DOTW: Underrated Careers in Baseball Recently.

cajunrevenge said:
If Ozzie is in then Andruw should get in. One of the best offensive players at his position over 10 years and defense was some of the best all time. I think people view him worse because of the high expectations he set as a prospect/rookie. He was supposed to be what Mike Trout is now.
Click to expand...

Agree and maybe that changes with a newer generation of voters over time. One of the common mantras on Andruw was "he could be so much better," which made people forget how good he was. He had some terrible habits at the plate that frustrated the heck out of me, but he was a really good player.
 
zitothebrave said:
Me too. He'll get in for being a good guy. There are worse players than him in the hall, such as Phil Rizzuto, Bill Mazeroski, Rick Ferrell, and George Kell. So he would'nt be undeserving,

Thought of another name, Joe Torre, Hall of Fame manager should also be in as a player. He is not far behind players like Willie Stargell, Duke Snider, and ahead of guys like Hank Greenberg, Ryan Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and many other Hall of Famers.
Click to expand...

Torre had a Murphy-like career. A couple of monster seasons and a slew of solid ones and he's probably on the fringe. No doubt he was a great player though.
 
Not recent, but always thought that Tommy John should've gotten inducted into the Hall, just for being the guinea pig for ACL surgery. The orthopedic surgeon just passed away.
 
Maybe a Lastella Uggla platoon? He not lhp and rhp but La stella 20% uggla 80% at least until he struggles
 
50PoundHead said:
Agree and maybe that changes with a newer generation of voters over time. One of the common mantras on Andruw was "he could be so much better," which made people forget how good he was. He had some terrible habits at the plate that frustrated the heck out of me, but he was a really good player.
Click to expand...

He was very frustrating to watch offensively at times because he could have been so much better. I remember back in 2007 when TP was trying to get him to hit the back to RF with 2 strikes and Andruw refused. He did it for 2 games, back-to-back games in early May of that year against the Padres and ended up picking up game-winning base-hits and then after the 2nd game said "I'm not a RF hitter. I'm a pull hitter." and then went back to trying to jack everything out of the park to LF.
 
Knucksie said:
Not recent, but always thought that Tommy John should've gotten inducted into the Hall, just for being the guinea pig for ACL surgery. The orthopedic surgeon just passed away.
Click to expand...

Even that, but Tommy John racked up some great numbers after having the surgery. 200 something wins, back win wins actually meant something.
 
Jason Kendall's a good one. Very good player and leader at the catcher position but was lost in the shuffle with guys like Piazza and Pudge getting all the publicity while Jason was stuck on just some dreadful pirate teams.

I'm going to add a few more to my list if I may?

AROD, Jeter, and Nomar and ti a lesser extent Larkin got all the publicity at the shortstop position, all the while Edgar Renteria was putting up solid numbers year after year (similar to Jeter) while playing great defense.

John Olerud didn't get enough notoriety for just how good he was, but he was lost in the shuffle with sluggers like McGuire, Thomas, Bagwell, Mcgriff manning 1b.

Same could be said for Raffy Palmeiro, the guy just put up numbers but got little publicity. Of course, PEds played a big role now that we know, but at the time Raffy didn't get much pub.

In the outfield, Tim Salmon often got overlooked.

As far as starting pitchers, Kevin Appier and Chuck Finley had solid careers but were underrated being on some awful Royals and Angels teams. Ramon Martinez had a very good career but is known more for being Pedro's brother. Jimmy key had a solid but unspectacular career.

As far as closers, Wetteland, Nen, and Percival were absolute studs during their time and under appreciated. Wagner was dominant. A couple others that never got enough credit for how good they were are Mike Jackson and Keith Foulke. And although some of his hatred can be justified, Armando Benitez had a 7 year span where he was basically untouchable, except in the biggest of big games, LOL.
 
Lou Whitaker.

Will Clark.

Bret Saberhagen.

Willie Randolph.

Dave Parker.

Julio Franco.

Luis Gonzalez.
 
LET SEE

1) McGriff 6 straight 30 homer 100 rbi seasons

2) Will Clark

3) Trevor Hoffman

4) Mike Mussina

what do others think of Hoffman?
 
AUTiger7222 said:
He was very frustrating to watch offensively at times because he could have been so much better. I remember back in 2007 when TP was trying to get him to hit the back to RF with 2 strikes and Andruw refused. He did it for 2 games, back-to-back games in early May of that year against the Padres and ended up picking up game-winning base-hits and then after the 2nd game said "I'm not a RF hitter. I'm a pull hitter." and then went back to trying to jack everything out of the park to LF.
Click to expand...

Well he just got done jacking 92 homers in the previous two years by being a pull hitter. One thing people have to understand is that not all hitters are the same. Some hitters don't have the ability to constantly go to all fields and be successful. And if they do they likely lose a lot of power by doing so. Each player should be coached differently and I don't buy the notion that if a player has had success doing one thing but is suddenly struggling that he should abandon that approach and try something else. Try fixing the actual problem and get that player doing what made them successful in the first place. And in Andruws case that was mashing balls to left field.
 
thewupk said:
Well he just got done jacking 92 homers in the previous two years by being a pull hitter. One thing people have to understand is that not all hitters are the same. Some hitters don't have the ability to constantly go to all fields and be successful. And if they do they likely lose a lot of power by doing so. Each player should be coached differently and I don't buy the notion that if a player has had success doing one thing but is suddenly struggling that he should abandon that approach and try something else. Try fixing the actual problem and get that player doing what made them successful in the first place. And in Andruws case that was mashing balls to left field.
Click to expand...

But you can't mash balls to left-field when pitchers are throwing everything in the dirt away which is exactly what they did to AJ in 2007. A lack of power was no excuse for him. He was plenty strong enough to take pitches on the other part of the plate and hit them out to center and right-center. In 2005 and 06 AJ also had better plate discipline to lay off the junk outside and in the dirt and force pitchers to give him something he could jack out to LF. AJ wasn't as discipline in 2007.
 
AUTiger7222 said:
But you can't mash balls to left-field when pitchers are throwing everything in the dirt away which is exactly what they did to AJ in 2007. A lack of power was no excuse for him. He was plenty strong enough to take pitches on the other part of the plate and hit them out to center and right-center. In 2005 and 06 AJ also had better plate discipline to lay off the junk outside and in the dirt and force pitchers to give him something he could jack out to LF. AJ wasn't as discipline in 2007.
Click to expand...

Andruw had issues of discipline throughout his career. The point is radically changing someones approach is generally not the way to get them playing good again. Getting them back to what they are good at is.
 
thewupk said:
Andruw had issues of discipline throughout his career. The point is radically changing someones approach is generally not the way to get them playing good again. Getting them back to what they are good at is.
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying. But you can't jack pitches that are away from you in the dirt out to LF. It's virtually impossible. You either have to lay off of them or hit them to RF.
 
AUTiger7222 said:
I understand what you're saying. But you can't jack pitches that are away from you in the dirt out to LF. It's virtually impossible. You either have to lay off of them or hit them to RF.
Click to expand...

I understand that. I think getting Andruw to law off those would of been the better thing to attempt instead of trying to get him to use all fields. I mean he was able to put together some good years after LA as a part time player. Nothing like the player he used to be but still useful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top