Top 32 tournament C Lombardi vs Freehan

[Villain]

I am not saying it is convincing, i just don't think it is good to ignore defense all together, especially at a position that defense is more important or JUST as important as offense... I mean, if a first baseman is not great defensively you are more lenient towards it...

there is a point where you just have to trust all the iffy information and assume it is not as iffy as it seems... We haven't seen every player play, why penalize them for it...

I'm not advocating that. Remember, I'm the agreeable type of west coast winter sports enthusiast.

 

[navamind]

No Tigers fans love for Freehan

They're too busy lobbying for Jack "Glorified Dennis Martinez" Morris to get into the HOF.

 

[obxyankeefan]

Milk unless I have read something telling me about an old timers defense I agree with Cal on the defensive stats. You did convince me to change my vote, because I have always made the argument that Fisk should be higher on his defensive skills, and I have read and heard how good Freehan was.

 

[obxyankeefan]

They're too busy lobbying for Jack "Glorified Dennis Martinez" Morris to get into the HOF.

Trammell and Lolich yes Whitaker is a borderline argument but Morris is plain no.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Because of his size and slowness, Lombardi got a reputation as a poor defensive catcher, but his arm was strong enough to control the running game, and his game-calling skills were exceptional as well — he was the catcher for Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters.


taken from Ernie Lombardi

 

[DragonfromTO]

Well, Freehan has 5 GG compared to lombard's zero... Now we know GG is not a great defensive metric, but it does at least show how the people perceived the player... And when the advanced stats support this logic, that should be enough to say that Freehan was the better defender... The question of how much better, i agree is too hard to answer... But it is not like Lombardi is significantly better offensively...

In Lombardi's defense he would have needed Doc Brown's help to win a Gold Glove. I'm not sure he could have handled 88 mph though.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Since we start this conversation talking about WAR it is fair to bring up WAR7 and JAWS too...

Utley has a 49.1 WAR7 which is the 8th best 2B of all time compared to Herman's 35.5 which is 28th best all time

Utley has a 55.8 JAWS which is 12th best all time 2B, compared to Herman 45.1, which is 19th best...

 

[Howie115]

No Tigers fans love for Freehan

Tiger fan here .... I saw Freehan play, and decided to be a catcher in Little League based solely on Freehan being my favorite player. (I wound up being a below-average catcher and an above-average outfielder, so I switched after a few years.) Bias admitted, and there are good arguments for both.