Congratulations you just compared the second greatest SS of all time to James Lofton and George Blanda.
No, I compared him to Hall of Famers in their sport that got by much more on longevity than they did having a sustained level of elite form excellence.
Ripken had a few truly great years, but he average more than he was great.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...he-most-overrated-baseball-player-of-all-time
Ripken came up to the Orioles in 1981 and won the "Rookie of the Year" award in 1982, his first full season, an award he undoubtedly deserved for his .264 average, 28 homers, and good defense at shortstop. By his second full season, Ripken hit .318 with 27 home runs and 102 RBI, and won the "American League MVP" award. He led the Orioles to the World Series championship, batting a solid .273 in the playoffs. But after that, his career pretty much went downhill. He had a couple of more good years, hitting .304 with 27 HR in 1984, .282 with 26 HR and 110 RBI in 1985, and .282 with 25 HR in 1986. But by the late 1980s, he became a .260 hitter with 21 homers who simply played every day.
Oh sure, he still had his moments. He won the MVP in 1991 and hit .340 in 1999, at the age of 39. But for the most part he was just a disappointment year-after-year who continued to play every single game.
Ripken batted .276 for his career, as opposed to the league’s .264 mark, and reached base 34 percent of the time, only a small improvement from the league’s 33.2 percent. In other words, he reached base at about the same rate as the average ballplayer. In addition, he had no speed and holds the major league record for most times grounded into a double play (350).
And his numbers in themselves are deceiving.
He hit over 400 home runs but only hit 30 once. He only batted .300 three times and never had an on-base percentage over .380. For his career, his OPS, a statistic that measures a player’s on-base percentage plus slugging percentage when adjusted to the league average and the ballpark, was just 12 percent better than the league average. In comparison, guys like Corey Koskie, Raul Mondesi, and Pat Burrell are ahead of Ripken on the all-time list.
If you take all the members of the 3000-hit club, Ripken has the lowest career batting average and on-base percentage. He and Eddie Murray are the only guys who hit 400 home runs without ever hitting 35 or more in a season, but Murray hit 30 or more in a season five times. Ripken did it once. Ripken collected 200 hits in a season just once. He scored 100 runs three times in his first four seasons, but then never again.
