Barry Larkin

[Captain Cold Nose]

Hal really blows my mind some of the time. It's like he's not even watching the same team that I am.

In his defense, those were the comments from people posting in the blog. But, yeah, Hal can be out there. When I moved to SW Ohio, he was pretty much in his "BRET BOONE BRET BOONE BRET BOONE" phase, and it really disturbed me. It took a long time for me to respect him after that.

[willshad]

wWhat's interesting is that, though Larkin won the 1995 MVP, he was better in 1996.

1995: .319/.394/.492, 133 OPS+, 5.9 WAR
1996: .298/.410/.567, 154 OPS+, 7.4 WAR

True, power-wise he had a fluke season. That was his true 'MVP type season', but unfortunately for him, the Reds weren't good that year. Also, more players had great seasons in the NL that year than in 1995, and these factors combined to make Larkin a non factor in the MVP voting. Caminiti was winning it, even if the Reds had finished in first.

[Los Bravos]

To you maybe.

To me, definitely. I'm not alone in that assessment.

In addition to J W's timeline, there is also the salient fact (and this one might be just "to me") that I don't take any of Alex's Rodriguez's numbers at face value, so they're wholly irrelevant to any discussion of Larkin (or Trammell, or any other shortstop for that matter), at least to me.

Maybe they are legitimate, maybe they aren't. We'll never know and that's nobody's fault but his,

[J W]

The actual reason why Larkin may be viewed as a "second rate star" isn't A-Rod or Ripken... it's Ozzie Smith. Smith and Ripken were the faces of the Major League infield for some time, with Smith hogging the glory in the NL. Larkin was a star on the level of Alomar -- people who really knew the game marveled at him. He was still worlds better than Smith during his peak... at that time, Smith was an All-Star mainly on reputation. Look at 1995, where the Wiz took AS honors despite putting up a 41 OPS+ in 44 games played.

I may have overstated things with the ten names comment. Joe Baseball Fan would probably list Smith and Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Dwight Gooden, Jose Canseco and Don Mattingly before he got to Larkin.

[willshad]

The actual reason why Larkin may be viewed as a "second rate star" isn't A-Rod or Ripken... it's Ozzie Smith. Smith and Ripken were the faces of the Major League infield for some time, with Smith hogging the glory in the NL. Larkin was a star on the level of Alomar -- people who really knew the game marveled at him. He was still worlds better than Smith during his peak... at that time, Smith was an All-Star mainly on reputation. Look at 1995, where the Wiz took AS honors despite putting up a 41 OPS+ in 44 games played.

I may have overstated things with the ten names comment. Joe Baseball Fan would probably list Smith and Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Dwight Gooden, Jose Canseco and Don Mattingly before he got to Larkin.

Also, guys like Almoar and Larkin don't have that one thing they can be associated with. They were good at everything, but not really 'great' at anything. Ozzie had the incredible fielding. Ripken had the streak. A-rod and Nomar had the amazing offense. Jeter had the Yankee bias. Even Alomar, despite never winning MVP, eventually became 'known for' his great fielding.