Babe Herman vs Dave Kingman

[TomBodet]

I think James was smoking something here.

[Ben Grimm]

Kingman? Seriously?

[TomBodet]

Yeah he upgraded it to 'Pedro Guerrero' later, but at the time....severe misreading of Herman's career. Same book Hafey is 'Parker' and Klein ditto, so How do you take the guy who was their equal and drop him 7 notches?! Goofy.

Then there was Frisch as Burleson. Oy..

[Ben Grimm]

Yeah he upgraded it to 'Pedro Guerrero' later, but at the time....severe misreading of Herman's career. Same book Hafey is 'Parker' and Klein ditto, so How do you take the guy who was their equal and drop him 7 notches?! Goofy.

Then there was Frisch as Burleson. Oy..

LMAO! Go Rick and good luck.

[willshad]

Where and when were these 'comps' made exactly?

Maybe he was more trying to say they were the same 'type' of player (good hitters/terrible at everything else). Even then, a guy like Greg Luzinski would be closer to Herman than Kingman was. Guerrero is not a bad comp.

Herman's lifetime average was 88 points higher than Kingman's!

[TomBodet]

Oh these were all in the 2 80's Historical Abstracts he did.

Another good one: Gehrig: Garvey/Mattingly.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Oh these were all in the 2 80's Historical Abstracts he did.

Another good one: Gehrig: Garvey/Mattingly.

Wow he was really reaching in that comparison.

[willshad]

Im pretty sure he was generalizing, saying these guys are the same 'type' of player, rather than acutally being similar in value or skill. Gehrig and Mattingly were both slugging first basemen with a good batting average and a lot of RBI, Oliver and Simmons were both high average line drive hitters who didn;t walk, KIngman and Herman were both hitters who brought nothing else to the table.

[Sockeye]

Dave Kingman by a fair margin!

[bluesky5]

Dave Kingman by a fair margin!

Hahaha, your support of Dave Kingman is something I will never forget about this site. Its already entered the realm of nostalgia for me lol.

[Cowtipper]

Kingman did have stupendous power and Herman's gaffes were historic, but Herman was a much better player overall. He hit .373 over a three year span for goodness sakes (1928 to 1930).

[Death to Crawling Things]

To be brutally honest I would only be mildly surpised if Bill James rated Dick Stuart as a better defensive 1B than George Sisler.

Oh, and between Herman and Kingman, neither was is getting in my lineup without a D and a H penciled beside his name.

[Dude Paskert]

Kingman did have stupendous power and Herman's gaffes were historic, but Herman was a much better player overall. He hit .373 over a three year span for goodness sakes (1928 to 1930).

Strangely enough, Floyd did not win a batting title in that three year period, but finished second twice. That should tell you something about the offensive environment in that period.
But, I agree that Babe was a better player relative to his league than Kingman...pretty much all Dave could do was hit home runs.

[Death to Crawling Things]

Strangely enough, Floyd did not win a batting title in that three year period, but finished second twice. That should tell you something about the offensive environment in that period.
But, I agree that Babe was a better player relative to his league than Kingman...pretty much all Dave could do was hit home runs.

The scary thing is (due to the name) I used to get Billy Herman and Babe Herman mixed up, those 2 certainly don't have much in common beyond the name.

[Dude Paskert]

Yeah he upgraded it to 'Pedro Guerrero' later, but at the time....severe misreading of Herman's career. Same book Hafey is 'Parker' and Klein ditto, so How do you take the guy who was their equal and drop him 7 notches?! Goofy.

Then there was Frisch as Burleson. Oy..

I realize this is a 3 year old post, but I think that Herman to Guerrero is a fantastic comparison.