A 5-time AL All-Star in 14 seasons all spent in pinstripes, 'Donnie Baseball' is one of this generation (or maybe the previous generation) of Yankee fans' cult heroes. The 1985 AL MVP winner finished his career with over 2,100 Hits, 220 HR, and just 1 shy of 1,100 RBI. A career .307 hitter, Mattingly reached base at a clip of .358 while slugging .471. Mattingly wrapped up his career with an OPS+ of 127, a 6.29 RC/27, a career BRAA of 357, and an 85.0 WARP3, for saber guys. While the pain of never capturing a World Series ring stays with Mattingly to this day, he's no stranger to collecting hardware. As noted above, 1985 AL MVP, 9 Gold Glove Awards, 3 Silver Sluggers; at different points Mattingly led the league in AVG, SLG, OPS, Hits (twice), TB (twice), Doubles (three times), RBI, Adjusted OPS+ (twice), Runs Created, and EBH (twice).
(My computer's having issues right now copy/pasting, so if somebody would post his Baseball-Reference HoF Meter stats, that'd be great)
So, what else don't we know about Donnie? With the number of Yankee fans at the Cafe growing each day, I imagine he'll have a strong following -- and with the number of people who just denied Fred McGriff his HoF nomination -- well I imagine we'll have two sides to this coin...
I'd vote no on Mattingly.
He has 4 very good seasons from 84-87. Defensively he was great.
That's about it though. He peak wasn't high enough and his career wasn't long enough IMO.
For comparison's sake Will Clark while not the defensive player Mattingly was has better offensive numbers across the board.
Donnie Baseball is my favorite player all-time. He was awesome. He just couldn't stay healthy. If not for his bad back, he would have had several more great seasons throughout the early 1990s and likely would have played past 1995 (and would have likely picked up the WS ring that so alluded him).
It's a shame that a bad back is the thing that keeps him out of the HOF, but that's the case. He just didn't have a long enough career to be a HOFer (although how Kirby Puckett is in and Donnie isn't, is a mystery to me). Donnie certainly has a case, based on the hardware he collected, his peak, and the fact that other people equal or worse than him got in, but overall, I'd have to say no, he's not a HOFer.
This is a tough one because he was certainly the face of the Yanks for that time period and was always one of the better hitters. Great glove, above avereage hitter with a decent amount of pop. NOt really the kind of power you like to see from a 1B but with the other stuff he was always one of the better 1b's around. It's is a very tough choice but I say he doesn't get in. The one thing he does have going for him though is that other than Steinbrenner he was the Yankees in that time period.
All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies
He had an amazing six year run. Whoever said his peak was not high enough, WHAT? His peak is certainly high enough. His 1985 year is amazing. Don't compare it to stats now. Compare it to stats then. Top 10 in pretty much every offensive category, and number 1 in many of them. Plus, the gold glove.
Definitely a Hall of Fame talent, and I'd be cheering if he made it. But I can't really campaign to get him in there. Not long enough of a dominant streak, unfortunately.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by bigh0rt » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:29 am 
