MLB Number 15s

 The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 15 on their uniforms starts by looking at who the Baseball Hall of Fame has in their hallowed halls. Enshrined number ones of professional baseball are:

• Dazzy Vance
• Red Ruffing
• Lloyd Waner
• Waite Hoyt
• Earl Averill
• Johnny Mize
• George Kell
• Hoyt Wilhelm
• Tony Lazzeri
• Jim Bunning
• Willard Brown
• Barry Larkin
• Ron Santo
• Frank Thomas
• Joe Torre
• Frank Thomas
• Randy Johnson

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 15 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 15s includes:

• Dick Allen    Phillies    September 3, 2020
• Thurman Munson    Yankees    August 3, 1979

Now it is that time where we take the information we have already gathered along and combine it with the number of wins his team garnered over the player that they replaced, the years that they wore the number and compare it with all the others that displayed the number prouudly on their MLB uniforms. The results are this:

• Randy Johnson
• Frank Thomas
• Johnny Mize
• Barry Larkin
• Ron Santo
• Carlos Beltran
• Red Ruffing
• Willie Davis
• Jim Edmonds
• Dazzy Vance
• Jim Bunning
• Dick Allen
• Tim Hudson
• Joe Torre
• George Uhle
• Jack Clark
• Waite Hoyt
• Dustin Pedroia
• Dizzy Trout
• Bobo Newsom
• Tony Lazzeri
• Hoyt Wilhelm
• Thurman Munson
• Lonny Frey
• Matt Holliday
• George Foster
• Charlie Keller
• Julio Franco
• Davey Lopes
• Gary Gaetti
• Darrell Porter
• Tim Salmon
• Tom Zachary
• Tommy Henrich
• Rafael Furcal
• George Kell
• Kyle Seager
• Earl Whitehill
• Rube Walberg
• George Scott
• Cecil Cooper
• Mickey Vernon
• Dan Haren
• Ron Fairly
• Shawn Green
• B.J. Surhoff
• Bob Allison
• Tony Cuccinello
• Elbie Fletcher
• Aramis Ramirez
• Eddie Lopat

Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 15 in MLB history based on performance stats. We do not have all of the players from some of the Negro Leagues in place yet but when we do we will certainly update the list so please excuse us on this. The criteria is simple we pulled stats from Baseball-Reference and Stat-Head on some important numbers. Is the player in the Hall of Fame? What were the Wins After Replacement or the team victories gained or lost after they entered the lineup versus the player they replaced? Where do they rank in the following categories in history: Home Runs, Runs Produced, Strike Outs, ERA. We mash this information up and see how many of the criteria rankings they have and then multiply that number (0-6) times the number of years they wore the particular uniform number we are discussing and then add it to bonus points if in the Hall of Fame and for earning any Gold Glove Awards and/or Cy Young Awards. We call that calculated number our Ranked Formula and use it as a basis of Comparison to give you the Top Fifteen at the uniform number. 

1. Randy Johnson
2. Frank Thomas
3. Johnny Mize
4. Barry Larkin
5. Ron Santo
6. Carlos Beltran
7. Red Ruffing
8. Willie Davis
9. Jim Edmonds
10. Dazzy Vance
11. Jim Bunning
12. Dick Allen
13. Tim Hudson
14. Joe Torre

The stats may not be placing this group in order of importance but what it does do is identify the top 25

Here are our stats and findings:

The photograph in the banner above is courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons collection of public Domain pictures. It is of A 1933 Goudey Baseball Card of Dazzy Vance #2. 

Special thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com and the most wonderful book by Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers, The Negro Leagues Book, Volume 2.