Who is the most underrated Oriole of all time?

[tntoriole]

Paul Blair 

 

Paul Blair played center field for 12 seasons  and was one of the very best outfielders I have ever seen. Blair won his first Gold Glove award in 1967, then won seven straight from 1969 to 1975. He was a two-time all-star and finished 11th in AL MVP voting in 1970 when he batted .285 with 26 HRs, 76 RBIs, 102 runs scored and 20 stolen bases. 

 

[Too Tall]

From more recent times, I'll offer Melvin Mora. Didn't come to the O's till he ws nearly 30. Over a four year period averaged nearly 5 war. Took us up to the Adam Jones Era as a real late bloomer. AND DID IT WITH ALL THOSE KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I should nominate his wife!

[oriolediehard]

How about Doug DeCinces?

How about Mike Flanagan?

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Pickles said:

Ironically, it may be Brady Anderson.

How many people knew Brady had more WAR than Jones over their careers?

I think he's remembered almost solely for his 50 hr campaign, and seen as a "one hit wonder" while failing to acknowledge that he had two other seasons over 5 WAR.  A mark Jonesy never reached.

I'd also nominate Chris Hoiles.  He's underappreciated.

I play a baseball sim game on whatifsports occasionally, and I almost always grab Hoiles at catcher, because his rate stats are crazy impressive for a catcher.  He OPSed over 1000 over 500 PAs in 1993!

I think Brady is sometimes underrated because people look at his career as essentially nothing outside of his 50 homer season, which they chalk up to steroids.

I'm not completely convinced that Brady was on anything, or certainly anything more than most of the MLB population of the time. And from 1992-2000 he was about as good a top-of-the-order hitter as you could want. He was no Rickey Henderson, but over that period he had a .378 OBP, stole 246 bases as a decent rate, and scored 100 runs four times.

You ask some oldtimers and they'll tell you Luis Aparicio was a great leadoff hitter. Brady lapped him in everything that matters in a leadoff hitter.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, Too Tall said:

From more recent times, I'll offer Melvin Mora. Didn't come to the O's till he ws nearly 30. Over a four year period averaged nearly 5 war. Took us up to the Adam Jones Era as a real late bloomer. AND DID IT WITH ALL THOSE KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I should nominate his wife!

Melvin Mora had a very 1990s-2000s career. Aren't too many players who were minor league utility guys at 27 and legitimate MVP candidates at 32.

[Frobby]

Who’s more underrated, a near Hall of Famer who people only remember as very good, a very good player who people think of as being average, or a somewhat above average player who people forget about entirely?   I dunno.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Randy Milligan has a better career if he came up today as MLB teams would have promoted him faster recognizing his talent at working pitch counts and drawing walks.

Plus Milligan would have been able to rehabilitate his knee injury that he suffered in 1990 with today’s modern medical procedures. 

Milligan's minor league OBPs were .429, .357, .430, .437, .394, .402, .438, and .373. .408 total. He was by far the best hitter on the 81-59 1987 Tidewater Tides, and the Mets rewarded that with two MLB plate appearances and a trade to the Pirates as partial payment for Mackey Sasser.

With the Pirates he had a .379 OBP but just three homers in 103 PAs so they exiled him to Norfolk in June, then traded him to the Orioles for the immortal Pete Blohm.

I do wonder how well his skills would translate to today, with below-average power for a first baseman but a walk every six PAs. In any case I'd much rather have him than a Mark Trumbo who's all power and nothing else.

[DrungoHazewood]

9 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Who’s more underrated, a near Hall of Famer who people only remember as very good, a very good player who people think of as being average, or a somewhat above average player who people forget about entirely?   I dunno.

The most underrated class of player just might be someone like Al Pardo or Chance Sisco or Mike Wright, who fans mostly think of as scrubs and bums who didn't even have a real career, but who get to say they were one of the best or the best player who ever came from their high school or college or hometown.

(Of course now that I have to go check this, Al Pardo went to the same high school as Fred McGriff and Tino Martinez, so he didn't even get that. But he's still better than 99.99% of everyone who ever picked up a glove.)

[Malike]

Don Buford should be on this list somewhere. He was overshadowed by the stars in the late 60's and early 70's but he had some great years for the O's.

[DrungoHazewood]

15 minutes ago, Malike said:

Don Buford should be on this list somewhere. He was overshadowed by the stars in the late 60's and early 70's but he had some great years for the O's.

Buford had an interesting career path. He got stuck behind Nellie Fox on the White Sox. Went to college so he didn't play in the minors until he was 23, and despite a minor league OBP of .398 and getting a little AAA ball his first year in the minors, he didn't get more than a cup of coffee in the majors until 27.

Fox won the '59 MVP, one of the weaker MVPs (.306 with two homers, but 71 walks and 13 Ks, good D), and the Sox basically let him have the job until he was very clearly done. In '63, with Buford hitting .336 with a .406 OBP and 42 steals in AAA, Fox played 137 games with a .605 OPS mostly batting 2nd. Somehow they won 94 games with a zero batting second every day.

After Buford had a bad year for the O's in '72 he went to Japan where he played four years, three of them pretty good. He was teammates over there with Matty Alou, and at least for one game Frank Howard (According to wikipedia Howard hurt his back in his first Japanese PA and never played again. I guess he could have hurt his back in that first PA, but he did get three.).

Edited September 15, 2023 by DrungoHazewood

[Birdland in NC]

Ramon Urias 

[fansince1988]

Hoiles. .833 career OPS.

[yark14]

L.J. Hoes

and it's not even close.

[UMDTerrapins]

Brian Roberts. You hear his name and you think injuries and frustration. But he was an absolute joy to watch for many years. I loved the way he played. 

[tntoriole]

32 minutes ago, Malike said:

Don Buford should be on this list somewhere. He was overshadowed by the stars in the late 60's and early 70's but he had some great years for the O's.

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