Well, first you should parse the JSON string, so that you can easily access it's members:
var arr = $.parseJSON(str);
Use the map
method to extract the values:
arr = $.map(arr, function(o){ return o.y; });
Then you can use the array in the max
method:
var highest = Math.max.apply(this,arr);
Or as a one-liner:
var highest = Math.max.apply(this,$.map($.parseJSON(str), function(o){ return o.y; }));