WHY I THINK SPUD DAVIS SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
If you are a catcher, you are mostly relied on for your defense. If you can successfully block balls in the dirt and have a strong arm, you are regarded as a vital member of your club. Davis, who was a fine defender (two fielding titles) and could throw out a lot of enemy base stealers (he led the NL with 40 in 1931), also had a career batting average of .308, which is an incredible figure for a catcher. He played in over 100 games only seven times in his career, which was really his only weakness. He did play in 98 games in 1929 and 99 in 1940, so 100 games isn’t really an appropriate figure for Davis. In any game he played he always provided good defense and a superb bat. Spud Davis started his career with the Cardinals for two games in 1928 and played 67 more games that year with the Phillies. He batted a remarkable .342 in 1929 and batted .300 or better every year until 1936, when he hit .273. During that span he was traded back to the Cardinals and won a 1934 World Series ring with them, and batted 1.000 (2-for-2) during the Series with an RBI. Davis batted .268 in 76 games with the Reds in 1937 and .235 in 82 games for the Reds and Phillies in 1938, experiencing a severe decline. He also lost a lot of power, hitting only five home runs in 1937 and 1938 put together, after previously hitting as many as 14 homers in a year on two separate occasions. Davis was acquired again by the Phillies in 1939 and he batted .307 in 87 games that year. He was traded to the Pirates and hit .326 in 1940. Davis batted a combined .270 in parts of his next three seasons before being released. Spud Davis was a great hitting catcher who also provided good defense, which is almost precisely the definition of a Hall of Fame catcher.
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games career: 1,458 season high: 141 in 1933
At Bats career: 4,255 season high: 495 in 1933
Hits career: 1,312 season high: 173 in 1933
Doubles career: 244 season high: 32 in 1931
Triples career: 22 season high: 5 in 1932
Home Runs career: 77 season high: 14 in 1930 and 1932
Runs career: 388 season high: 51 in 1933
Runs Batted In career: 647 season high: 70 in 1932
Stolen Bases career: 6 season high: 2 in 1933
Walks career: 386 season high: 40 in 1932
Strikeouts career: 326 season high: 39 in 1932
Batting Average career: .308 season high: .349 in 1933
On Base Percentage career: .369 season high: .395 in 1933
Slugging Percentage career: .430 season high: .522 in 1932
Total Bases career: 1,831 season high: 234 in 1933
Sacrifice Hits career: 50 season high: 10 in 1930
Fielding Percentage career: .984 season high: 1.000 in 1939 led NL C: .992 in 1935, 1.000 in 1939
Double Plays career: 101 season high: 15 in 1932 led NL C: 15 in 1932
Putouts career: 4,423 season high: 459 in 1934
Assists career: 688 season high: 78 in 1931 led NL C: 78 in 1931
DID YOU KNOW?
-owns the fourth highest career batting average of any catcher in MLB history, behind only Joe Mauer and Hall of Famers Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey
-finished second in the 1933 NL batting race to teammate and future Hall of Famer Chuck Klein (.368), who won the NL Triple Crown that season
-finished 25th in the NL MVP Award voting in 1933
-led the NL in games caught in 1931 (114)
-hit over 20 doubles in a season for six years in a row from 1931 through 1936
-had a .418 career caught stealing percentage
-also played five games at first base, two at third base and 216 as a pinch hitter
-coached the Pirates from 1941 through 1946, and the Cubs from 1950 through 1953
-went 1-2 as the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1946
-was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1977
If you put Spud Davis in, then Smoky Burgess clearly belongs, not to mention Hank Severeid, Don Slaught, Darren Daulton, Mike Stanley, Jason Varitek, and many other clearly marginal candidates. We don't need to go down that road.
ReplyDeleteThough Spud was a good player, a lot of his .308 average came from the hitting environment he was in. His career OPS+ of 110 is good, but it doesn't get you in the hall of fame with less than 2,000 games or wonderful defense.
Reggie Smith for HOF? And why not Johnny Bassler? Bassler was clearly better than Spud Davis.
In my opinion, every single player who you mentioned doesn't belong except for maybe Burgess (I'm still deciding on him). Bassler loses to Davis in batting average (my favorite statistic) and OPS+ (your favorite, it seems). Besides, what he did in the minors doesn't matter to me. What he did in the Majors is clearly not Hall of Fame worthy. As for Reggie Smith, I have to say no. He beat up a Giants fan in 1981, and for an entertainer to use violence on a spectator eliminates him automatically. Other than that, I think he barely falls short.
DeleteMy case for Reggie first .OK, he did beat up a fan, which is inexcusable, but the fan had thrown a batting helmet at him, grazing him, so I think there were some extenuating circumstances involved. Reggie was a very good fielding outfielder, and as a batter he hit .287. .287 isn't eye-popping, but he backed it up with power (314 homers), and for his career he had a .287/.366/.489 slash line, for an OPS+ of 137. And though OPS+ is certainly not my 'favorite' stat, it sums up a player's offensive contributions pretty well.
DeleteOkay, now for Bassler. Bassler was beaten in both AVG and OPS+ by Spud, but he was a significantly better fielder. Also, his OBP of .416 is phenomenal. From 1922 to 1924, Bassler finished 6th, 7th, and 5th in the MVP voting, so he was definitely impressing a lot of people. I really think a player's performance in the high minors should count for something. In AA, at that time the highest level, he had averages of .365, .354, .357, .336, and .351 in a 5-year period from 1930-34. For a catcher, that's incredible. Add in his walks, and his OBP would be around .450 in most of
those years .
I truly believe that from 1880-1957, the high minor leagues were comparable to the major leagues. Not equal, but I'd say they were at least 80% as good, and maybe closer to 90% . To ignore all that seems to me to be missing a large part of many players' careers.