Chase Headley & Scott Brosius, Is There Any Comparison?

When the New York Yankees acquired Chase Headley in the summer of 2014 much of the New York Yankees fan base had flashbacks to the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when the Yankees had a third baseman named Scott Brosius. Brosius, much like Headley was advertised as at the time of the trade, was a hard-nosed defensive minded third baseman that would save about as many runs as he would save during the course of a 162-game schedule, a lot. Now that the 2015 regular season is all but over and Headley is preparing his first playoff run with the club, the same stage that Brosius truly became a Yankee with clutch hit after clutch hit, is there still a fair comparison between the two?

BROSIUS:

Year	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1998 ★	152	603	86	159	34	19	98	11	52	97	.300	.371	.472	.843	121
1999	133	529	64	117	26	17	71	9	39	74	.247	.307	.414	.722	84
2000	135	519	57	108	20	16	64	0	45	73	.230	.299	.374	.673	70
2001	120	478	57	123	25	13	49	3	34	83	.287	.343	.446	.789	106
NYY (4 yrs)	540	2129	264	507	105	65	282	23	170	327	.267	.331	.428	.759	96

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

HEADLEY:

Year	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2014	58	224	28	50	8	6	17	3	29	49	.262	.371	.398	.768	118
2015	153	632	74	150	29	11	62	0	49	133	.262	.326	.374	.700	94
NYY (2 yrs)	211	856	102	200	37	17	79	3	78	182	.262	.338	.380	.718	100

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

As you can see by the simple number comparisons these guys actually had comparable numbers overall with New York. Brosius had a little more power than Headley both in the home run and extra base hit department but across the board they are at least comparable. Headley K's more and Brosius is probably the better defender at this point but you get the point, someone may have had this comparison right a season and a half ago. 

Numbers aren’t everything, as much as that pains me to admit out loud, but the good thing for my sake is that I have seen both play. I hate when players compare All-Stars of the present to All-Stars of the past based on numbers. It was a different game then and a different era and I personally stay away from comparing players to players if I haven’t personally seen them play. Using the eye test alone I can see why the comparisons immediately were made. Headley is a great defender down at third base much like Brosius was and both seem unfazed by the limelight and the big situation. What sets the two apart, besides Headley’s seemingly inability to throw to first base consistently this season ala Chuck Knoblauch, is