Quote:
Originally Posted by rats60
I'm not really sure how you come up with Albert Pujols for a comparison to Mattingly. Pujols had an OPS+ of 170 his 1st 11 years in St. Louis. Mattingly's best season was 161, 9% lower than Pujols average. Mattingly's career OPS+ is only 127 which is actually worse than Keith Hernandez's career OPS+ of 128. Hernandez was a slightly better hitter, a better fielder and was able to play MLB longer. Hernandez was clearly better than Mattingly.
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Without using WAR what tells you Hernandez was better than Mattingly? Mattingly's peak was 200 hits a year (three years in a row), 40 plus doubles a year, 30 plus homers, 100 rbi's and hitting 320 and above while doing it. That's where the Pujols comparison comes in. Mattingly put up an OPS over 900 four years in a row. Hernandez had an OPS over 900 twice in his entire career. There is no reason to believe Mattingly wouldn't have kept doing what he was doing if not for his injury. He was a beast.