The All Time Knockdown Dragout Overrated/Underrated Thread

[Moose Milligan]

Hopefully this will be a lively, hotly contested thread for this boring stretch of the offseason.

But we hear it all the time as sports fans..."He's overrated..." or "That guy is way underrated..." and then my favorite "He's so underrated that he's overrated..."

And we love to present our arguments as to why someone is overrated/underrated.

So let's do it here, present or past players allowed.

To start it off, I'm going to present Joe Adcock as one of the more underrated players ever.

Per 162 he averaged .277 .337 .485, 28 homers and 93 RBI back when 20+ homers really meant something. He played on a lot of Milwaukee teams with Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews so he probably was a bit overshadowed. Received MVP votes in 4 seasons yet only had one All Star appearance over his 17 seasons.

His on base percentage for his career is fairly low by todays standards, but his career ops is .822.

And you never hear about this guy.

[Nigel Tufnel]

For me it's Stan Musial. I mean, I guess everybody's heard of him and knows he was great, but if you asked a baseball fan to name the greatest living players, I have a feeling it might take a while for Musial's name to get mentioned. And you can argue that right now, he actually is the greatest living player.

He had a higher career BA, OBP, Slg %, OPS, and OPS+ than Mays, Aaron, and Robinson. And he played until he was 42, just like Mays and Aaron. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 14 times, more than any of those guys. He walked a lot, which was unappreciated at the time, and probably cost him milestones like 500 HR, 2000 RBI, and maybe even the career record for doubles. He was a great, great, player, an all-time great, and I think people tend to think of him as just a run of the mill Hall of Famer.

[Frobby]

For me it's Stan Musial. I mean, I guess everybody's heard of him and knows he was great, but if you asked a baseball fan to name the greatest living players, I have a feeling it might take a while for Musial's name to get mentioned. And you can argue that right now, he actually is the greatest living player.

He had a higher career BA, OBP, Slg %, OPS, and OPS+ than Mays, Aaron, and Robinson. And he played until he was 42, just like Mays and Aaron. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 14 times, more than any of those guys. He walked a lot, which was unappreciated at the time, and probably cost him milestones like 500 HR, 2000 RBI, and maybe even the career record for doubles. He was a great, great, player, an all-time great, and I think people tend to think of him as just a run of the mill Hall of Famer.

Yesterday I was watching an ESPN show on the 20 most underrated athletes of all time, and Musial was no. 1. Frank Robinson was no. 4 (and the no. 2 baseball player). Hank Aaron was no. 7 I believe. Obviously, all three fit in the category of players who everyone knows were great, but may not realize how great.

Other baseball players on the list (from memory) included Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Lefty Grove.

Among current players, Craig Biggio has to be way up there.

[backwardsk]

For me it's Stan Musial. I mean, I guess everybody's heard of him and knows he was great, but if you asked a baseball fan to name the greatest living players, I have a feeling it might take a while for Musial's name to get mentioned. And you can argue that right now, he actually is the greatest living player.

He had a higher career BA, OBP, Slg %, OPS, and OPS+ than Mays, Aaron, and Robinson. And he played until he was 42, just like Mays and Aaron. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 14 times, more than any of those guys. He walked a lot, which was unappreciated at the time, and probably cost him milestones like 500 HR, 2000 RBI, and maybe even the career record for doubles. He was a great, great, player, an all-time great, and I think people tend to think of him as just a run of the mill Hall of Famer.

I was extremely disappointed when Musual didn't make it to Cooperstown for Cal's induction. If you like Stan the Man, read John Grisham's A Painted House.

[sakata_catching]

Underrated: I'm gonna go with Jimmy Wynn. Eight seasons with an OPS plus of 130 or above, speed, power, stellar defense, always a threat to draw 100+ walks and score 100+ runs. Plus, he put up his best offensive seasons in the Astrodome. During the second deadball era. He's pretty high on my list of guys who've been jobbed by the BBWA.