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File :-(, x)
While he's been a productive player since being traded to the Cincinnati Reds prior to the 2000 season (he boasts a batting line of .271 AVG/.361 OBP/.515 SLG as a Red), he's been hurt badly and often over that span. In fact, Griffey has averaged just 105 games per season since coming to Cincinnati. Needless to say, that's a lot of lost time.
The question, then, is: What might Griffey's career have looked like had he not been so prone to injury? He's already one of the all-time greats. But given better health, might Griffey have been in the discussion for best player ever? Obviously, there's no way to know this for sure, but we can still make a few quick-and-dirty guesses as to what the numbers of a relatively injury-free Griffey might look like today.
First, let's wipe the injury slate clean and say he averages 150 games per season (giving him 12 games off for minor maladies and occasional rest) over the course of his 19 full seasons in the majors. In reality, he's averaged just 125 games per season, so this adds 475 games to his career totals. Coming into 2008, Griffey was averaging 4.3 plate appearances (PA) per game, so that means we're tacking on 2,043 PA to his career. A bit more math ... For his career (again, coming into 2008), he's averaged 4.0 PA per hit, 17.1 PA per home run, 21.5 PA per double, 2.1 PA per total base, 8.7 PA per walk, 6.0 PA per RBI, and 6.6 PA per run scored. So by plugging all those rates into all those missing plate appearances, we can compile a few career numbers for the hypothetical Super Griffey. Here's what comes out of the wash...
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