[Archive]

Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Vail's book ranks Mattingly at 21 among all first basemen and the eighth highest ranked player not yet in the Hall of Fame (behind Keith Hernandez, Steve Garvey, Gil Hodges, Mickey Vernon, Cecil Cooper, Bill Buckner and Ed Konetchy). Being a New York suburbanite and a Yankee rooter since childhood, emotionally I'd love to see players like Mattingly and Thurman Munson get in, but realistically they're on the lower side of borderline.

Puckett is the 12th best center fielder, but Al Oliver, Dale Murphy, Vada Pinson and Cesar Cedeno rate higher statistically. This would suggest that there was some emotionalism evident in Puckett's election.

In a head-to-head comparison, Puckett ranked 115 overall and as stated previously Mattingly ranked 146 overall. To the extent that players from the same era, but different positions, can be fairly compared, this would say that Puckett was better statistically than Mattingly.