For those of you who are baseball fans and haven’t had a chance to check out the MLB Network, I suggest you do so. I’ve found myself coming back to it time and again over the past few weeks as I begin to get ready for another baseball season.
One of the best things the network has done thus far is a program called “Prime 9″, which breaks down various lists of nine things about a topic in baseball. Some of the shows I’ve seen so far include the top nine World Series ever played and the top nine shortstops of all-time.
But it was another of these “Prime 9″ epsiodes that is the basis for this post. In it, the show chronicled the top nine players outside of the Hall of Fame that should be enshrined (the players had to be eligible for induction, excluding players like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose).
In its list, the show said that the eighth most-deserving Hall of Famer yet to be enshrined is first baseman Keith Hernandez. Now, despite my growing up a fan of the team, I’ve never considered Hernandez to be a Hall of Famer – though, in the interest of full disclosure, I never saw him play live.
In fact, I always considered another New York first baseman not in the Hall, Don Mattingly, to be more deserving (although I don’t believe he believe he belongs, either). Yet Mattingly didn’t even make the “Prime 9″ list. This surprised me quite a bit, because I have always thought Mattingly had significantly better offensive numbers than Hernandez over the course of their careers.
After looking at their numbers, though, the debate is much closer than I would have ever guessed at a first glance. I knew both players had some similar skills (good batting average, excellent defensive skills at first base), but I didn’t think they were this similar:
– Both players won a single MVP award (Hernandez in 1979, Mattingly in 1984), and both also finished second in the voting once (Hernandez to Ryne Sandberg in 1984, Mattingly to Clemens in 1985).
– Hernandez was the best defensive first baseman in the National League during the 1980s, winning 11 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1978-88. Meanwhile, Mattingly was the best defensive first baseman in the American League during his prime, winning nine Gold Gloves in 10 years from 1985-94.
– Mattingly took home three Silver Sluggers; Hernandez won two.
– Mattingly was a six-time All-Star with one start; Hernandez was a five-time All-Star with one start.
– Mattingly led the league in batting average once, was second once and was third once; Hernandez led the league in batting aveage once and was second once.
– Mattingly’s career on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) is .829; Hernandez’s career OPS is .820.
In the end, the difference between the two players came down to their hitting styles. Mattingly hit for a higher slugging percentage, while Hernandez found his way on base more often. Mattingly led the league in slugging once, and was second twice; Hernandez led the league in on-base percentage once, was second three times and third three times.
Like you can with any argument, you pick-and-choose what factors you decide are most important, and best support your argument. In looking at the careers of Mattingly and Hernandez, I come down on Mattingly’s side of the argument because of his run from 1984-89, when he averaged .327 with 27 homers, 114 RBI, a .371 on-base percentage and a .529 slugging percentage. To play devil’s advocate, you coudl say that while Hernandez never had a six-year stretch as prolific as that one, he was a productive player – and healthier – for a longer period of time. As I said before, you pick out the argument that supports your feelings. That’s the great thing about arguments like this, and why who’s in and out of the Hall of Fame engenders such intense feelings from baseball fans. The numbers are out there for everyone to see – the hard part is convincing people to see them the same way that you do.
Good luck with that – you’ll need it.
Posted by tbontemps1 