I have to admit, Number 74 has not been a very popular number in baseball history. Since there are not any players that wore the unidorm number 74 that are currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame and not a team in the League past of present that has retired the number our job gets a little bit tougher. So now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 74 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.
- Kenley Jansen
- Joe Nathan
- Ugueth Urbina
- J.P. Howell
- Eloy Jiménez
- Ronald Torreyes
- Joe Ryan
- Josh Winder
- Jhonathan Diaz
- Nick Goody
- Nabil Crismatt
- Sam Huff
- Félix Bautista
- Billy McMillon
- Efren Navarro
The stats may not be placing this group in order of importance but what it does do is identify all 22 players thus far that have worn the number 74.
Here are our stats and findings:
