The Better Than You Remember Thread

[Frobby]

People forget that Steve Pearce had a .930 OPS, 5.9 rWAR season for us in 2014.    Everyone thinks of that as the year of Nelson Cruz (.859 OPS, 4.6 rWAR).

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, Frobby said:

People forget that Steve Pearce had a .930 OPS, 5.9 rWAR season for us in 2014.    Everyone thinks of that as the year of Nelson Cruz (.859 OPS, 4.6 rWAR).

I'll always remember that as the year Pearce had seven times more value in his age-31 season than his whole previous MLB career combined.

[SurhoffRules]

41 minutes ago, interloper said:

Hell yeah, Bruce Chen.

Bruce Chen is a jouneryman hero of mine. He threw a 450 unremarkable innings for 7 teams across 6 seasons. He turned in 250 pretty good innings in 2 seasons for the Os before utterly imploding in 2006. I kinda thought he was done.

He went on to pitch for 8 more seasons and 735 more inning for another 3 teams.

• His career line: 82-81 over 17 years at a 4.62 ERA playing for 11 different teams.
• He played major league baseball from the time he was 21 to until he was 38.
• He is one of only 62 player from Panama.
• Despite his longevity and his numerous organizational ties, he did not have a single post season appearance.
• He had 8 seasons of 0 or negative WAR, one less than his 9 positive WAR seasons.
• His career earning were somewhere north of 20M dollars.

I think this is a guy who wanted to play baseball more than anything else in the world. He probably could've made the decision to hang it up hundreds or thousands of times over the course of his career and most people would have thought it a completely reasonable choice. But he didn't. He kept showing up, looking for team, going to work, and ended up with a career I hope he's proud of and earned a pretty decent living along the way.

[Aristotelian]

Mickey Tettleton 4.4 WAR (in only 411 AB's!) in 1989. I did not really see him as the centerpiece of the team but he led the team in OPS that year.

Jimmy Key from the '97 team. Mussina will be remembered as the ace, but Key's ERA was only a few ticks below. 4.6 WAR.

[Redskins Rick]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

A man ahead of his time.

a true legend in his own mind.

[Palmoripken]

23 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Mickey Tettleton 4.4 WAR (in only 411 AB's!) in 1989. I did not really see him as the centerpiece of the team but he led the team in OPS that year.

Jimmy Key from the '97 team. Mussina will be remembered as the ace, but Key's ERA was only a few ticks below. 4.6 WAR.

Yeah Key was underrated for that team. Had a solid 1997 and then got hurt in 1998. That was the first I ever heard of Dr. Andrews too.

[ChuckS]

I didn't understand the value of OBP when I was a kid in the late 80's/early 90's watching baseball for the first time, not to mention it was never posted on the stat line or consistently on the back of baseball cards.  I always thought Randy Milligan was a mediocre first baseman, but looking back he was pretty good: .852, .900, .779, .744 as an Oriole.  

Rodrigo Lopez is a pitcher who I think was undervalued.  He was pretty good on some bad O's teams. 3.8 WAR in 2002 and 4.8 WAR in 2004. 

I agree with those who say Pearce was underrated.  

 

[Palmoripken]

I guess maybe not underlooked now since he’s entering the HoF but I always thought Harold Baines was a good piece. Not a power hitter but a solid contact hitter.

[Moose Milligan]

Leo Gomez, better than I remember.  Jon Miller would always say "Lay-oh."

In 1991, he hit 16 homers, I think that led all AL rookies.  .711 OPS

Then in 1992, .782 OPS

Was having a great year in '94, .868 OPS with 15 homers in 84 games.  

Certainly not a stud but had seasons of 2.4, 2.7 and 2.2 wins.  

[Redskins Rick]

Brook Fordyce and the 2000 team, almost .900 OPS

 

15	C	Brook Fordyce	30	53	194	177	23	57	11	0	9	28	0	0	11	27	.322	.361	.537	.898	129	95	3	2	0	4	0

[ShaneDawg85]

I must have been too young, because for the longest time I did not remember Kevin Brown pitching a season for the Orioles, and for whatever reason, when I did I always thought he wasn't very good.  Oh man was I wrong.  One season, 4.3 WAR, and the best pitcher on the '95 Orioles not named Mussina.  Talk about a talented rotation, too.  Moose, Brown, Scott Erickson, Jamie Moyer, and Ben McDonald.  That should have been a recipe to print playoff tickets even in a strike shortened season.  There's a very big argument to be made, in my mind, that the '95 Orioles were the biggest underachiever of any team in franchise history.  

[Palmoripken]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Leo Gomez, better than I remember.  Jon Miller would always say "Lay-oh."

In 1991, he hit 16 homers, I think that led all AL rookies.  .711 OPS

Then in 1992, .782 OPS

Was having a great year in '94, .868 OPS with 15 homers in 84 games.  

Certainly not a stud but had seasons of 2.4, 2.7 and 2.2 wins.  

Good one. One of those solid contributors. Speaking of 3B, I was surprised we let Bobby Bonilla go. But I think I’ve heard he was hard to get along with. 

[ShaneDawg85]

2 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

Brook Fordyce and the 2000 team, almost .900 OPS

 

15	C	Brook Fordyce	30	53	194	177	23	57	11	0	9	28	0	0	11	27	.322	.361	.537	.898	129	95	3	2	0	4	0

I thought about him for a minute this morning, then realized the rest of his tenure was terrible.  

[Palmoripken]

Just now, ShaneDawg85 said:

I must have been too young, because for the longest time I did not remember Kevin Brown pitching a season for the Orioles, and for whatever reason, when I did I always thought he wasn't very good.  Oh man was I wrong.  One season, 4.3 WAR, and the best pitcher on the '95 Orioles not named Mussina.  Talk about a talented rotation, too.  Moose, Brown, Scott Erickson, Jamie Moyer, and Ben McDonald.  That should have been a recipe to print playoff tickets even in a strike shortened season.  There's a very big argument to be made, in my mind, that the '95 Orioles were the biggest underachiever of any team in franchise history.  

I still remember my uncle, bigger baseball fan than I was saying we hired Phil Regan. Didn’t manage before or after that. The performance of the team from 92-94 and 96-97 I think bears to what you’re saying about that team underachieving. And I’ll name a manager here. Johnny Oates. Great guy and a solid manager. His Texas teams always gave us trouble I recall even though our pitching was better. 

[Redskins Rick]

1 minute ago, ShaneDawg85 said:

I thought about him for a minute this morning, then realized the rest of his tenure was terrible.  

He was terrible, and it shocked me that one season, his stats was HOF worthy,