Although Keith Hernandez had a longer tenure with the Cardinals and won a World Series and MVP there, it can be easily argued that his best days were as a New York Met. He embodied the party hard, play harder attitude and quickly became the leader of his second franchise. Hernandez did not just win Gold Gloves, he reinvented the position. It was virtually impossible to bunt on him and his judgments on the field were rarely wrong. Hernandez was not a power hitter, but a very good contact hitter and showed a high On Base Percentage when it wasn’t the vogue statistic to have.
What has hampered Hernandez’ Hall of Fame case was the allegations in St. Louis that he was not a hustler (mostly made by his manager, Whitey Herzog) and was a drug abuser. The latter did prove to be true, though it the former was also accurate it can only be imagined what numbers he would have put up. Keith Hernandez likely left the ballot after nine years because of those issues but with the recent surge of sabremetrics, a look at Keith Hernandez should make him an interesting case for future consideration.
Comments
Agree that defense at first base is underappreciated.
However, expecting a shortstop to hit like a first baseman is unrealistic except in the contemporary era of the last three decades or so--and expecting a first baseman to field like a shortstop is unrealistic in any era. In fact, a shortstop is much more likely to be able to play first base whereas a first baseman is very unlikely to be able to play shortstop.
The strength positions defensively are up the middle, and when players age and/or skills erode, they move to the corners--ver y hard to go up the ladder of difficulty.
In Aparicio's and Smith's era, the glove was what mattered most, and offense was a bonus. Not so these days (Correa, Lindor et al.). Not that defense alone even at shortstop is enough to get you into the Hall. Aparicio and Smith compiled enough offensively to get across the threshold. Mark Belanger, at least the defensive equal of both, is never going to be elected to the Hall unless thinking changes radically.
Hernandez has the misfortune of being a defensive ace at an offensive position--pr obably the offensive position. But he did contribute strong enough offense, and I do need to do a re-think of Hernandez in spite of my previous post. Mattingly I think had a terrific peak, but his injuries cutting short his career hurt him (no pun intended) at a position that does look for high offense both in quality and quantity.
But any comparison between short and first is too extreme. Short and second, center and the corner outfielders, maybe even first and third (although I think that defense at third gets overlooked sometimes)-- yeah, you can compare those.
True for Santo but only half-true for Mazeroski.
Ron Santo was a glaring omission whose rectificatio n was, unfortunatel y, posthumous as he had died two years before his 2012 election by the (then-)Golde n Era Committee. Santo was always a great two-way player, a plus defender and clean-up hitter, whose failure to be elected by the BBWAA is one of the great modern oversights.
Bill Mazeroski may be the best defensive second baseman in MLB history, which is a valid reason to induct him into the Hall, but he hit about as what you'd expect a second baseman of his era to hit. In other words, it was nothing exceptional, and it may be his walk-off homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series that took on undue significance in his 2001 Veterans Committee election.
Mazeroski's HoF stats (Monitor, Standards, JAWS) are hardly exceptional- -he ranks 50th in JAWS all-time for second basemen, the lowest ranking for any 2B inducted primarily as a player. (HOFers Miller Huggins and Bucky Harris are listed as 2Bs for JAWS purposes, but they were both VC inductees as managers, not players.)
Mazeroski's HOF induction is gratuitous but not egregious: I can see making the case for exceptional defenders at a strength defensive position such as second base. But I don't think the VC was bullish on Mazeroski's bat unless they were swayed by that historic home run.
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