947 - 1976.

		Baserunning (Wins over Non-Pitcher Average, age 29 and older, 1947 - 1976)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Lou Brock	24.9	18.2	0.578	6.0
2	Bert Campaneris	14.4	8.8	0.621	5.5
3	Maury Wills	24.7	19.7	0.557	4.3
4	Willie Mays	18.7	13.9	0.573	4.2
5	Willie Davis	12.0	8.0	0.601	3.7
6	Davey Lopes	7.8	4.1	0.659	3.6
7	Luis Aparicio	18.0	14.0	0.563	3.5
8	Tommy Harper	11.4	7.9	0.592	3.4
9	Joe L. Morgan	10.0	6.8	0.596	3.0
10	Pee Wee Reese	14.3	10.9	0.567	2.9
11	Hank Aaron	15.6	12.2	0.560	2.9
12	Bill Bruton	12.8	9.8	0.567	2.6
13	Dom DiMaggio	8.9	6.1	0.593	2.6
14	Jackie Robinson	13.3	10.9	0.550	2.0
15	Red Schoendienst	9.5	7.3	0.566	1.9
16	Don Buford	12.6	10.3	0.549	1.8
17	Sam Jethroe	5.6	3.6	0.607	1.8
18	Hank Bauer	7.8	5.8	0.573	1.8
19	Matty Alou	10.1	8.1	0.554	1.7
20	Phil Rizzuto	10.2	8.3	0.552	1.6
21	Vic Power	8.9	7.1	0.557	1.5
22	Cesar Tovar	10.3	8.5	0.547	1.5
23	Nellie Fox	10.3	8.4	0.550	1.5
24	Johnny Pesky	5.7	4.1	0.582	1.4
25	Lenny Green	4.6	3.2	0.595	1.4

Even trying to limit the comparison above to relative contemporaries of Phil Rizzuto creates something of a problem in the above table. Phil Rizzuto finished in the top 5 in the American League in stolen bases five times over the time period covered in the above table at an excellent success rate. But stolen bases were very rare in Major League Baseball in the 1940s and early 1950s. As the most extreme example, Phil Rizzuto finished second in the American League in stolen bases in his MVP year, 1950, with 12 stolen bases! Twenty years later, the top 10 in stolen bases in the American League all had at least double that. For his career, Phil Rizzuto's success rate on stolen base attempts was 72.0%, which is quite good; he just didn't attempt that many steals.

Phil Rizzuto was excellent at all aspects of baserunning - advancing on wild pithes, going 1st-to-3rd on singles, etc. He was especially good at what I call Component 9, baserunner advancement: the ability to go 1st-to-3rd on singles, go 2nd-to-3rd on fly outs, etc. The next table, then, shows the top 10 players in Component 9 baserunning (age 29 and older, 1947 - 1976).

		Baserunner Advancement (Wins over Non-Pitcher Average, age 29 and older, 1947 - 1976)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Willie Davis	3.9	2.0	0.661	1.8
2	Phil Rizzuto	3.9	2.2	0.641	1.6
3	Maury Wills	6.0	4.3	0.583	1.5
4	Minnie Minoso	3.9	2.3	0.628	1.5
5	Bert Campaneris	3.5	1.9	0.640	1.5
6	Dom DiMaggio	3.2	1.8	0.642	1.4
7	Willie Mays	6.1	4.5	0.572	1.4
8	Bill Bruton	4.5	3.1	0.589	1.2
9	Vic Power	3.2	2.0	0.610	1.1
10	Jim Gilliam	4.6	3.4	0.574	1.0

Fielding

Gold Glove awards were first awarded in 1957 and were first awarded separately by league in 1958. Phil Rizzuto's last major-league season was 1956. Had they started awarding Gold Gloves a decade or two earlier, it is highly likely that Phil Rizzuto would have won his fair share. As measured by Player won-lost records, Rizzuto led the American League in net fielding wins at shortstop four times and finished in the top three two other times.

The next table shows the top 10 shortstops in net fielding wins at age 29 and older from 1947 - 1976.

		Fielding, SS (Net Fielding Wins age 29 and older, 1947 - 1976)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	Net Wins
1	Pee Wee Reese	54.6	46.4	0.541	8.2
2	Mark Belanger	28.8	23.2	0.555	5.7
3	Lou Boudreau	21.2	17.4	0.549	3.8
4	Dal Maxvill	31.1	27.5	0.530	3.5
5	Roy McMillan	37.8	34.9	0.520	2.9
6	Phil Rizzuto	50.1	47.3	0.515	2.8
7	Maury Wills	52.1	49.4	0.514	2.8
8	Bert Campaneris	35.5	32.9	0.519	2.6
9	Bud Harrelson	14.3	12.7	0.530	1.6
10	Bobby Wine	18.1	16.6	0.521	1.4

Phil Rizzuto was good at all aspects of fielding. But, continuing with the theme of Rizzuto doing the "little things" well, he was especially good at turning double plays - what I call Component 7. The next table, then, shows the top 10 shortstops in net Component 7 wins (with the same age and date restrictions as in earlier tables).

		Component 7 Fielding, SS (Net Fielding Wins age 29 and older, 1947 - 1976)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	Net Wins
1	Phil Rizzuto	8.4	6.9	0.550	1.5
2	Dal Maxvill	4.6	3.2	0.589	1.4
3	Pee Wee Reese	7.9	6.9	0.535	1.0
4	Bobby Wine	3.0	2.2	0.574	0.8
5	Willy Miranda	3.2	2.5	0.565	0.7
6	Alvin Dark	6.9	6.2	0.525	0.7
7	Bud Harrelson	1.8	1.3	0.583	0.5
8	Woodie Held	2.1	1.6	0.566	0.5
9	Alex Grammas	2.6	2.2	0.549	0.5
10	Lou Boudreau	3.5	3.1	0.531	0.4

I'll close, then, with the same table, expanded to include all players at all ages for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records. Keep in mind that Phil Rizzuto is missing three years of his prime in the comparison here.

		Component 7 Fielding, SS
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	Net Wins
1	Cal Ripken	13.2	10.1	0.566	3.1
2	Phil Rizzuto	12.1	9.3	0.565	2.8
3	Ozzie Smith	14.7	12.1	0.550	2.7
4	Tim Foli	10.6	8.1	0.567	2.5
5	Dave Concepcion	12.7	10.2	0.554	2.5
6	Billy Rogell	13.4	11.0	0.549	2.4
7	Pee Wee Reese	12.8	10.5	0.550	2.3
8	Lou Boudreau	11.2	8.9	0.558	2.3
9	Rick Burleson	8.6	6.4	0.574	2.2
10	Joe Cronin	17.3	15.3	0.531	2.0

Article last updated: May 27, 2020

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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