Chick Hafey - HOF...Why?

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I'll straight up go ahead and say, even fairly modern defensive WAR stats are a joke and completely arbitrary.

As a Yankee fan, watching the difference on the entire attitude of the infield defense, when Don Mattingly was playing first base and Jason Giambi playing first base, was like comparing Brooks Robinson to Butch Hobson at 3rd base.

Yet, defensive WAR statistics on Baseball Reference seem to indicate they are fairly similar to each other on the field, and that Mattingly was actually a negative factor as a fielder, despite also being ranked at or near the top in range factor and every other defensive category as a 1st baseman, throughout his career.

Yeah, Dave. I think that's pretty absurd. If I were looking for a "total package" first baseman in the last thirty years, I'd have a hard time choosing between Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly. They're certainly the best two defensive first baseman in my lifetime.

Mattingly is a lot like Hafey. While I think Don's highs were a little higher, his career, too, got curtailed by injury. In much the same way illness and poor vision robbed Hafey of his power (he still remained a .300 hitter, though), Mattingly's back robbed him of his power.

I will go to my grave saying that Don Mattingly is one of the best pure hitters I've ever seen. He was Tony Gwynn with power. He and Boggs tussled for a while, but with Boggs, I always felt like he had to work harder. He's a great hitter, but there was always something about Don's swing that was just beautiful. He coiled up like a snake, bent down and forward just a little over the plate, then just exploded.