Quote:
Originally Posted by KC_Connection
How do you know Mattingly wasn't "naturally" a 15 HR hitter who upped his totals to 25-30 with steroids?
|
You mean other than the obvious visual evidence? Mattingly was a small guy. He was 5'8" and wieghed less than 170 lbs when he first came into the league and probably wieghed about 180 lbs when he retired.
Mattingly was not a HR hitter in the Dave Kingman sense, ala McGwire. Mattingly was a pure hitter who hit the ball hard to all fields and for average. When he was healthy there was probably not a better pure hitter in the game.
As far as defense goes, Mattingly didn't just win 9 gold gloves. He was a spectacular defensive first baseman. Easily the best in the game.
My point is that if steroids not only ballooned McGwires offensive numbers but helped keep him on the field what could they have done for Mattingly's numbers by keeping him healthy and increasing his power numbers? All things being equal, Mattingly was a much better baseball player all-around.
When considering people for the hall of fame, steroid use should be a negative. Because not only are the numbers not authentic but it is unfair to the players that did not take steroids in order to pad their numbers via both increased strength and greater longevity, ala McGwire.