Who is the most underrated Oriole of all time?

[SemperFi]

Well it's two but it's really one, Roenicke/Lowenstein circa '82/'83.  Can't find a breakout of LF production that year but it was huge.

[AnythingO's]

40 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

Was in RF bleachers at Memorial when he led off 69 series against Tom Seaver with HR just over fence below us .. loved Buford. From older Oriole days .. I would offer up Jim Gentile and Milt Pappas , from 80s Scott McGregor and Mike Boddicker 

We are NOT allowed to revisit '69 lol. How about Dave Johnson?

[SemperFi]

51 minutes ago, SemperFi said:

Well it's two but it's really one, Roenicke/Lowenstein circa '82/'83.  Can't find a breakout of LF production that year but it was huge.

1982 stats

"Going into the 1982 season, Earl Weaver took a look at his roster and saw a young outfielder who had struggled against right-handed pitching for the last two seasons and an older outfielder who had always struggled against left-handed pitching. He made the decision to make them platoon partners, and between the two of them he got one outstanding outfielder.

Roenicke was better at hitting righties than Lowenstein was at hitting lefties, and he was known to have good glove on defense. So in 1982 the two alternated in left field depending on who was pitching, and sometimes when it was a right-handed pitcher, Lowenstein played left field and Roenicke gave Al Bumbry in center field or Dan Ford in right field a day off."

The platoon experiment worked like a charm, leading to these hitting lines for the two:

                     G    PA    2B HR BA/OBP/SLG  RBI

Roenicke     137 477  25  21 .270/.392/.499  74

Lowenstein 122 384  15  24 .320/.415/.602  66

[jaydee414]

Ima go with DeCinces. 
 

imagine the pressure of having t replace Brooks. 

[emmett16]

Harold Baines 

[OnlyOneOriole]

I would say Ken Singleton.  I had complete trust in that guy to always have a good at bat,  Just a pro's pro.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, emmett16 said:

Harold Baines 

Hall of Famer Harold Baines?

Quote

"I beg your pardon
I'm not quite clear about what you just spoke
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?"

 

[emmett16]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Hall of Famer Harold Baines?

 

The one and only.  

[ORIOLE33]

Frank Robinson is an all-time great, but I get the feeling that he's grossly underrated as an all-time player. 

[PsychoBird68]

Nick Markakis !!!!! very steady player with one great 6 war season and a 4 war season but I believe inconsistent defensive metrics cost him big time in his career war totals...Playing in parks with small right fields and ball hogs in centerfielders can't help but he sure did pass the eye test as a right fielder with a lot of assists

[Bahama O's Fan]

Chito Martinez or Leo Gomez!!!

Leo has 10 WAR for his career.

[emmett16]

16 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

Chito Martinez or Leo Gomez!!!

Leo has 10 WAR for his career.

Leo Gomez and Chris Hoiles were two guys I thought of. 

[DrungoHazewood]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:12 PM, Bahama O's Fan said:

Chito Martinez or Leo Gomez!!!

Leo has 10 WAR for his career.

 

On 9/16/2023 at 9:29 PM, emmett16 said:

Leo Gomez and Chris Hoiles were two guys I thought of. 

I wanted to see whatever happened to Leo Gomez. And I discovered (or maybe re-discovered) a few things.

- He was very up-and-down from year to year. In 1992 he had what looked like a little bit of a breakout with a 118 OPS+. And that actually continued into 1993, on May 31st he was OPS'ing .802.  But from June 1 through the rest of the year he was pretty clearly hurt and went 10-for-95 (.105), and missed a lot of time. I don't recall what happened, but he probably would have been better off being DL'd a month earlier.

- After his time in Baltimore he had a decent year with the Cubs, but then went on to play six years with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan. He had more PAs and games in the NPB than the majors. With Chunichi he had four years of 20+ homers including a '97 where he hit .315/408/.559 with 31 homers, and a '99 season of .298/36/109. I'm betting a lot of Dragons fans remember him fondly. That '99 team won the Central League pennant, and he was teammates with future MLBer Kosuke Fukudome. 

Fukudome deserves his own thread, he debuted in '99 and played nine years with Chunichi before coming to the Majors, then in '13 went back to Japan where he played for Hanshin through '20 and back to Chunichi through '22. All in all a 23-year-career with over 10000 plate appearances.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

On 9/16/2023 at 5:50 PM, ORIOLE33 said:

Frank Robinson is an all-time great, but I get the feeling that he's grossly underrated as an all-time player. 

Agreed the only player to win the MVP in the NL and AL plus he's a triple crown winner. Maybe Frank isn't quite on the level of Willie Mays or Hank Aaron, but he's right behind them and you rarely hear his name mentioned as one of the all time greats.

Bo Jackson gets talked about more and he barely had a career.

[Moose Milligan]

4 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Agreed the only player to win the MVP in the NL and AL plus he's a triple crown winner. Maybe Frank isn't quite on the level of Willie Mays or Hank Aaron, but he's right behind them and you rarely hear his name mentioned as one of the all time greats.

Bo Jackson gets talked about more and he barely had a career.

Frank Robinson didn't win a Heisman, didn't almost kill Brian Bosworth on a MNF game, didn't spiderman up the wall at Memorial Stadium, didn't throw Harold Reynolds out at home flat footed from left field, didn't lead off an all-star game with a home run followed by a Nike shoe campaign that was still quoted 30 years later and wasn't the best video game athlete of all time.

I love Frank, but he falls short in a lot of areas when comparing him to Bo Jackson.