Who Was Better?

Ren or Stimpy?

 

Now this is interesting. Just going on hitting stats, it is Murray. But Ripken was a shortstop so there has to be some adjustment of numbers.

Ripken won two MVPs and Murray has zero, but Ripken finished in the top five three times, while Murray had six including five straight.

Ripken has a higher black ink score, but Murray has a much higher gray ink score.

All Star appearances are tilted heavily toward Ripken, but that is a wash since we know Ripken was put into a lot of all star games that he shouldn’t have been in.

WAR: Ripken dominates Murray here on career and peak. Ripken is ranked third all time for shortstops, while Murray is 14th for first basemen.

Similarity Scores: For his career, Ripken is grouped with outfielders and third basemen. Only shortstops on his list are Jeter and Yount, who spent half his career in center. For regular seasons, his comps are mostly modern players.

Murray’s most comparable player is Rafael Palmeiro, a first basemen, and then almost all outfielders. There is some cross over between he and Ripken here. For seasons, Freddie Freeman and Orlando Cepeda are almost there is.

taking all of that in: I have to go Ripken because while Murray was a better player, Ripken changed how people looked at shortstops going forward. Yes, there had been Ernie Banks and Junior Stephens and Al Dark back in the day but in 1982, when Ripken debuted, shortstops were almost all light hitting, speed guys except for Yount and had been that way for a while.

 

It's not even close .. Ripken.

 

It's closer than you think if you really look at the numbers.

Murray was gruff and not at all media friendly, which didn't help his overall popularity.

Good breakdown as usual, cyclingwriter.

 

The whole media unfriendliness is a nonstarter for me. Who cares about that stuff.

Murray was an all-time hitter. But he played first base. I like(d) Murray. But it's not even close.

 

For me, it comes down to this decision: in 1983 or so, who would you take as the first pick in starting a franchise? It’s close, but I’d take Ripken.

 

Who was better the Wade Boggs or Tony Gwynn?

 

Tim Raines. He got on base more than Gwynn and all. Just ask Jonah Keri. Or don’t...

 

Eddie Murray was the fifth-best first baseman in major league history, according to Bill James.

He stayed in lineups deep into his 30s because he was great, not because he had to keep chasing a perfect attendance record.

 

I'll stick with Ripken by a mile ... but on a tangent of a tangent, this is kind of funny.

Murray had a 4-year batting average fluctuation as volatile as his temper.

.284 to .247 is a 37-point drop but then he went hog wild and shot it up 83 points then next year ...

... only to see it drop 70 points, go up 1 point, then shoot up another 24 points.

Code:

                                                                                               
Year    Age   Tm    G    PA    AB    R    H  2B 3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  Awards
1988     32  BAL  161   681   603   75  171  27  2  28   84   75   78 .284 .361 .474         .836
1989     33  LAD  160   690   594   66  147  29  1  20   88   87   85 .247 .342 .401         .743
1990     34  LAD  155   645   558   96  184  22  3  26   95   82   64 .330 .414 .520 .934 MVP-5SS
1991     35  LAD  153   639   576   69  150  23  1  19   96   55   74 .260 .321 .403 .724      AS
1992     36  NYM  156   625   551   64  144  37  2  16   93   66   74 .261 .336 .423         .759
1993     37  NYM  154   659   610   77  174  28  1  27  100   40   61 .285 .325 .467         .792

Generated 2/16/2020.

 

I guess you can say the 37-point drop can be attributed to a change of leagues.

But how do you attribute the .330 to .260?

 

Ripken too ...

Code:

                                                                                 
Year   Age   G  PA  AB  R   H 2B 3B HR RBI  BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS      Awards
1988    27 161 689 575 87 152 25  1 23  81 102 69 .264 .372 .431 .803          AS
1989    28 162 712 646 80 166 30  0 21  93  57 72 .257 .317 .401 .718   ASMVP-3SS
1990    29 161 695 600 78 150 28  4 21  84  82 66 .250 .341 .415 .756    ASMVP-24
1991    30 162 717 650 99 210 46  5 34 114  53 46 .323 .374 .566 .940 ASMVP-1GGSS
1992    31 162 715 637 73 160 29  1 14  72  64 50 .251 .323 .366 .689        ASGG
1993    32 162 718 641 87 165 26  3 24  90  65 58 .257 .329 .420 .748  ASMVP-19SS
1994    33 112 484 444 71 140 19  3 13  75  32 41 .315 .364 .459 .823  ASMVP-12SS
1995    34 144 613 550 71 144 33  2 17  88  52 59 .262 .324 .422 .745    ASMVP-19

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/16/2020.