April 02, 2008
Clemente vs. Kaline
Joe Posanski wonders which player was better, Clemente or Kaline? I've felt for a while that Roberto was a bit overrated as a hitter, as he had a low OBA for a player with a high batting average. As hitters, I find the argument similar to a Boggs/Gwynn comparison.
I'm hardly a statistics freak, so maybe this is common knowledge, but...
When comparing the OBA's of different players, especially from different eras, how do you factor in the propensity of the pitchers they faced to walk batters? Or, is it assumed that everything just averages out over time?
Clemente also only had 1300 rbi's in almost 9500 ab's and only 2 100 rbi seasons.