In terns of injuries, I think Mattingly's back issues hurt both his HOF chances and his card prices. At one point, his rookie card was the hottest thing in the hobby. And I never understood why Puckett was a first ballot HOFer and the most votes Mattingly ever received was 28%. I'll give Puckett a slight edge because he put up his stats as a centerfielder and was a major contributor to two World Series winning teams (and had a higher WAR if you care about that kind of thing 51.1 to 42.4). But the difference in them as players is not that great that one should be first ballot and the other not get close.
Interestingly, Mattingly is the most similar player to Puckett.
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Last edited by molenick; 08-29-2021 at 10:32 AM.
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