Steve Garvey

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by rats60

It depends on what you want from your cleanup hitter, walks or rbis. Garvey played on 5 pennant winners and 1 Championship team. He led the each one of those teams in rbis. Between 1974-80, Garvey reached 200 hits 6 times and 100 RBIs 5 times. He won a MVP, 2 LCS MVP, 4 gold gloves and was a 10 time All star.He was excellent in the postseason ..338/.361/.550/.910. He holds the NL records for consecutive games played and most consecutive games without an error. He is top 10 in fielding percentages at 1b.

Garvey doesn't score high on WAR because he didn't walk much and didn't hit a lot of home runs playing in Dodger Stadium. I would rather my cleanup hitter try to drive in runs than try to walk. I would take Garvey's actual wins and championships over hypothetical wins. If the Veteran's Committee is going to elect players, Garvey should be near the top of the list.

Boog Powell played on four pennant winners and two championship teams. Had 109 and 114 RBI on the two championship teams. Was league MVP in a championship year. Also had a second place and third place MVP seasons. Career OPS+ of 134 (versus Garvey at 117).

Garvey had to hit .300 because otherwise he was almost never on base. His MVP was a joke. He wasn't even the best player on his own team, and was likely about sixth or seventh best in the league that year. His gold gloves likewise were jokes. He won those because of his offense. His defense was good in as much as he didn't fumble what he got to. But his arm was a joke. He was a 10x all star during an era especially weak for NL first basemen.

Boog Powell was quite a bit better than Steve Garvey.

Tom C