In 2001 the NL Rookie of the Year was Albert Pujols and the AL Rookie of the Year was Ichiro Suzuki.  Have the two leagues ever produced a better tandem?

Since 2001 there have been a couple of pretty good duos: Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander in 2006, Ryan Braun and Dustin Pedroia in 2007.  But we’re talking about Albert Pujols and Ichiro.  How about the 10 seasons prior to Ichiro and Pujols’ debuts.

2000 – Rafael Furcal & Kazuhiro Sasaki

1999 – Scott Williamson & Carlos Beltran

1998 – Kerry Wood & Ben Grieve

1997 – Scott Rolen & Nomar Garciaparra

1996 – Todd Hollandsworth & Nomar Garciaparra Derek Jeter

1995 – Hideo Nomo & Marty Cordova

1994 – Raul Mondesi & Bob Hamelin

1993 – Mike Piazza & Tim Salmon

1992 – Eric Karros & Pat Listach

1991 – Jeff Bagwell & Chuck Knoblauch

Nothing even close there.

Scanning through the rest of the list there are only a few combos that caught my eye: Andre Dawson and Eddie Murphy Murray in 1977.  Tom Seaver and Rod Carew in 1967.  Frank Robinson and Luis Aparicio in 1956.  Will Pujols and Ichiro top these Rookie of the Year tandems from yesteryear?

To compare let’s use BaseballProjection.com’s Historical WAR database (+ Pujols and Ichiro’s 2009 WAR tallies).

Combined Career WAR

Neither Pujols nor Ichiro even qualify for the Hall of Fame yet (must play 10 years), but they’re already creeping up on Dawson and Murray.  They’ll pass them and shouldn’t have much trouble reaching Robinson and Aparicio, but can they take down Seaver and Carew?

Simple answer: yes.  Pujols is just 29 years old (or so they say) and could have another 10 good years left in him.  He’s not going to continue to put up 8 WAR seasons forever, but even if he averages just 5 WAR for the next 10 years he’ll have a higher career WAR than Dawson and Murry all by his lonesome.  It’s a mystery how long Ichiro will play.  He’s 35 right now, but there have been rumors that he plans to play well into his 40s.  Still, if Pujols can manage 125 career WAR, all Ichiro has to do is manage about 20 WAR for the rest of his career.  He’s a 4 WAR player now, so if he can keep up his current level of play through age 40 he can reach that.  Or, if that level drops a peg or two, 20 WAR is still in reach should he play until he’s 42,43, 44.  Pujols could end up doing more and Ichiro less or vice versa– I’ll leave it to you to ponder the different possibilities.

The conclusion was pretty loose, but I think you get the picture.  Pujols and Ichiro are amazing, and if they can stay relatively healthy they have a shot to go down as the greatest Rookie of the Year combo of all time (by WAR).

Addendum: In 1951 the Rookie of the Year award winners were Willie Mays and Gil McDougald.  They actually have the highest combined WAR of any tandem (194.6), but that is carried by Mays’ 154.7 WAR, the 4th highest tally of all time.  Technically they should top the list, but it gets away from the point of the post.  McDougald was a very good player between 1951 and 1957 for some dynamite Yankee teams, but he fell off after that and only played 10 seasons.  Not the type of guy I was looking for as one half of “the greatest Rookie of the Year duo of all time.”  (Hat tip to JopeX37)