Kenny, you said a mouth full. You can't just crunch numbers and get the full story of a player. I think some of the new analytics have been great for the game and have helped further discussion, but they've also been bad in that they over analyze things. Example, the adjusted stats based on home ball park. Does that really tell you that a home run that a player hit in ball park A, would not have been out of ball park B? I mean, if you it the ball 380ft it's gonna go out of most parks (this does not include Coors field for obvious reasons). I think Hodges was hurt the most by this type of stat (although it sure doesn't seem to have hurt Snider).
Now, to another point. There are no right or wrong answers to any of this...that's what makes baseball great. The ability to have two people argue over their favorite players, or even two random players, and try to convince each other who was a better player. These types of questions and arguements have been going on for as long as baseball has been around. From Ruth vs Gehrig, to Mantle vs Mays vs Snider, to Rizzuto vs Reese, and now Larkin vs Trammel. It makes you want to learn more about your player so that you have more of an arguement...and in the process, you learn more about baseball in general. Great sport.
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