That said, why isn't Lou Whitaker there with him?
If you look at their stats, they're the same player.
(Actually, Sweet Lou's OPS+, oWAR and dWAR are all slightly higher.)
So, how is Whitaker not only not in the HOF, but how did he only get 2.9 percent of writers' votes his first year, and thereby get forcibly dropped from the ballot for the future?
A travesty indeed.
And, given that Whitaker retired one year after Sandberg's second and final retirement, it's not like writers couldn't directly compare them.
The only things where Sandberg has an edge is modestly superior home run power and many more stolen bases.
That said, per the ESPN link, Ryno did have a "peak" that Sweet Lou didn't:
One could argue that Sandberg's best was better than Whitaker's best, and that's probably true. Whitaker was never QUITE as good as Sandberg was in '83, and didn't have four consecutive seasons that can quite match Ryno's '89-'92. But he also didn't suffer the valleys Sandberg did in the mid-'80s, and I'd argue that "consistently good and sometimes great" can be just as valuable as "inconsistent but sometimes slightly greater."But, as the story notes, it can also be argued Ryno had less Gold Glove competition in the NL than Sweet Lou did in the AL.
While you note that Sandberg had a peak that was higher than Whitaker's, I think that is the whole point. Most GMs and managers would rather have Sandberg at his peak than Whitaker. If you line up their top ten OPS+ seasons, Sandberg's top six are higher than Whitaker's. Sandberg had a lot more more power and speed. Sandberg finished in the top ten in his league in runs scored 8x (first three times), Whitaker 2x; Sandberg finished in the top ten in XBH 6x, Whitaker 0x; Sandberg was top ten in WAR 5x, Whitaker 2x. Sandberg had a lot more stolen bases and his stolen base percentage was much higher. Sandberg led his league in homers and total bases once each. Whitaker did not. Sandberg won and MVP; Whitaker did not.
ReplyDeleteI think Whitaker should go in the HOF; his career was longer and he posted good numbers for longer than Sandberg did. Sandberg was much better at his peak. Bill James once noted that Rusty Staub had similar career win shares to Joe DiMaggio. Nothing that extreme is going on here, but one should not forget that Sandberg had much more power and speed at his peak than Whitaker did. Sandberg was a five tool player at middle infield; Whitaker, as good as he was, was not that.
I think you're right on "peaks" being a selling point for the HOF, and one I don't disagree with too much. But, with the exception of a huge peak, a la Koufax, you've got to have some longevity/total numbers there, too, and Ryno is below Lou on most of that. That's why he's a borderline HOFer in my book, and, had he not come out of retirement, wouldn't come close to smelling the Hall in my world.
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