Vote: Who had the better career: Don Mattingly or Will Clark?

Question

Paul N, you are one of the dumbest posters ever.

Answer 1

I never liked Will Clark, but he had the better career. He actually had more assists, double-plays, and put-outs in slightly more games. The Gold Gloves don't really influence me as they are among the most crappily given award in baseball. Even so, Clark's defensive numbers are competitve with Mattingly.
Clark created almost 300 more runs, his OPS+ is 10 points higher, he scored and drove in more runs, he played in more post-season games (that's part of a better career)...similarity scores actually have them as very similar players.

And neither one of them should ever be elected to the Hall.

Answer 2

No contest, Don Mattingly. To even include Clark in a comparison to Mattingly is an insult. Mattingly was the best defensive firstbaseman in the game's history for starters. He has the all-time highest fielding percentage of any player at any position in MLB EVER. His home run to strike out ratio is ridiculous and rivalled ONLY by Lou Gehrig on the all-time list and Don was the very definition of what a #3 hitter is. Will had a few offensively productive seasons but he's nowhere in the same universe as Mattingly as far as talent goes. You may as well have asked who's better Ozzie Smith or Homer Bush? I don't care how many home runs Homer hit, he doesn't belong in the same breath as Ozzie etc etc.

Answer 3

Will Clark!!!

If Will the thrill played in Yankee Stadium he would have crushed Mattingly in all offensive categories. Clark hit in pitchers parks for much of his career. With the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium, Clark would have hit well over 300 HR's. Still check the stats below, Will wins all offensive categories except batting average and that's negligable. Mattingly had a better glove with 9 gold gloves. However Will won one gold glove and was under-rated. First base is a power position, you hide liabilities at first. Don Mattingly may be the most overrated baseball player of the 80's. Probably because he was the only player on the Yankees worth cheering for in that era. I would take Will Clark over Mattingly no question.

Clark HR - 284
Mattingly HR - 222

Clark RBI - 1205
Mattingly RBI - 1099

Clark Runs - 1186
Mattingly Runs - 1007

Mattingly Avg - .307
Clark Avg - .303

Answer 4

Don Mattingly - 6 time All-Star, 1985 AL MVP, 9 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Slugger Awards, 442 Doubles, 96 Sacrifice Flies and 136 Intentional Walks.

Will Clark - 6 time All-Star, 1989 NLCS MVP, 1 Gold Glove, 2 Silver Slugger Awards, .880 OPS, 440 Doubles, 1,415 Runs Created, 101 Sacrifice Flies and 155 Intentional Walks.

I think Don Mattingly had the better career.

Answer 5

Don Mattingly

Answer 6

Don Mattingly. he was baseballs best player for 5 years. was will clark ever even in the top 10?

Answer 7

Clark and it isn't even close. Mattingly's peak was better but it was also shorter. Clark was a above league average 1B for a long time. Mattingly was below average for pretty much every year outside of his peak.

Answer 8

Well, with the exception of overall lifetime batting average, Clark out performed Mattingly in almost EVERY offensive category there is in baseball. Even Mattingly's higher lifetime average(which was .307 compared to Clark's .303) is more than off set by Clark's nearly .30 point higher on base %, plus Clark had a much higher slugging % over all also.

While I am not as up to speed on the defense side, I never heard word of either being bad defensively, so I dont see a fault with either.

Personally, I believe anyone would trade .04 points of batting average for 30 more OBP points and slugging points.

Mattingly BARELY hit better, but Clark hit for power AND watched the ball better as he was walked many more times than Mattingly. He did strike out more than mattingly, but a near .30 point higher OBP means Clark was better at getting on the bag than Mattingly. Also, Clark was the better base runner as he kills Mattingly in SB's, even if both didnt steal many to begine with. They both even had the same legnth career, so games and atbats on these two ball players 15 years each in the game is REALLY close to make comparisons too.

I personally had thought Mattingly was a better player, but he had only a SLIGHT advantage with average and struck out less, but he was also less productive a ball player than Clark. Statisitcs PROVE I was wrong in that thinking as it is Clark who is the better ball player!

Answer 9

It's close but I have to say Mattingly. Clark played 1976 games and had 7173 ab's. Mattingly played 1785 games and had 7003 ab's. Power stats go to Clark, 284 hr to 222. I could go down the list and their stats are comparable. The BIG difference here is 9 gold gloves for Mattingly to 1 for Clark.

Answer 10

Will Clark. It's not close either.

Clark's rate stats and his counting stats were better, and he had a longer career than Mattingly. Donnie Baseball struck out less, but that is the only positive in his direction.