Underrated Players

[ten ocho recon scout]

Darryl Strawberry. 

Everyone remembers him for being a trainwreck (rightfully so). But before he let it go he was a monster. Hes one of the best "what ifs" you can ever think of.

[Stax]

Claudell Washington

[tdawg87]

I always preferred Darryl Grape.

[happybat4]

JD Drew has a 44 career WAR 

[Docwaukee]

2 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

I always preferred Darryl Grape.

[Docwaukee]

2 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Darryl Strawberry. 

Everyone remembers him for being a trainwreck (rightfully so). But before he let it go he was a monster. Hes one of the best "what ifs" you can ever think of.

check out that 1980 draft where he went #1.   Halos acquired Tommy John via Dennis Rasmussen (who they drafted in 1980). 

TJ is a HOFer as much as some of the guys that they've let in recently.    

[tdawg87]

3 hours ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

This is the problem with WAR.

125 career OPS+. That's quite good. Not to mention pretty good defense. It's also spanning a 14 year career, so about 3 WAR per season, which is considered "above average".

It's by no means perfect, but Drew had a good, consistent career. 

[Taylor]

12 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

I always preferred Darryl Grape.

Darnell Raspberry would have been funnier.

[tdawg87]

22 minutes ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

If JD Drew were in then Tim Salmon would be in before him. Drew was just a guy.

We aren't talking about guys who should be in the HOF. We're talking about underrated players.

You are proving exactly why he is underrated.

[jsnpritchett]

7 minutes ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

Got it. Point is, JD Drew is not underrated. He was just a guy...

No.  "Just a guy" is Phil Gosselin or Sam Selman or Wilfredo Tovar--literally just a guy that pretty much ever organization has in spades.  JD Drew was a 2-time first round pick, an All-Star, placed 6th in the MVP voting one year, and made over $100M in salary during his career.  People who are "just a guy" generally don't do any of those things, let alone all of them.  Injuries kept him from racking up better in-season and career totals.

[tdawg87]

43 minutes ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

Got it. Point is, JD Drew is not underrated. He was just a guy...

I don't agree. You brought up Tim Salmon, who had a very similar career to Drew. Do you think he was "just a guy"?

[ten ocho recon scout]

19 hours ago, Dochalo said:

check out that 1980 draft where he went #1.   Halos acquired Tommy John via Dennis Rasmussen (who they drafted in 1980). 

TJ is a HOFer as much as some of the guys that they've let in recently.    

Tommy John is an absolute Angel HOFr. Dude set the standard for like every Angel pitcher that came after him....

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 hour ago, jsnpritchett said:

No.  "Just a guy" is Phil Gosselin or Sam Selman or Wilfredo Tovar--

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Jason Kendall is another good one. In his prime he was pretty badass.

Derrek Lee was another one of rhose guys who wasnt a super star, so didnt really pay attention, but then hed always put up pretty big numbers.

 

[HanfordGuy]

On 1/26/2022 at 9:43 PM, ten ocho recon scout said:

Darryl Strawberry. 

Everyone remembers him for being a trainwreck (rightfully so).

[HanfordGuy]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:06 PM, halomatt said:

Garret Anderson!!!

 

What do I win? 

I think you misunderstood, he said most underrated…not most sedated.

[HanfordGuy]

Frank Tanana, Mark Gubicza, Mark Langston, Tom Candiotti, Jimmy Key, Bruce Hurst and John Candelaria.

[Dtwncbad]

Dwight Golden was on a path to be an all time great and then got derailed.

Maybe he is now a little underrated?  Or at the very least people may have forgotten just how dominant he was for awhile.

[Inside Pitch]

On 1/21/2022 at 2:14 PM, Dochalo said:

Discar was terrible.   He's one of the worst hitters in the history of baseball.  That's not hyperbole.  14th worst for any player with more than 4000 PA

[Inside Pitch]

On 1/22/2022 at 10:37 AM, Angelsjunky said:

Mike Cameron was appreciated by statnerds, as his stellar defense and balanced skill set showed up in WAR. He was actually somewhat similar to Devon White in that a huge chunk of his value was defense, although a slightly better hitter:

Cameron: .249/.338/.444, 278 HR, 297 SB, 107 wRC+, 50.6 WAR, 130.4 Def

White: .263/.319/.419, 208 HR, 346 SB, 98 wRC+, 41.8 WAR, 150.6 Def

Cameron was one of my favorite players, he is who I thought Erstad was going to be albeit with less Ks.  I've always liked guys with pop, the ability to milk walks, and great gloves.   

[Inside Pitch]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:07 PM, Blarg said:

Mike Cameron's OPS+ for the four years he played for the Mariners are significantly higher than his career average. 

Some of that is due to it having been through his peak.  Still posted a career OPS+ of 107 from age 30 to the end of his career.

[Don]

1 hour ago, Dtwncbad said:

Dwight Golden was on a path to be an all time great and then got derailed.

Maybe he is now a little underrated?  Or at the very least people may have forgotten just how dominant he was for awhile.

Dude had 100 wins by the end of his AGE 24 SEASON. For comparison to some other greats of the era, the highest win total through age 24 out of Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, Randy Johnson, and Clemens was 60 (Clemens and Maddux).

[Inside Pitch]

On 1/26/2022 at 2:22 PM, tdawg87 said:

Mike Napoli

absolutely was underrated.

[Don]

5 minutes ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

Tim Salmon was underrated. JD Drew was overrated. That is my point.

Have a nice day.

I think there's a lot more to the Drew narrative than that. He was such a hyped prospect that when he didn't turn out to be an absolute mega star it was viewed as a bit of a disappointment. But the early career hype was so much that he got a ton of media attention throughout his career. Couple that with everyone promoting the idea that he didn't reach that mega star potential because he wasn't tough/didn't really care enough, and I think his name just strikes a lot of people negatively. Hence everyone saying he was overrated. Nah, dude was a really good major league player, just not what he was made out to be as a youngster.

[tdawg87]

11 minutes ago, AlwaysAnAngelsFan said:

Tim Salmon was underrated. JD Drew was overrated. That is my point.

Have a nice day.

You should look up the term "overhyped".