Good/great forgotten players of yesteryear

[Cedrique]

Those 70's Braves teams had some poor timing. Monster years at the plate from Aaron/Evans/Johnson and led the NL in scoring in 1973, but were let down by crappy pitching and went 76-85-1. Those players regress and they finish only 8th in the NL in scoring, but went from 12th in the NL in ERA in 1973 to 2nd. Improved to 88-74, but still finished 3rd in the West.

Yeah they had some bats but I think they had bad defense too. Plus it was a lot harder to make the playoffs back then with only 2 divisions and no wild cards. And the Reds and Dodgers were loaded in the 70's.

 

[obxyankeefan]

I was thinking about Cleon Jones until you said he played for the White Sox.

 

[navamind]

Yeah they had some bats but I think they had bad defense too. Plus it was a lot harder to make the playoffs back then with only 2 divisions and no wild cards. And the Reds and Dodgers were loaded in the 70's.

Yeah, even if they did get those 1973 seasons in 1974 it probably wouldn't have been enough to overtake the Dodgers

 

[Cedrique]

And keeping up with the topic, I'll throw in Ron Fairly. Career .266/.360/.408 hitter (117 OPS+), played a long time (21 seasons and 8437 PA) though he was more of a platoon player (.278/.374/.428 in 6634 PA vs righties, .221/.309/.333 in 1786 PA vs lefties)

I knew of him but I just looked him up. I didn't realize he was that good. Rusty Staub was another very good lefty hitter from that era. Except Staubs splits were a little better. Which leads to this question--I'm not saying Staub was as good a hitter as Edgar and Ortiz, but when we compare the WAR for these guys does a DH have an advantage over someone like Staub by not having to play defense? It seems like Staub's atrocious defensive skills bring him down a little. If nothing else, Staub looks Baines-ish. Lifetime OPS was .793 to Baines .820 but Rusty was playing a lot of games in Houston and for the Mets. When he went to Montreal for 3 years he banged out 78 homers.

 

[Cedrique]

Roy Halladay wanted to advertise the Doc Bar by flying one of those planes across the beach with a banner trailing behind, but the idea just kinda fell flat.

Billy Bean had a candy bar for a while. It sucked.
I heard Carl Crawford had a candy bar but I don't believe it.

 

[navamind]

Jim Gilliam. Utility player with a career .366 OBP, amassed 45 WAR with the Dodgers. Double play partners with Pee Wee Reese

 

[catman]

Jim Gilliam. Utility player with a career .366 OBP, amassed 45 WAR with the Dodgers. Double play partners with Pee Wee Reese

Gilliam could play anywhere the team asked him to play. He could have caught and pitched.

 

[broncosmitty]

And keeping up with the topic, I'll throw in Ron Fairly. Career .266/.360/.408 hitter (117 OPS+), played a long time (21 seasons and 8437 PA) though he was more of a platoon player (.278/.374/.428 in 6634 PA vs righties, .221/.309/.333 in 1786 PA vs lefties)

I don’t even remember seeing this guys baseball card.


And his career is prolly longer than my dad’s baseball card collection.

 

[navamind]

Lon Warneke

very good pitcher and a pretty good hitter for a pitcher

 

[msgkings322]

Jorge Orta - White Sox 1972-1979. Harry Caray could never pronounce "Hor-hay", just called him "George"

 

[navamind]

Edgardo Alfonzo. Really good player for a while (hit .297/.380/.464 with a 120 OPS+ and 27.9 WAR from 97-02 with three top 10 finishes), but fell off a cliff in San Fran. 2000 was his best year at the plate, hitting .324/.425/.542 with a 147 OPS+.

 

[Sportsguy9695]

How bout Ken Griffey Jr. he killed the ball every time he came to the plate

 

[catman]

How bout Ken Griffey Jr. he killed the ball every time he came to the plate

I don't believe anyone would consider Ken Griffey, Jr. forgotten.

 

[Cedrique]

What about Cal Ripken?

 

[navamind]

I didn't read all the pages, but I'll throw out some players who I feel are underappreciated

Ross Barnes - One of the first super stars in baseball.

Gavvy Cravath - Led NL in home runs 6 times in 7 years in his 30s, just before Babe Ruth changed the definition of Home Run.

Eric Davis - his 86 & 87 seasons are extremely underrated (combined for 64 HRs and 130 SB)

Wilbur Wood - Knuckleballer who had successful seasons both as a starter and a reliever

Charlie Hough - Another knuckleballer, just consistent for most of his 25 year career.

Bill Bergen - Could make an argument that he's one of the best defensive catchers ever, but completely inept with a bat.


Now, as a Mariner's fan, I'll add a few of those here (even if they aren't on anyone else's list):

Jay Buhner
Alvin Davis
Mark Langston
Erik Hansen
Danny Tartabull
Mike Schooler
Brian Holman
Jaime Moyer
Dan Wilson
Kazahiro Sasaki

Was just looking at Charlie Hough... didn't realize he pitched for 25 seasons. Most of his career value came from age 34 onwards (34.5 WAR of his 39.0 WAR), throwing 2858.1 IP over that span. Impressive.

 

[catman]

What about Cal Ripken?

Sr? He was a decent fielding, poor hitting catcher that played in the minors for 7 seasons.