Rafael Palmeiro - questions for the old guys

[kidrock]

Hey O’s hangout faithful, a few questions for the older cats on here.  I was pretty young during his era:

1. Was Palmeiro thought of as one of the best players in the league year in, year out.  His numbers looking back are incredible, but I don’t recall him being a star.  Maybe he just had a more quiet personality, or it was the fact that so many guys were hitting home runs.  Just wondering what the perception was at the time.

2. Seeing his age 35-39 seasons is just crazy when you think about the current day aging curves of these players.  Did you like baseball better when players had much longer career arcs or do you prefer today’s young man’s game.  Just looking at some of the seasons for older ball players back in the steroid era seem mind boggling relative to today.

3.  Share a story about him that the young guys wouldn’t have been aware of.

Thanks

 

 

[glenn__davis]

He was very very good.  But he was putting up those huge numbers when others were putting up even bigger numbers.  We know why that was now. 

He also was an outstanding defender at a time when defense wasn't valued or at least not as much as it is now. 

I think at the time he was respected as one of the superstars in the game that wasn't talked about enough.  That obviously has changed now with the steroid allegations.

[MikeAD]

Ugh I guess I'm old now.  Raffy obviously has a lot of hate due to the steroids issue and how it played out but he was always one of my favorites and, when he wasn't mentioned among the best hitters, it was due to how stacked the power hitter group was at the time.  Even just some of those Texas teams were so....stacked.  He lead the league it hits in 90 and Doubles in 91.   When he first signed with the Orioles he was sort of rebuilding to some degree.  The narrative he had, and some in the media had, was Texas was moving on from Raffy, in Baltimore he really took off as a power hitter.  He was fantastic at the plate and defensively.  The first Baltimore stretch was awesome, he was pushing or surpassing 40 homers, had 142 RBIs in 96 and got on base a ton.  However he wasn't in the top player discussion, he was in the top 20, sometimes top 10 for MVP voting but go back and look at any of those lists and the players ahead of him are almost all crushing him in numbers.  I just looked at the 1993 vote where he was 8th and it looks like video game stats.  

Can't answer the better or worse aging question, it was fun to see Pujols have a long career, I hope guys like Trout can have long careers, Ichiro played for ever.  I think there will always be players who can hang longer.  Verlander is doing it right now.  

 

I don't have any stories.  I went to so many games in those days and had a chance to meet him a few times and he was always super nice and engaging.  

[Sports Guy]

He should be in the HOF.

Great hitter with a beautiful swing.

Steroids likely helped him but I’m skeptical how much it helped him(or anyone else). 
 

More than that, baseball players have been taking PEDs forever and to act like that was the only era that did it is stupid.

[interloper]

If Raffy had just owned up, we'd probably be enjoying him on Os broadcasts right now. Instead he double and tripled down on denial.

Honesty can go a long way towards redemption, it's a shame he didn't take that road.

[MikeAD]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

He should be in the HOF.

Great hitter with a beautiful swing.

Steroids likely helped him but I’m skeptical how much it helped him(or anyone else). 
 

More than that, baseball players have been taking PEDs forever and to act like that was the only era that did it is stupid.

Yes he should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame, and I could watch that swing all day.  

[Frobby]

Palmeiro was a guy who was always just under the radar.  He played in the heart of the steroids era and never led the league in HR or RBi despite being a top 10 guy annually.   He was a similar player to Eddie Murray, if you adjust stats for era.   It’s interesting to see that he got MVP votes in 10 seasons but was only an all-star 4 times.  

[kidrock]

9 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

He was very very good.  But he was putting up those huge numbers when others were putting up even bigger numbers.  We know why that was now. 

He also was an outstanding defender at a time when defense wasn't valued or at least not as much as it is now. 

I think at the time he was respected as one of the superstars in the game that wasn't talked about enough.  That obviously has changed now with the steroid allegations.

Thanks Glenn.  Appreciate the summary.  Who would you compare him to in the modern game?

[kidrock]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He should be in the HOF.

Great hitter with a beautiful swing.

Steroids likely helped him but I’m skeptical how much it helped him(or anyone else). 
 

More than that, baseball players have been taking PEDs forever and to act like that was the only era that did it is stupid.

Fair.  Who would you compare him to in todays game?

[kidrock]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Palmeiro was a guy who was always just under the radar.  He played in the heart of the steroids era and never led the league in HR or RBi despite being a top 10 guy annually.   He was a similar player to Eddie Murray, if you adjust stats for era.   It’s interesting to see that he got MVP votes in 10 seasons but was only an all-star 4 times.  

Yeah, that’s part of the reason why I asked.  Just so few all star appearances considering how good his numbers looked.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, kidrock said:

Fair.  Who would you compare him to in today’s game?

Goldschmidt is similar…good defender, very good but not elite power, good bat to ball skills, lots of walks.

Obviously Goldy is RH but similar types of players.

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Palmeiro was a guy who was always just under the radar.  He played in the heart of the steroids era and never led the league in HR or RBi despite being a top 10 guy annually.   He was a similar player to Eddie Murray, if you adjust stats for era.   It’s interesting to see that he got MVP votes in 10 seasons but was only an all-star 4 times.  

Yea Murray is the comp for him in terms of past players.

Very similar games.

 

[RZNJ]

I’m not answering on grounds of self incrimination.

[Too Tall]

6 minutes ago, kidrock said:

Fair.  Who would you compare him to in todays game?

First player that jumped in my head was Freeman. Maybe just the lefthanded/first base thing but...... Raffy was so good and as has been said, a beautiful swing. Just a damn shame it ended as it did.

[Aristotelian]

Great player, aesthetically pleasing effortless swing, great hit tool with plus power, great fielder as well. 9 seasons in a row with 100+ RBI was impressive even for the era. Never really an MVP candidate but remarkable consistency. Honestly I can't recall any particular stories or clutch moments: his.personality was fairly boring from what I recall.