Gil Hodges

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

People are forgetting that WAR compares you to your contemporaries at the same position. What it is telling us is who was the best of a given era. It's a bit mediocre for comparing across eras because if your contemporaries are weak you come out looking strong. If your contemporaries are strong you look average. Kinda what makes Tenace and Reuschel so interesting they both played in an era with strong competition at their positions, making their WAR, theoretically, even more impressive. While I think Grich is underrated it is tough to name a second basemen of his era who hit worth a damn. Davey Lopes (who WAR also likes, though not as much) and Frank White (who is almost the exact same player as Mazeroski minus a WS clinching HR) come to mind as his stiffest competition after the best of the era Joe Morgan.

I am not a fan of the grey ink/black ink stuff because it DOESN'T take position into account. For example catchers who lead the league in hitting are a helluva lot rarer than outfielders who do, yet the ink counts don't factor that in.