Christmas Day Trivia

[Fred]

Originally Posted by rats60

Larry Walker had an OPS of .872 away from Coors Field. If you put him in another stadium for his career and he hit the same, he would have a higher OPS than many Hofers including Boggs, Gwynn, Carew, Kaline, Yaz, Billy Williams, Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Banks, Winfield, etc. Coors gave him the advantage of jumping to 15th all time from around 100, so he wasn't some terrible hitter away from Coors with a career OPS+ of 141. He also created value in the field and on the base paths to accumulate 72.7 WAR. Compare that to Klein's career OPS+ of 137 and WAR of 43.6 and Walker is a much more deserving Hofer than Klein or recent inductees like Gwynn, Winfield, Vlad Guererro, Raines and Rice.

Seriously? Sounds like you're making the wrong comparisons here. Gwynn?

Based on other players that have been enshrined, I think Walker should be in the HOF, even after looking at the amount of fairly bland plate appearances he had for Montreal and St. Louis.

[KCRfan1]

Is too much thought being put into this subject?

This could all be saved going forward by having every ballpark have the same identical dimensions. The ball will be doctored, as it is now, to lessen offense in Texas, Cincinnati, Colorado, Philly, Anaheim, DC, and Yankee Stadium. At the opposite end the ball will be juiced in the parks of the Mets, Mariners, A's, Marlins, Giants, Braves, and Dodgers.

That way everyone will be on the same level so to speak, and we can hand out participation trophy's.

It all seems to be overthought.

Am I missing the mark? Perhaps I am too old school and while I appreciate metrics, it isn't the be all to end all for me. The eye test has usually worked well for me, however I do wear glasses, so.......

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Fred

Seriously? Sounds like you're making the wrong comparisons here. Gwynn?

Based on other players that have been enshrined, I think Walker should be in the HOF, even after looking at the amount of fairly bland plate appearances he had for Montreal and St. Louis.

Tony Gwynn was a singles hitter that hit for a high average. Larry Walker was better in every other phase of the game. He provided more power while still hitting for a high average. His OPS away from Coors was higher than Gwynn's. He was a better fielder, had a better arm and was a better base runner. He had a higher peak. That is why both his bWAR and fWAR as well as JAWs are higher than Gwynn's. It is not meant to be a knock on Gwynn or any of the others on that list, but the point is to show how under rated Walker is.