Quote:
Originally Posted by molenick
According to Baseball Reference, the most similar player to Kirby Puckett (first ballot) was Don Mattingly (topped out at 28%). I give credit to Puckett for playing a more important defensive position and for the post season...but Mattingly has an MVP and he was (and remains) a very popular player among Yankee fans.
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They're similar but not. Puckett got in because his career ended in an instant when he was still a great player at a high leverage defensive position. Mattingly hung around for years as a not-great (overall) 1B with little power. Kirby was a great player for 10 years and still going strong at retirement. Mattingly was great for 6 and was below average offensively while playing the easiest defensive position by the end.