Jered Weaver and the 20 Best Younger Brothers in Major League Baseball History
Rich StoweAnalyst IIIApril 18, 2011Jered Weaver and the 20 Best Younger Brothers in Major League Baseball History

There have been over 350 brothers to play in Major League Baseball history.
In some of them, the older brother was the better player. Hank Aaron was easily a better player than Tommie Aaron. Paul Waner was better than his younger brother Lloyd, but both are in the Hall of Fame.
So, out of all the brothers to play at the major league level, which of the younger brothers were better than their older siblings?
I came up with a list of 20 younger brothers who were better than their older brothers. Some may surprise you because you may not know they had an older brother in baseball (I know a couple of them surprised me).
This list is not in any particular order, just who I consider the 20 best younger brothers in baseball history when compared to their older brothers.
Let's start with the active players.
Jered Weaver

Older brother: Jeff Weaver
Jered is in his sixth season for the Angels, and Jeff played for seven teams over 11 seasons. Jeff never won more than 14 games in a single season. His ERA was never under 3.52 and he finished his career with an ERA+ of 93.
Jered has been steadily improving since his "sophomore slump" season, and 2010 was his best season so far, as he finished fifth in the Cy Young voting and led the league in strikeouts. Barring an injury, Jered should easily finish with a much better career than Jeff.
Justin Upton

Older brother: B.J. Upton
I live in the same area where the Uptons come from, and all the experts here know that Justin is the more talented of the two. So far for their careers, Justin leads B.J. in all major hitting categories (except the ones where B.J's two extra seasons give him an advantage).
If you watch these two play the game, you see great potential, but as of now, Justin is beginning to live up to it while B.J. seems to still be figuring it out.
Vladimir Guerrero

Older brother: Wilton Guerrero
I did not know that Vlad had an older brother who played baseball. Wilton played for eight seasons and had a decent batting average, but that's about it. Vladimir is a borderline Hall of Famer, who's won one MVP award and is always in the discussion for more over his 16 seasons so far.
Let's move on to the non-Hall of Famers.
Todd Stottlemyre

Older brother: Mel Stottlemyre
This comparison wasn't even close. Both are sons of Yankee great Mel Stottlemyre, but Mel Jr.'s MLB career was a grand total of 13 games while Todd pitched for 14 seasons.
Even though Todd is two years younger, he made it to the majors two seasons before Mel did. Todd never led the league in any single category, but he was good for 170 innings or so each season and generally 10-15 wins. Neither son was as good as their father, but Todd was easily better than his older brother.
B.J. Surhoff

Older brother: Rich Surhoff
Another "I didn't know he had an older brother" surprise and for good reason. Rich played a grand total of nine games in his MLB career while B.J. played for 19 seasons.
While there was nothing special about B.J.'s career, he was a great teammate who played any position asked of him and was good enough to play for a very long time.
Steve Sax

Older brother: Dave Sax
Dave played in 37 games over five seasons. Steve's career lasted 14 seasons in which he won the Rookie of the Year, one Silver Slugger and made the All-Star game five times.
Unfortunately, while playing for the Yankees, Steve developed the yips and his career was never the same.
Joe Torre

Older brother: Frank Torre
Frank was an average player over his seven seasons (career OPS+ of 100) while Joe was a borderline Hall of Famer at the end of his 18-year career.
Joe won the MVP once, made the All-Star game nine times and even won a Gold Glove. Joe finished his career with a batting average of .297, a slugging percentage of .817 and an OPS+ of 128.
Richie Allen

Older brother: Hank Allen
There were three Allen brothers in baseball; Hank (the oldest), Richie (the middle son) and Ron (the youngest). Ron's career was a grand total of seven games. Hank played for seven seasons, but only had two seasons in which he played in over 100 games.
Richie played for 15 seasons over which he won the Rookie of the Year, won the MVP once and made the All-Star game seven times. He also led the league in OPS four times, OPS+ three times, OBP twice and home runs twice.
Dom DiMaggio

Older brothers: Vince and Joe DiMaggio
Another family with three brothers who played in baseball. Vince was the oldest and played in 10 seasons and made the All-Star game twice. I'll cover Joe later in this article.
Dom wasn't as good as Joe, but he was better than Vince. In 11 seasons, Dom made the All-Star game seven times and was in the top nine for MVP once. He finished with a .298 batting average and an OPS+ of 110.
Now we'll move on the Hall of Famers (or will-be Hall of Famers).
Jim O'Rourke

Older brother: John O'Rourke
John's career lasted three seasons while Jim played for 23 seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Old Timers Committee in 1945.
Jim finished his career with a .310 batting average and an OPS+ of 133. In 1999 games, he amassed 2,639 hits, 1,208 RBI and scored 1,729 runs.
Stan Coveleski

Older brother: Harry Coveleski
Harry and Stan were both pitchers with Harry pitching for nine seasons and Stan pitching for 14. Harry pitched in over 30 games only three times as a starter and reliever, while Stan pitched in over 30 games as a starter and reliever 11 times.
Stan led the league in ERA and ERA+ twice and WHIP once and finished with 215 wins, an ERA of 2.89 and an ERA+ of 128.
Gaylord Perry

Older brother: Jim Perry
Jim pitched for 17 seasons and finished with 215 wins, an ERA of 3.45, an ERA+ of 106, a WHIP of 1.255 and 1,576 strikeouts. He also won the Cy Young award once.
Gaylord in his Hall of Fame worthy 22 seasons finished with 314 wins, an ERA of 3.11, and ERA+ of 117, a WHIP of 1.181 and 3,534 strikeouts.
Yes, Gaylord admitted to doctoring the ball, but he did win the Cy Young award twice and finished second in the voting once.
Robin Yount

Older brother: Larry Yount
This really isn't a far comparison because Larry played in a grand total of one game and doesn't even have any stats listed on his Baseball Reference page, while Robin played for 20 seasons and is a Hall of Famer with 3,142 hits and two MVP awards.
Pedro Martinez

Older brother: Ramon Martinez
Ramon wasn't a bad pitcher over his 14-year career. He finished in the top five for Cy Young voting twice.
Pedro, however, is the greatest starting pitcher ever, with three Cy Young awards (should have been four), an ERA+ of 154, an ERA of 2.93 and a WHIP of 1.054. When you look at those stats again and realize Pedro amassed those numbers during the offense-inflated Steroid Era, you'll realize just how great Pedro was.
Greg Maddux

Older brother: Mike Maddux
Mike was an average pitcher over his 15 years in baseball, while Greg is a top-three starting pitcher all time.
Over 23 seasons, Greg won 355 games, had an ERA of 3.16, an ERA+ of 132, a WHIP of 1.143 and won four straight Cy Young awards. Greg was also one of the best defensive pitchers in the history of the game.
Roberto Alomar

Older brother: Sandy Alomar Jr.
Sandy was a serviceable catcher over a 20-year career while Roberto was one of the best second basemen in the history of the game over of 17 seasons.
Roberto won 10 Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers while batting .300 with an OPS+ of 116. Roberto was elected to the Hall of Fame (will be inducted in July 2011) with 90 percent of the vote on his second time on the ballot.
If you look at Roberto's Baseball Refence page, you won't see much black ink (meaning he didn't lead the league in a category) but if you ever watched Roberto play, you know you were watching something special.
Trevor Hoffman

Older brother: Glenn Hoffman
Another one of the "I didn't know he had an older brother" surprises. Glenn was a below average hitter for his eight-year career.
Trevor retired as one of the greatest closers the game has ever seen, with the career record for saves at 601. He is also the only current member of the 600 saves club and one of two players with over 500 saves (Mariano Rivera is the other and will be joining him in the 600-save club soon).
In 1,035 innings, all in relief, Trevor had 1,133 strikeouts, an ERA of 2.87 and a WHIP of 1.058.
George Brett

Older brother: Ken Brett
Ken was an average pitcher over 14 seasons while George was one of the greatest third basemen to ever play.
In 21 seasons, George had 3,154 hits, batted .305 and in 1980 almost became the first man since Ted Williams to bat over .400 when he finished the season with a .390 batting average. He also had over 300 home runs, over 1,500 RBI, over 1,500 runs scored and over 200 stolen bases for his career.
Joe DiMaggio

Older brother: Vince DiMaggio
I already talked about Vince in this article, so I won't repeat that information here.
Joe was one of the greatest center fielders to ever play and is a top-10 all-time player in baseball history.
Over a 13-year career interrupted by his service in World War II, Joe had a batting average of .325, an OPS+ of 155 and three MVPs among many other accolades.
Honus Wagner

Older brother: Butts Wagner
Butts played in 74 games in which he was a below-average hitter. Over his 21-year career, Honus is the greatest shortstop to ever play and is one of the top 10 greatest players in baseball history.
Honus was one of the first "five-tool" players. He simply could do it all on the diamond and at the plate.
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