Mazeroski or White?

[Senor Octobre]

If you had to choose, who would you rather have on your team, Bill Mazeroski or Frank White?

[yest]

maz by far
he has better hitting numbers in a worse hitting era and a by far better fielder

[Fuzzy Bear]

maz by far
he has better hitting numbers in a worse hitting era and a by far better fielder

Maz was probably a better hitter, although you probably have to give some credit for the era he played in. They were very close as fielders, but Maz seems to get the edge here as well. The only edge White seems to have is durability; Maz had injuries that rendered him just another player by age 33, but he was pretty durable up to age 30. White started later, but lasted until age 40.

I'd take Willie Randolph over both these guys, however. I'd have put Randolph in the HOF if only one of these three could have gone.

[538280]

I agree with Fuzzy. Maz and White were basically the same player, Maz was just a little bit of a better fielder. I'm not sure who I'd take, White looks like he did have some pretty good hitting seasons, Maz really was always a pretty bad hitter. Neither one deserves the HOF anyway, they weren't good enough hitters to be extremely valuable.

I'd also take Willie Randolph over either of them. He trades only a a little bit with the glove, and Willie buries them in the batter's box. I would put Randolph in the HOF.

[KCGHOST]

Maz and White are only separated by 104 career AB's. They both won a bushel basket of GG's and deservedly so. White probably had a little more range and Maz was better at the DP. Neither could hit a lick. White's career OPS+ was 85 while Maz's was 84. Baseball Prospectus has White's Warp3 at 82.2 and Maz's at 96.1.

[brett]

I will mention that while White's career offensive number are poor, he had a stretch of 6 years with 196 doubles and 100 homeruns (32.7 and 16.7 per year). Also, he could have won 11 gold gloves. '83-'85 were probably his best 3 defensive seasons and he lost out to Whitaker largerly bacause of popularity and Whitaker's offense, + being together with Trammel and on a powerhouse in '84.