Overrated and Underrated

[1905 Giants]

Simple in premise and yet complicated in practice: who do you think are some of the most overrated players in history and who are some of the most underrated?

Obviously, this is meant to be an exercise in fairness, not an excuse to belittle those players we don't like by placing them in the overrated category.

A few to consider
-----------------

Overrated:
Pete Rose
Nolan Ryan

Underrated:
Tim Raines
Bruce Sutter

[jjpm74]

Overrated:

Joe Tinker
Johnny Evers
Frank Chance
Lloyd Waner
Mark McGwire
Chick Hafey

Underrated:

Ron Santo
Ted Simmons
Dan Quisenberry

[SamtheBravesFan]

I think Sutter might be put in the "overrated" category by most. No question that Rose and Ryan are overrated thanks to major career records.

Sometimes, I don't think that Walter Johnson gets the recognition that he deserves in the mainstream baseball community (you know, outside of us geeks ), so he may be underrated.

[Minstrel]

Overrated
Pete Rose
Nolan Ryan
Jim Rice
Bruce Sutter
Jack Morris
David Eckstein


Underrated
Albert Belle
Ron Santo
Tim Raines
Bert Blylevin

[Otis Nixon's Bodyguard]

Considering only very good or great players:

Overrated:
Nolan Ryan (blinds everyone with great strikeout numbers)
Cal Ripken Jr. (truly "compiled" 3,000 hits via a .276 BA)
Carl Yastrzemski (had a couple great seasons, but was mostly just an above-average player)

Underrated:
Al Simmons (monster of a hitter in the 20's)
Honus Wagner (playing in the dead ball era kept his superficial numbers down, but was truly one of the best ever)
Don Sutton (I can't believe anyone thinks he doesn't belong in the HOF)
Stan Musial (considered a legend, but still doesn't get as much credit as he deserves from modern fans)
Fred McGriff (was just as good as Winfield or Murray, but will have trouble getting into the HOF)
Ralph Kiner (phenominal power hitter who led NL in HR for seven straight years, but is somewhat unknown to modern fans)
Barry Bonds before he used steroids (a controversial pick, but try to ignore everything you've found out about him in the last eight years, why did anyone think Griffey was better than Bonds in the 90s? Why didn't Bonds make the All-Century Team?)

[MoP]

Overrated
David Eckstein


Underrated

Bert Blylevin

Oh man, I agree with those two picks 100%!

I guess I would add Bill Dahlen, Dick Allen and Joe Morgan (I doubt the average fan would put him that high because of his relatively low counting numbers) as underrated and Paul O'neil as overrated (he's the only one I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned).

[Minstrel]

Cal Ripken Jr. (truly "compiled" 3,000 hits via a .276 BA)

Cal Ripken Jr. is a fascinating case. I think he gets both casually overrated by fans who consider "The Streak" to be the greatest achievement in sports and casually underrated by fans who look at his raw, unadjusted traditional stats.

By batting average, homers, RBIs...even on-base percentage and slugging percentage, he looks unexceptional. But when you look at his prime and adjust the numbers for the league he played in, the park he played in and the position he played and also factor in his considerable defensive value at shortstop, he was legitimately one of the greatest players ever.

Memories of how amazing he was are damaged by his late career when he hung on as an average or below-average player. But based on his prime, I'd say that he was actually the third-greatest shortstop ever after Honus Wagner, and depending on whether you place Alex Rodriguez at shortstop. If you rank Rodriguez as a third baseman, I'd say Ripken Jr. was the second-greatest.

In any case, this isn't a Ripken thread, but I thought Ripken was a good player to highlight because he's one of the few players that you could make an argument for as both overrated and underrated.

[Erik Bedard]

Based purely on value as players:

Overrated:

Nolan Ryan
Pete Rose
Derek Jeter (note: this is not meant to belittle Jeter in any way. I feel that he is often unfairly depicted as the "face of baseball", leading many casual fans to believe that he is the best player in baseball. Which is not true.)
Sandy Koufax
David Eckstein
Juan Pierre
Joe Tinker
Johnny Evers

Underrated:

Stan Musial
Bert Blyleven
Tim Raines
Rickey Henderson
Alex Rodriguez
Barry Bonds
Arky Vaughan

[GiambiJuice]

Overrated:

Juan Gonzalez
Pudge Rodriguez (offensively)
Curt Schilling
Trevor Hoffman
Jack Morris
Mike Schmidt
Joe Morgan
Andre Dawson
Jim Rice

Underrated:

Hank Greenberg
Joe Gordon
Will Clark
Brian Giles
Bobby Abreu
Jim Thome
Edgar Martinez
Arky Vaughan

[Minstrel]

Underrated:

Brian Giles
Bobby Abreu

Nice picks. They might be my selections for most underrated superstars of their generation.

[jjpm74]

Based purely on value as players:

Rickey Henderson

How is Rickey Henderson underrated? It's almost universally accepted that he's going to gain election to Cooperstown the first time around with a huge chunk of the vote.

[lovethegame]

In my opinion
Overrated Dave Winfield
Underrated Andres Gallaraga
Winnie was the king of 3 run doubles when the game was already over
Gallaraga was clutch in the Perez mode and stung the ball

[stejay]

Overrated-
Ortiz
Schilling
Yastrzemski
McGwire
Maggie Ordonez

Underrated-
Jeter
Fielder
Maris
Santo
Mo Rivera

[hellborn]

Under-
Harlond Clift
Stan Musial
Ron Cey
Jack Clark
Pedro Guerrero
Tris Speaker

Over-
Steve Garvey
Cecil Fielder
Steve Carlton
Nolan Ryan
Carl Yazstremski
George Sisler

[stejay]

Over-

Steve Carlton
Nolan Ryan
George Sisler

Why???? They are legends of the game.