Batter's Box has published a lineup of the most underrated baseball players, and of course The Geek feels the need to throw in his two cents. So let's indulge him. Besides, there's a great "forgotten ballplayer" to be the catcher on this team. Catcher: Wally Schang. A switch-hitting catcher in the Teens and 1920s who played on World Series winners with Philadelphia A's, Red Sox and Yankees; Baseball Evolution has inducted him into its alternative Hall of Fame.
Schang was a solid defensive catcher who could steal bases and walked a lot (.393 career OBA). Thanks to Boston sportswriting lightning rod Dan Shaughnessy and the Hollywood version of Fever Pitch, you all know about Babe Ruth being sold to the Yankees in 1919; what most people don't realize was it was part of a mass sell-off of players.
It actually began in the middle of the '19 season with star pitcher Carl Mays being traded for a couple pitchers and $40,000 cash, which was big money back then.
A year after the Ruth "trade," Schang was dealt to the Yankees. By the time Evil Empire won its first World Series in 1923, it boasted four ex-Red Sox in the everyday lineup and a pitching staff dominated by five ex-Boston pitchers who accounted for 83 regular-season wins. A Boston newspaper even ran the headline: "Red Sox Alumni Become Champions Of Baseball World." And Bill Simmons' great-great-grandfather was in a really foul mood for the next two weeks.
First base: Bob Watson, although most lists of this nature would pick a more contemporary Houston Astro, Jeff Bagwell, or failing that, Norm Cash or ex-Jays slugger Fred McGriff. Those who are old enough to remember the '70s probably remember Watson mostly for scoring baseball's one-millionth run in 1976 (yes, somebody counted) and making a cameo in one of the Bad News Bears sequels, although it's a little more noteworthy that he was baseball's first African-American general manager with the Yankees in the mid-'90s. One of two Astros on this list, since the Astrodome was so notoriously rough on hitters. Bagwell over the past 15 years, Glenn Davis in the '80s and Rusty Staub ('60s) all played first base for Houston, and all were underrated in their careers.
Second base: Craig Biggio. Believe or not, there was an ESPN.com poll about three years ago where most fans, responding to a Rob Neyer column, said they didn't believe he was Cooperstown-worthy. Biggio fulfills all the criteria of underratedness: hasn't played in a major market and is quietly effective -- patient hitter, surprising power, good glove man, although he doesn't play the glamour defensive position, shortstop. Still going strong at age 40 and has moved into the top 10 all-time in doubles; has eight seasons with 100 runs scored and lost two others to playing in the pitcher-friendly Astrodome. Joe Gordon and Bobby Grich would also fit here.
Third base: Heinie Groh. Dead Ball Era player (career high in home runs: 4) helped the 1919 Cincinnati Reds beat the Black Sox in the World Series and later hit .474 for the New York Giants in the '22 Series. Regularly led National League third basemen in fielding percentage and double plays, and put in context, his stats are impressive than they first appear. He led the NL in on-base average and in doubles twice. Darrell Evans, whom Jays fans remember well from the 1987 Detroit Tigers, is often named the most underrated player ever -- Hardball Times has it right when it says "on every circumstance liable to render a player underrated, Evans scores about an 11 on a 1-10 scale." However, there's already a preponderance of '70s/'80s players, so Groh's the choice here.
Shortstop: Jim Fregosi. Modern fans know him as the classic big-bellied, profane, oft-fired baseball manager, but as a Los Angeles/California Angel he was selected to six All-Star games and managed to pry the Gold Glove away from Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio in 1967. Unfortunately for Fregosi's hitting, he came on the scene just as baseball's second Dead Ball Era was beginning in the early '60s, so his stats look kind of puny, but Bill James has ranked him as the 15th-best shortstop ever.
Left field: Tim Raines. Here's an old Sportspages piece I wrote in 2003 about the lack of respect Raines' career gets, even in Canada. James has ranked him the eighth-best left-fielder of all time, and a few years back Total Baseball ranked him among the top 50 players ever. The runner-up is "Indian" Bob Johnson; the Batter's Box choice for underrated left-fielder is Jose Cruz, another former Astro.
Centre field: Jimmy Wynn. That makes it three hitters for the Astros. Wynn and Joe Morgan came up with Houston at the same time, both were small (at 5-foot-9, Wynn was called "The Toy Cannon"). If he had stayed healthy, had avoided playing in Houston and had maybe been born a few years later, Wynn might have been the first 40-homer, 40-stolen base guy. He had 43 steals in 1965; in '67, he hit 37 homers. To give you an idea of what kind of year it was for hitters, Houston had only two other players crack double-digits in homers. Both had 10.
Right field: Reggie Smith. He was always the "other guy" -- in Boston he played next to Carl Yastrzemski, and later in Los Angeles it was all about that star infield led by Steve Garvey. However, it's telling that every team Smith played regularly for had a winning record; his career park-adjusted OPS (on-base plus slugging relative to the league) is among the top 100 of all time.
Designated hitter: Pedro Guerrero. Spent his whole career in the National League, but never really had a defensive position, playing over 200 games apiece at all four corner spots. He never led the NL in any Triple Crown stat since he played in Dodger Stadium when it a hitter's graveyard, and his best finish in the MVP voting was third, but his 1985 season was probably the second- or third-best of by any NL slugger in the decade, and his lifetime park-adjusted OPS is also among the top 100 of all-time. He was just in the wrong league in in the wrong park in the wrong era.
Right-handed starter: Urb Shocker. No one talked about WHIP (walks plus hits allowed divided by innings pitched) in the 1920s, but Shocker finished in the top 10 in the American League for nine straight seasons before his premature death from tubercleuosis. Had a career .615 winning percentage (187 wins, 117 losses) despite pitching most of his career for the St. Louis Browns in a bandbox ballpark. (Batter's Box criteria was that the player could not be in the Hall of Fame, otherwise it would be Ferguson Jenkins here.)
Left-handed starter: Hippo Vaughn. Old-time Chicago Cubs pitcher from the 1910s had a lifetime .565 winning percentage despite pitching on some lousy teams; won the pitching Triple Crown in 1918.
Closer: Tom Henke. There's probably never been an 8th/9th inning tandem that was more automatic than Duane Ward and "The Terminator" for the Blue Jays between 1988 and '92, but Henke seems to have largely been forgotten. He had only 10 full seasons in the majors, but that was enough to rack up 311 saves. Lifetime, his 1.09 WHIP, 9.81 strikeouts per nine innings and a career ERA that was 56% better than league average all surpass 2006 Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Sutter. Former Royals closer Jeff Montgomery gets some consideration here.
Manager: Billy Southworth. Manager of the Cardinals and Boston Braves in the 1940s; had a career .597 winning percentage and every one of his teams finished in the first division (fourth place or higher).
OTHER BUSINESS
- Canada's own Shawn Hill starts for the Washington Nationals tonight. Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun noted in his column today there are 21 Canadians in the majors, this most in more than a century. Not too shabby for a small, northern country where hockey is king. Incidentally, Hill got his first major-league win on July 4, 2004 for the Expos against the Jays -- a Canadian pitcher in game between two Canadian teams in Puerto Rico on the Fourth of July. You can't make this is up.
- How long before we see this in the NHL? The minor-pro American Hockey League is making visors mandatory next season.
- Get ready for the Bargnani Experience, Raptors fans.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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