Quote:
Originally Posted by John1941
Rizzuto was way better than Dark because of his great fielding. Dark wasn't that much better as a batter (98 OPS+ vs. 93 OPS+), but Rizzuto was way better as a fielder. He moved to third base by the end of his career, and BR rates Rizzuto as 95 runs better than Dark as a fielder, if you include the positional adjustments.
Al Dark is probably underrated though.
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Dark oWAR: 42.4
Rizzuto oWAR: 29.6
Dark dWAR: 12.2
Rizzuto dWAR: 23.0
Dark WAR: 43.8
Rizzuto WAR: 42.2
Dark slashed .289/.333/.411, Rizzuto .273/.351/.355
Dark did move to 3B when he got old, but his career was also longer. Rizzuto was a better fielder, but they are very similar players on the whole, and many of the modern analytics give more value to Dark's career than Rizzuto. Yankees get more press clippings and Rizzuto was a stud in 1950, but it's very debatable which was better. I don't think either belong, but they are direct contemporaries in the same city at the same position in the same time, and Rizzuto comes out lower by a lot of the modern stats.