Miggy & the Prince

There will be no shortage of talk about the size of the contract Detroit gave to Prince Fielder ... not to mention the size of the player himself. But for the moment, let's look at teams that have had two hitters as good as Fielder and Miguel Cabrera.

Among all MLB hitters over the past 3 seasons, Cabrera and Fielder rank #2 and #5(t) in OPS+:

Rk	Player	OPS+	Age	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Albert Pujols	171	29-31	344	542	113	2	126	352	279	.313	.409	.598	1.007	*3/5D
2	Miguel Cabrera	167	26-28	318	575	127	1	102	334	265	.332	.421	.583	1.005	*3/D
3	Joey Votto	161	25-27	289	513	114	6	91	300	271	.318	.418	.565	.983	*3
4	Adrian Gonzalez	156	27-29	285	542	105	5	98	317	286	.306	.403	.536	.940	*3/D9
5-T	Jose Bautista	155	28-30	268	382	72	8	110	267	288	.269	.397	.564	.962	*9/57D83
5-T	Prince Fielder	155	25-27	292	498	96	4	116	344	331	.287	.409	.547	.956	*3/D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/25/2012.

So I looked at player-seasons with at least a 150 OPS+. (Min. 3.1 PAs per team game.

Since 1893, there have been 926 such seasons -- an average of 6 per year in a 16-team MLB, or 12 per year in a 30-team MLB.

Less than 6% of all teams have had 2 such hitters (or more) in a season: 136 of 2,394.

Twenty-five pairs (or trios) of hitters had multiple 150+ years for the same team, with a total of 66 years from such teammates. In reverse date order:

Players	Team	Years	Postseason
Manny Ramirez & David Ortiz	Red Sox	2005, '06	—
Albert Pujols & Jim Edmonds (plus Scott Rolen in '04)	Cardinals	2002, '03, '04	1 pennant, + 1 division
Jeff Bagwell & Moises Alou	Astros	1998, 2000	1 division
Ken Griffey, Jr. & Edgar Martinez (plus Alex Rodriguez in '96)	Mariners	1996, '97	1 division
Alex Rodriguez & Edgar Martinez(plus Ken Griffey, Jr. in '96)	Mariners	1996, 2000	1 wild card
Jim Thome & Albert Belle	Cleveland	1995, '96	1 pennant + 1 division
Reggie Jackson & Sal Bando	A's	1969, '73	1 WS
Frank Robinson & Boog Powell	Orioles	1966, '69, '70	2 WS + 1 pennant
Willie Mays & Willie McCovey (plus Orlando Cepeda in '63)	Giants	1963, '65, '68	—
Willie Mays & Orlando Cepeda	Giants	1961, '63	—
Mickey Mantle & Roger Maris	Yankees	1960, '61	1 WS + 1 pennant
Hank Aaron & Eddie Mathews	Braves	1957, '59, '60, '61	1 WS
Duke Snider & Roy Campanella	Dodgers	1953, '55	1 WS + 1 pennant
Ted Williams & Jimmie Foxx	Red Sox	1939, '40	—
Mel Ott & Bill Terry	Giants	1930, '32	—
Jimmie Foxx & Al Simmons	A's	1929, '30	2 WS
Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig (plus Tony Lazzeri in '29)	Yankees	1926, '27, '28, '29, '30, '31, '32, '33	3 WS + 1 pennant
Ty Cobb & Harry Heilmann	Tigers	1921, '22	—
Ty Cobb & Bobby Veach	Tigers	1917, '19	—
Eddie Collins & Home Run Baker	A's	1912, '13, '14	1 WS + 1 pennant
Ty Cobb & Sam Crawford	Tigers	1907, '08, '09, '11, '13	3 pennants
Nap Lajoie & Elmer Flick	Cleveland	1904, '06	—
Honus Wagner & Fred Clarke	Pirates	1902, '03	2 pennants
Ed Delahanty & Elmer Flick	Phillies	1898, 1901	—
Ed Delahanty, Billy Hamilton & Sam Thompson	Phillies	1893, '94, '95	—

Note: There are 47 unique individuals in the table; 8 players made the list more than once: 3 times by Ty Cobb, and twice each by Alex Rodriguez, Ed Delahanty, Edgar Martinez, Elmer Flick, Jimmie Foxx, Orlando Cepeda, and Willie Mays.

Postseason summary:

• 29 teams made the postseason, or won the Pennant when there was no formal postseason (44%).
• 12 won the World Series (18%). Adding the 6 who won Pennants but had no WS, that means 18 of the 66 teams were MLB champions (27%) ... but none since 1973.
• 6 won the Pennant, but lost the WS.
• 6 won the Pennant, but had no WS.
• 4 won their division, but lost before the WS.
• 1 won the wild card and a playoff series, but lost in the LCS.
• 37 teams missed the postseason (56%).

Of course, there's no guarantee that the 2012 Tigers will join this company; Cabrera has reached the 150 OPS+ plateau in 5 of his 8 full seasons, Fielder 3 of 6. But their combined average over the past 3 seasons is over 160 OPS+. And the Tigers were a pretty good team before adding Fielder.

What do you think of Detroit's chances in the next few years to win their first championship since 1984?