Outside the Box

Don Mattingly Statistics - Baseball-Reference

I was looking at Wally Joyner's stats today and was shocked to see that Don Mattingly was one of his most similar players. To hear some tell it, Mattingly is mere steps from Hall's Front Door, while the fact is he is somewhere closer to Oneonta.

For first basemen, I think the Cecil Cooper is the litmus test. Was the player demonstrably better than Cecil Cooper? If they weren't, they aren't in my Hall of Fame. Mattingly and Cooper have essentially the same qualifications. A couple Gold Gloves and some high batting averages. If you bring in Mattingly, you have a whole host of first basemen knocking down the door: Keith Hernandez, Will Clark, Cecil Cooper, Mark Grace, Don Baylor and Rafael Palmeiro is a slam-dunk first ballot candidate.

Don't write me about Mattingly's back. Even if he had stayed healthy I doubt he would have done enough to be a legitimate HOF first baseman.