The best player you've never heard of

[Jackaroo Dave]

In the baseball history forum there's a thread on who's most overrated and most underrated, and Ubiquitous observed that, "The most underratedlayer is the best player you never heard of."

I wondered who that might be in my case, so I got BB Reference to make me a list of all the players with WAR > 20, and I went down the list until I reached Fred Dunlap. I HAD heard the name, read his entry in the revised Bill James historical abstract, knew he was a 19th century player, probably an infielder.

But I did NOT know that he was a .400 hitter, albeit in the Union Association, and for about 5 years was the highest paid ballplayer in baseball. Some thought he was the best 2d baseman of the 19th century, although he only played I think 12 years. John Ward thought him second best, but extravagantly praised him.

It sounds as if his fielding was memorable. Everyone has a highlight anecdote to tell about him. So I guess Ubi was right. This guy was as unknown--to me--as he was famous to everyone back then.

Try it. It's an interesting game, and there are lots of ranked lists out there if you don't subscribe to Baseball Reference or don't care for WAR.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I had not heard of George Davis until I read the 1994 edition of The Politics of Glory. Same with Bob Caruthers.

[Blue387]

Deacon Jones, who I found doing an expansion draft for the 1962 Mets in Baseball Mogul. Jones was a first baseman for the White Sox who hit .343/.428/.580/1.008 in AAA Indianapolis in 1963. He never had a long major league career.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/4bc646b2

[Allie Fox]

Hugh Duffy, I recently learned has the single season highest BA in history (.440).

[Ben Grimm]

For me, it's mostly a list of pitchers prior to WWII who aren't in the HoF, but were either quite good or had extensive careers. Guys like George Mullin and Bucky Walters come to mind as those I haven't heard of until maybe five or so years ago.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Goerge Davis and John Clarkson. I didn't know anything about these guys until I joined here. I probably heard of them before but I never paid em any attention.