prompted by a recent perusal of the statistics of active leaders in WAR, in which 19 and 20 stood out:
1. Alex Rodriguez (34) 101.50 R2. Albert Pujols (30) 81.40 R3. Chipper Jones (38) 80.00 B4. Ken Griffey (40) 78.40 L5. Derek Jeter (36) 70.00 R6. Jim Thome (39) 69.00 L7. Jim Edmonds (40) 68.00 L8. Manny Ramirez (38) 67.30 R Ivan Rodriguez (38) 67.30 R10. Scott Rolen (35) 65.70 R11. Andruw Jones (33) 59.10 R12. Vladimir Guerrero (35) 58.40 R13. Bobby Abreu (36) 57.70 L14. Todd Helton (36) 57.50 L15. Carlos Beltran (33) 55.40 B16. Ichiro Suzuki (36) 53.10 L17. Jason Giambi (39) 52.90 L18. Johnny Damon (36) 48.10 L19. Mike Cameron (37) 47.40 R20. J.D. Drew (34) 46.80 L
also pondering a guy like Paul Konerko, who has been hiding away on the south side of chicago for a decade+ now and whose stats are definitely not on the same level w/other guys of his era, but who probably doesn't deserve to be forgotten come HOF voting time (by "not forgotten" i mean he deserves to stick around on the ballot for away before dropping away.)
favorite all time underrated/illest batting stance: mickey tettleton
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Dang, Alex has a big lead on Pujols there.
― no gut busting joke can change history (polyphonic), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:23 (thirteen years ago) link
if you consider that a-rod has had 15 full seasons at the end of '10 to pujols' 10 full seasons, it's a surmountable one imo
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Is WAR a cumulative stat?
― no gut busting joke can change history (polyphonic), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:25 (thirteen years ago) link
i think Griffey can come off that list - which would leave Posada at 20.
― oreo speed wiggum (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:26 (thirteen years ago) link
oops, he sure can
also, leaders in adjusted OPS+, which has a-rod at #4 just behind jim tho-
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:30 (thirteen years ago) link
jim thome
50. Matt Stairs (42)
0_o
― oreo speed wiggum (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:32 (thirteen years ago) link
Well, if you take WAR as gospel, the two guys who jump out at me are Scott Rolen and Andruw Jones. Jones was a big deal five years ago, but you don't hear much about him anymore; Rolen bounces around from team to team. Yet they're right there with a bunch of Hall of Famers, and ahead of much more publicized players like Helton, Beltran, Damon, etc.
― clemenza, Thursday, 19 August 2010 02:34 (thirteen years ago) link
My favourite underrated player ever is Tom Henke. He was as good year-in and year-out as other relievers who got far more attention.
― clemenza, Thursday, 19 August 2010 02:38 (thirteen years ago) link
hey speaking of WAR, i read a blog entry today that noted that dante bichette's career WAR was a robust 2.0 because of his horrendous fielding.
― ('_') (omar little), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:13 (thirteen years ago) link
there was a blog post on baseball reference a couple of weeks ago about how is WAR was, i believe, -0.2 in the year that he finished second in MVP voting, because of his horrendous fielding
― be my anchor baby (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
we read the very same entry in that case. i love the comments on that w/people rhapsodizing about his epic offensive numbers that year. people still don't quite get the whole notion of how such offensive contributions can be wiped out in other areas of the same player's game.
― ('_') (omar little), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link
billy wagner
almost 12k per 9 innings for his career and has a shot at getting his career WHIP below 1.00 by the end of his season (supposedly his final one)
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:15 (thirteen years ago) link
i realize he's not really underrated by those who know what he's done but i feel like he doesn't get enough credit for his career sometimes.
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:16 (thirteen years ago) link
special credit for:
Wagner was a natural-born right-handed person, but after breaking his right arm twice in accidents, he taught himself to throw baseballs using his left arm by throwing thousands of balls against the wall of a barn, and then fielding the rebounds, and repeating.
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:17 (thirteen years ago) link
he's on both my fantasy teams for a reason!
― oreo speed wiggum (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I was just looking at Wagner's career stats yesterday and thinking, "Wow--he's a serious HOF candidate." One bad year (2000), and good-to-great-to-brilliant the whole rest of the way. The career batting average against him is 0.188. You never know where the HOF line is with relievers, but he's got to be third in line after Rivera and Hoffman, and you probably wouldn't have to work too hard to make a case that he's a better pitcher than Hoffman. (Only real negative is that he's been awful in postseason, which based on 11 innings is hardly a big deal.)
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 01:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Wagner is 100+ IP short to qualify for this:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/whip_career.shtml
Look at Pedro!
― Andy K, Friday, 20 August 2010 10:43 (thirteen years ago) link
All-time WHIP leader Addie Joss' K/9 was 3.6.
― Andy K, Friday, 20 August 2010 10:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Holy $***! I had no idea.
Wagner is definitely underrated -- I remember it being a really big deal when he imploded in 2000 and he never seemed to regain his aura after that (I mean, 124 K's in 74 IP in 1999? That's insane) even though he was still a great pitcher. A huge strike against his HOF case is that he never played for a "winner". Are there any closers in the HOF who weren't considered cornerstone players on WS-winning teams? (besides Bruce Sutter, who's mainly in because he got the credit for inventing a pitch)
He not only didn't win, but he closed for a bunch of teams who are perceived as underachievers and chokers -- the B&B Astros, mid-2000's Phillies, late-2000's Mets. And he was a disaster in the postseason when his teams did manage to make the playoffs.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 11:12 (thirteen years ago) link
And BTW, I think it's U&K to rely on postseason numbers to make a HOF case for a closer. A closer's job is a lot more important in the postseason (not just the importance of the games, but the fact that closers need to pitch a higher %age of their team's innings compared with the regular season).
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 11:23 (thirteen years ago) link
most underrated '70s/80s player: Bobby Grich
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 August 2010 11:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Ken Singleton's also name gets mentioned for the same time period
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I agree that a closer's role is magnified in the postseason (everyone's is, to a degree), but I just have a hard time giving great weight to an 11-inning sample in a guy's HOF resume. I made the same point with regards to Dawson on another thread. And with Wagner, it comes down to about half of those 11.2 innings; in 5.2 of them, he gave up 11 runs. So you're looking at 5.2 innings in a 16-year career.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Let me put it another way: I'm a lot more in favour of using a great post-season career to make a case for somebody (again, based on a decent sample) than I am the reverse.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:19 (thirteen years ago) link
both these guys played all-time-great defense at their positions, especially jones, which is why their numbers are so high
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Brian Roberts seemed hugely underrated for a long time
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 August 2010 13:34 (thirteen years ago) link
That's what happens when you're competing with David Eckstein!
― Andy K, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:48 (thirteen years ago) link
In the age of WAR and VORP and all that stuff, I wonder if the whole idea of an underrated baseball player is becoming antiquated. I can't see players flying under the radar anymore to the degree they might have 30 years ago. I suppose "underpublicized" will always be a fact of life, depending upon where you play, but underrated, I'm not so sure.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 13:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I agree that a closer's role is magnified in the postseason (everyone's is, to a degree)
Not really though ... I think the average closer pitches about 5% of his team's innings in the regular season. In the playoffs it's 10-11%. No other type of player gets twice as much PT in the playoffs.
For the most part I agree, but the outcome of a season hinges a lot more on what the closer does. The team is hurt a lot more by a blown save than by a star hitter going 0-4. And your math on Wagner's career is seriously shady ... he was brutal in more than half of his postseason appearances, that's a huge failure rate for a closer. You can't just focus on the other appearances when he didn't suck, any more than you can say that, I don't know, if you eliminate Ryan Howard's strikeouts then he'd be a .420 hitter.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 14:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Well, we disagree. I don't think I'm misrepresenting his numbers, though. In 5.2 of his 11.1 postseason innings--exactly half--Wagner gave up 4 hits, 0 walks, 2 earned runs, struck out 8, saved 3, and had an E.R.A. of 3.18. Not spectactular, but pretty solid. In the other 5.2 innings, he was an absolute nightmare: 16 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 11 earned runs, no saves, and an E.R.A. of 17.47. It's not an exact parallel, because there's no postseason in the education business, but when I retire in about 12 years, I hope I'm not judged by my five worst days as a teacher--I'd have been out of a job long ago.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 14:34 (thirteen years ago) link
in terms of quantified, context-neutral baseball value you might be right, but there's plenty of other ways to 'rate' a player imo
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 14:50 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost it's not just his five worst days, it's *half* of his postseason record. You can't pick and choose the half that happens to support your case, the bad half counted just as much.
And ten appearances aren't a huge sample size, but it's spread over a number of years. He had a bad year every year!
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 15:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Ciderpress: We're probably coming from the same place here. I'm not especially hung up on WAR/VORP; I'm a stats guy, but more traditional OBP/SA stuff. (Hah--now OBP and SA are "traditional.") And I hope you're right; not being able to argue about over/underrated players would be a big loss to what it means to be a fan. But I think it's much more unlikely that a Bobby Grich would happen today. Anyone who keeps reasonably well informed would know all about him; Neyer and Posnanski and Baseball Prospectus would make sure of that. More casual fans would miss him, so maybe you're right--maybe things haven't changed that much after all. (I've gotta be honest: I'm looking at Grich's lifetime stats, and Bill James and Morbius notwithstanding, I'm not clear on why Bobby Grich was so underrated. He was excellent in '79 and '81. The rest of time, agreeing that he drew a lot of walks for a second baseman, I'm not seeing what makes him so noteworthy--not as a hitter, anyway.)
NoTime: I've conceded that Wagner was brutal for half his postseason innings. No argument whatsoever. I just don't see that that's reason to keep him out of the Hall of Fame--not if you believe he deserves to be there based on his in-season play. (If you don't, then sure, the postseason becomes one more argument against him.) When Winfield was up for induction, I don't think the voters gave much weight to his postseason performance, which basically amounted to one huge hit in the '92 Series and not a whole lot else.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 15:35 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't see any reason to keep wagner out of the hall of fame based on 11 innings out of almost 900 pitched. whether his entire peformance record is good enough is a separate question, but that's the one that should be discussed.
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 15:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Just to be totally honest, and argue against myself, one of the reasons Wagner's IP total is so low for the postseason is that half the time, he couldn't get anybody out. You've got to get some people out to pile up innings. Apparently, they just kept running guys up to the plate who'd hit safely.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
First, I'll reiterate that Wagner probably doesn't have much chance of getting voted in because he didn't pitch for "winning" teams (fairly or unfairly). In the three-tiered playoff system, guys play a lot more postseason games than they used to, so postseason performance is going to figure more strongly into HOF voting (which to me seems fair). Also, nobody really has any idea what the HOF standard is for closers because their role is constantly changing. But it's safe to say that everyone from this era will measured against Rivera and Hoffman, and Wagner looks set to be the Tim Raines to their Rickey Henderson.
I also think that there will always be underrated players ... Neyer and Posnanski and BP are a really small piece of the pie. Chase Utley hit five homers in last year's WS and was STILL underrated -- everyone talked about ARod becoming a "true Yankee" and the "Yankee Four" and Pedro and by the last game, Matsui.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Cart way before horse: a Braves WS win this year would cinch Wagner for the HoF, y/n?
― My totem animal is a hamburger. (WmC), Friday, 20 August 2010 16:09 (thirteen years ago) link
The fate of bordlerline cases like Wagner may be affected by how the whole steroids issue resolves itself with regards to the HOF. If, as seems to be the case right now, PED-associated players are locked out, then I think the Wagners and Damons and Smoltzes will inevitably benefit. Enough to push some of them over the line, I don't know.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:30 (thirteen years ago) link
not necessarily, at all
xp
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 August 2010 16:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Not necessarily, no. As a practical matter, though, I think that keeping PEDs out will do two things: one, it will free up space, and I think the voters will instinctively want to fill that space; and two, psychologically, "clean" players may start to be over-valued. You've indicated this yourself, right, in connection to the deification of Griffey?
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Oops--you were responding to WmC!
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:43 (thirteen years ago) link
can't wait until the 2012 HoF voting when the writers inevitably lock out the 2nd best hitter of all time and the 2nd best pitcher of all time by WAR
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:46 (thirteen years ago) link
the upcoming ballots are pretty loaded though so unless they start letting in more than 2-3 guys a year i think a lot of the borderline cases are gonna slip away
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:48 (thirteen years ago) link
for '13 you've got biggio, bonds, clemens, piazza, and sosa. two of them will get in right away, right? or maybe only one?
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 16:50 (thirteen years ago) link
I think there'll be four tiers: 1) the Bonds/Clemens/A-Rod tier, where the writers (grudgingly) decide they were HOF-clear pre-PED and put them in; 2) the McGwire/Palmeiro/Ramirez tier, the guys who are punished; 3) the Bagwell/I-Rod/Thome tier, players who've never been named and who never failed a test but who seem suspicious anyway (this is a tier completely of my own making; I have doubts about all three)--not sure what happens with them; 4) everybody else.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 August 2010 16:53 (thirteen years ago) link
i think Wagner's HOF case will be made in the coming years. if he can move up on the all time saves list (he's - um, 6th right now?) he could make it in as long as he stays productive for a few more years. the only person ahead of him still pitching well is Rivera (as Hoff seems to have lost it this year).
xpost
― oreo speed wiggum (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 20 August 2010 16:54 (thirteen years ago) link
somebody wrote a column abt this today, will link later
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 August 2010 17:01 (thirteen years ago) link
back to the thread topic, i think the prototype 'underrated players' in terms of WAR are the guys who are consistently worth 3-5 WAR each year but aren't flashy enough to build a reputation as great players
david dejesus and nick markakis are the first two that come to mind
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 August 2010 17:13 (thirteen years ago) link
The Jays had two of them--Edwin just crossed 60%, and I wouldn't be surprised if he works his way up to 75% by the time he retires.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:19 (six years ago) link
The flip side:
Albert Belle - 68% before he turns 30Juan Gonzalez - 78%Ken Griffey Jr. - 84% Andruw Jones - 92%Nomar Garciaparra - 93%
― clemenza, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 20:59 (six years ago) link
mark fidrych - %100
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 23:16 (six years ago) link
Elvis Andrus? Crossed 30 WAR last season, most years in the 4.0-4.5 range, off to a great start in 2019. Jays fans will always remember him for his role (two crushing errors) in the bat-flip inning.
― clemenza, Sunday, 14 April 2019 21:53 (four years ago) link
In James's piece on the greatest center fielders ever:
"I guess that what I am saying is that even among underrated players, (Jimmy Wynn) is underrated. We have a kind of list of historically underrated players, in our field; Bobby Grich, Darrell and Dwight Evans, Gene Tenace, Rick Reuschel. I’m not sure that Wynn gets the references that he deserves on that list."
James has him 14th, a little higher than Jaffe (17th).
― clemenza, Saturday, 19 October 2019 12:19 (four years ago) link
brian giles
― Karl Malone, Monday, 30 March 2020 23:55 (three years ago) link
OBP1998: .3961999: .4182000: .4322001: .4042002: .4502003: .4272004: .3742005: .423
― Karl Malone, Monday, 30 March 2020 23:58 (three years ago) link
....oh
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sdut-steroid-talk-barred-trial-ex-padre-giles-2011apr04-htmlstory.html
― Karl Malone, Monday, 30 March 2020 23:59 (three years ago) link
Conceding some recency bias here, José Abreu? He's really putting together a steady, solid career, with a possible MVP this year. His career OPS+ is 136. Haven't really heard a lot about him since his rookie year.
― clemenza, Saturday, 19 September 2020 00:29 (three years ago) link
really good player; tough that he arrived so late and that we are no longer impressed with first basemen
we'll have to settle for stories about how his veteran leadership helped tim anderson/luis robert win other awards
― mookieproof, Saturday, 19 September 2020 07:03 (three years ago) link
Abreu got a fair amount of press his rookie year as hit power was so impressive, but the White Sox have been in the doldrums until now.
Add Abreu onto Konerko and then Big Hurt before being a primary DH and the Sox have had a really long run of good hitting first basemen.
― earlnash, Saturday, 19 September 2020 11:13 (three years ago) link
"I think a question on Dunn is whether he will hit the wall like Richie Sexton did, who is probably one player that is somewhat similar to Dunn (although he didn't draw as many walks). Sexton was pretty consistently decent, losing only one season to injury and he hit age 32 and he was finished. Don't know if this will be the fate of the Big Donkey or not, but it could be."
Poor Big Donkey, he hit the wall.
― earlnash, Saturday, 19 September 2020 11:18 (three years ago) link
Ray Durham is a player who was solid, never really a star, but you could do worse having him at second for a decade.
2000+ hits - .277/.352/.436
Durham did not have as much power, but probably similar career to Ian Kinsler. Hall of Very good at least.
― earlnash, Saturday, 19 September 2020 11:24 (three years ago) link
A list of the worst base-stealers ever (based on success rate over 300+ attempts) showed up on my FB wall today. Don Buford was on there at 65.6%.
He was a name when I first started following baseball, so I remember him well. Looked him up, and, in a very short career, definitely underrated.
Only played 10 years, age 26-35, including a 12-game call-up in 1963. Over that time: yearly WAR from 2.3 - 4.9, except for that call-up and a poor final season (4.5 per 650 PA); MVP votes in four out of nine full-time seasons; one of the best position players on the Orioles' historic '69-71 run (about even with Boog Powell after Frank Robinson and Paul Blair; a bit ahead of Brooks Robinson).
Still alive at 83.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 December 2020 21:48 (three years ago) link
contrary to my statement above, we *are* still impressed by first basemen
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 15 December 2020 21:57 (three years ago) link
I was mistakenly looking at Buford's oWAR for those years, not total. Corrected range: 2.5 - 6.9, minus his first and last season.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 00:06 (three years ago) link
The old timers at the Orioles Hangout forums never game him the same respect they gave Boog, Belanger or Blair, probably cause he didn't have a standout traditional skill. He was sort of a Zobrist type before anyone knew how valuable that was. Or a worse fielding Bobby Grich.
Lotta B names on those Orioles teams
― ✖, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:13 (three years ago) link
James tries to quantify underrated and overrated (not behind the paywall):
https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_perception_deficit_score/
― clemenza, Monday, 4 January 2021 07:25 (three years ago) link
Salvador Perez? Very consistent, coming off what likely would have been a career season at 30 if played out. He got some attention when the Royals were in the WS, but I don't hear a lot about him otherwise.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 14:22 (three years ago) link
he's a victim of playing in KC, in terms of exposure. if he was in NY he would be a legend
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
actually, ok, i overstated that, glancing at his stats. i always thought of him as a defensive wunderkind but at least on fangraphs, the defensive stats don't seem to reflect that. that's probably just fangraphs-specific: they added catcher pitch-framing to WAR a while back, as we all probably remember, and there were some HUGE repercussions on career WAR numbers. perhaps Perez was one of those that lost some "value"?
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 18:38 (three years ago) link
he was pretty middling there for a couple years before missing 2019. good power, absolutely refuses to take a walk.
offhand i can't remember seeing a bigger split between bWAR (24.2) and fWAR (11.9)?
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 19:00 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I was going by bWAR, where he does decently offensively but really well defensively.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 19:34 (three years ago) link
Anyone else find it really odd when a catcher can’t walk to save his life? Like you’d think being a fucking catcher, they’d have a good idea where a ball might be going.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 21:03 (three years ago) link
yeah, yadier molina very much cannot take a walk either
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 21:10 (three years ago) link
It’s weird, right?
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 21:11 (three years ago) link
it is, and it's excruciating to watch sometimes. but i wonder if that comes down to different styles of hitting. some players are "guess hitters", picking a certain kind of pitch or location, or walking up thinking "i'm going to swing full strength on the first pitch", or taking all the way. other guys are more about insanely fast judgments, pitch recognition, figuring it out in the moment.
yadi seems very much like the former, a guess hitter who is frequently betting on himself to swing first and figure it out
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 21:20 (three years ago) link
i think i remember yelich saying that he didn't "guess", and that it was all just quick reactions and pitch recognition for him
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 21:21 (three years ago) link
I suppose when you’re catching, pitch recognition is meaningless when you know whats coming.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 22:25 (three years ago) link
New Rule for 2021: Catchers get to call their own pitches while at bat.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 22:39 (three years ago) link
Obvious one, but Michael Brantley, having one of his best seasons ever at 34.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 13:25 (two years ago) link
Might put José Ramírez first on the list. Relative to his accomplishments, you hear virtually nothing about him.
― clemenza, Sunday, 26 September 2021 13:12 (two years ago) link
good one. he’s also on an incredibly team-friendly contract
― mookieproof, Sunday, 26 September 2021 13:42 (two years ago) link
As points of comparison, think of how well publicized Kris Bryant and Anthony Rendon have been. A lot of that has to do with winning a WS title, and some, I'm sure, with Chicago/Washington/L.A. vs. Cleveland as media markets.
Ramirez (age-28 season): 34.2 bWAR/34.5 fWARBryant (29): 28.6/31.8Rendon (31): 32.2/36.1
Rendon is a couple of games ahead in fWAR with three extra years.
― clemenza, Sunday, 26 September 2021 15:05 (two years ago) link
Machado (age-28 season, 45.1/40.3) at another level in both performance and publicity, although much of his publicity has been bad.
― clemenza, Sunday, 26 September 2021 15:20 (two years ago) link
perhaps. bryant has won an mvp, tho.
and i don’t think rendon is actually well-publicized? he’s never even been the biggest star on his own teams
― mookieproof, Sunday, 26 September 2021 15:53 (two years ago) link
Forgot about the MVP. Rendon seemed to get a lot of (deserved) attention during Washington's WS run, and then a lot during his off-season free agency--or at least relative to Ramirez.
― clemenza, Sunday, 26 September 2021 15:57 (two years ago) link
hank greenberg.
only play 9 full seasons. lost most of 41-45 to ww2, bookended by a 7.7 fWAR 1940 and a 7.2 WAR 1946. career OBP of .412.
he has 61.1 career fWAR, which ranks only #115 in MLB history. but it was over only 1394 games. i think there is only one player in MLB history who has more fWAR over fewer games, and that's Mike Trout (1388 games and with 81.2 fWAR already)
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 13 September 2022 22:20 (one year ago) link
in terms of fewest games and greatest value, buster posey came close. 1371 games, 57.5 fWAR
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 13 September 2022 22:22 (one year ago) link
Jackie Robinson: 1382 games, 57.2 WARMookie Betts: 1093 games, 49.9 WAR
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 13 September 2022 22:23 (one year ago) link
I think this is the first Posnanski column in a while that's been sharable; hit 10 most underrated players ever.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/baseballs-most-underrated-players?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
― clemenza, Thursday, 5 January 2023 18:20 (one year ago) link
Haven't had a chance to wade through this yet; pretty exhaustive.
https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_most_underrated_players_of_all_time/
― clemenza, Thursday, 27 April 2023 22:26 (eleven months ago) link
Didn't realize that was the last of a three-part post. The numbers are explained in the first part, part II is the most overrated players. I think they're all free.
― clemenza, Thursday, 27 April 2023 22:32 (eleven months ago) link
brett butler was my favorite giant when I was like 6, very cool to see him on that list (I knew James was a fan)
― brimstead, Monday, 1 May 2023 18:32 (ten months ago) link
BRENT
He was really good (it is Brett); just had the bad timing of playing in the shadow of the greatest leadoff hitter ever (Henderson) and maybe the second greatest (Raines).
― clemenza, Tuesday, 2 May 2023 12:59 (ten months ago) link
Me being seduced by a middle infielder yet again...I think Marcus Semien may end the year at the margins of a HOF case. He's leading the AL in bWAR right now at 2.7, maybe headed for a 7.0 or 8.0 season, which at 33 would leave him with:
1) ~ 42 career WAR2) 200+ career HR3) the single-season HR record at 2B4) two top-3 MVP finishes, maybe a third this year
He'd have to keep playing somewhere between an All-Star- and MVP-level for another five years, but he could. As good as Chapman's been this year, hated losing him.
― clemenza, Thursday, 18 May 2023 19:33 (ten months ago) link
he's a good player, but i would hesitate to call anyone on a $175m contract 'underrated'
several of these guys were good players toohttps://i.imgur.com/jgVZUmm.gif
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 May 2023 20:28 (ten months ago) link
(xpost) When I think about underrated, I don't factor in salary, I think in terms of fans/writers/awards.
Posnanski last week: "José Ramírez just keeps on being José Ramírez (.286/.358/.500, 13 homers, 9 steals, good defense). Without him, these Guardians might not have scored a single run in the first half. I think Ramírez might just be the most underrated baseball player of this century, but I also think he’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame, so that will end his underratedness."
― clemenza, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 18:03 (eight months ago) link
When Ramirez does come up for the HOF many years down the road, I could see where the COVID season factors into a close call (like the strike of '94 may have hurt Cone and Key, and hurt McGriff with the writers). He finished second in MVP voting that year and was headed for his greatest season (pro-rated): 46 HR, 124 RBI, .292/.386/.607. (At least till this year, the winner that year, José Abreu, would have been my other most-underrated-of-the-century.)
― clemenza, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 18:14 (eight months ago) link