Afternoon Baseball

Steve Garvey...Original post and complete player list
We dismissed the pretenders and spelled out the contenders. Here, we analyze each with a mix of stats and baseball POV from a dedicated fan.
Steve Garvey, 1B, Los Angeles (NL (1969-1982), San Diego (1983-1987).
This year: Doubtful.
Deserving: Great player, great big-game player, but not even close.
Will writers think he's deserving?: Doubtful.
Stay on ballot: Yes.
Veteran's Committee: Maybe he can motivational-speak them into letting him in. Only if all those old guys have their hearing aids in, though.

Steve Garvey is another player I did not get to see in person. I'm sorry, I'm only 22. But he blows away Andre Dawson, whom I did briefly see play, for disappointment upon statistical review.
To whit: A sub-.300 batting average with no batting titles. Fewer walks in 2332 games than Barry Bonds from 2002-2004. No years with a .500 slugging average (though to be fair, only three years of his career had a league-average slugging pct. over .400), and an OPS+ of 116. Only 272 HR and 1308 RBI, and the only category he ever led the league in was hits, twice (a product, partly, of playing 162 and 163 games those years). His fielding is beyond question from looking at the statistics available at the time, although playing in the same league as Keith Hernandez (also an MVP) surely hurt his Gold Glove total.
His intangibles are very strong, and something I have to consider as a Derek Jeter fan. Four Gold Gloves, an MVP, 2 NLCS MVPs and 2 All-Star MVPs. A ridiculous .338 postseason batting average with a .550 slugging average and a strong sample size of 222 at-bats. Never losing an LCS (despite a 1-4 record in the World Series). A 10-time All-Star.

But I don't know how he makes it. I'm being harsh, I know. But this is a weak ballot for a reason. He ranks in the top 50 all-time in two categories: sac flies and GIDP. Garvey just happens to play the wrong position. If these are shortstop numbers, he gets in, most likely. Barry Larkin, for instance (and he's no lock, either). But as a first baseman, there's too many guys who were more powerful and hit for roughly the same average.

If you want to put him over the top for hitting pretty well in a weak-hitting league, fielding sweetly and being a monster come playoff-time, then that's not the worst vote you could make. But, it doesn't do it for me.

Labels: HOF