Greatest First Baseman - 1980's

[Stars_Rangers_82]

This thread will allow you to vote for who in your opinion feel is the greatest player at his position for a particular decade. The criteria I will be using is 1,000 games played for position players, 250 games started for SP's, and 400 appearances for relief pitcher's.

Here are the candidates for the 1980's First Baseman, and the poll will be closed at 2:55 CST on Monday, June 20th.


G R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG OPS
Willie Upshaw 1169 570 1050 191 43 122 511 431 607 84 0.264 0.337 0.425 0.763
Pete O'Brien 1101 494 1058 185 17 126 542 487 421 22 0.271 0.349 0.424 0.773
Eddie Murray 1500 858 1642 289 19 274 996 754 733 52 0.293 0.374 0.497 0.872
Don Mattingly 1015 615 1300 272 15 164 717 314 238 8 0.323 0.368 0.521 0.889
Kent Hrbek 1156 624 1212 224 16 201 724 523 564 19 0.290 0.368 0.496 0.864
Keith Hernandez 1357 744 1480 273 32 114 735 742 674 63 0.300 0.390 0.438 0.828
Steve Garvey 1040 498 1129 192 11 113 572 193 454 20 0.282 0.314 0.420 0.734
Leon Durham 1067 522 992 192 40 147 530 444 679 106 0.277 0.356 0.475 0.831
Cecil Cooper 1073 592 1313 247 23 144 706 251 462 46 0.300 0.336 0.465 0.801
Bill Buckner 1334 567 1437 290 27 105 728 257 246 67 0.288 0.322 0.420 0.741

[Fat Tony]

I went with Murray.

[Stars_Rangers_82]

I didn't go with Murray, simply because of the fact that he spent a lot of time as DH. I picked Mattingly instead, although it was a tough pick to go against some of the other one's.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

With a little bias, I voted for Mattingly.

[Mudge]

FYI -- WAR (1980-1989)

Murray: 51.7
Hernandez: 44.5
Mattingly: 34.8 (did not play in 1980-1981)
Hrbek: 31.5


I didn't go with Murray, simply because of the fact that he spent a lot of time as DH. I picked Mattingly instead, although it was a tough pick to go against some of the other one's.
In fairness to Murray (for whom I voted, by the way), almost all of his games in the 1980's were at first base. He did the bulk of his DHing in the '90s. The WAR numbers reveal this.

[RickD]

Donnie baseball all the way!

[WilsonC]

I'd probably go Mattingly on a per-game basis, but Murray played about 50% more games at a comparable level. So Murray.

[Old Sweater]

Looks like I just bent it in Murrays favor. Best slugger at a sluggers position.

[Mickey Mental]

Eddie Murray

[Scoobean]

You either can go with Eddie Murray's power or the graceful hitting of Mattingly. I chose Murray.