[lists] fifty most overrated baseball players, Nolan at the top of this guys list

I know the bottom line seems to be winning, but when Ryan leads the league in ERA, Ks, fewest hits per 9 innings, best K to BB ration at 40 years old and goes 8-16 for the Astros, it's hard to blame his lack of wins vs. losses on him.

 

The author's bio says everything you need to know about his list:

Graduated from Penn State University and now live in LA with my girlfriend and dog. Have a huge passion for all teams New York...

 

Also, he has Denny McLain on his list because he only had two great years. I don't think any expert rates McLain as a top pitcher in the annals of baseball. He is rightfully acknowledged for his 31 win year, but I doubt he ranks very high on all time pitcheing greats, so I don't see how he is overrated.

 

Didn't even read when I saw it was from http://bleacherreport.com

 

It kills me that the chron is reposting bleacher report crap....they somehow found articles less worthwhile than Justice and McClain blogs.

 

Most of the list is like that. Who really overrates Mo Vaughn and Brady Anderson? He also penalizes a lot of guys who got hurt and were never the same, like Nomar.

Also, there is a case to be made that Nolan Ryan is overrated. This guy doesn't make it. He doesn't even mention that Ryan is the all-time leader in walks given up.

Oh, well. One guy's opinion.

 

I'd like to see this guy CATCH a ball at top Ryan speed... with his face.

 

I hate this list, most of these modern players who were never highly touted

"Glimpses of greatness makes you overrated," author said. Why exactly? Not really unless the media builds hype on that player.

Some of these players were never highly touted to begin with, while others were as one say a flawed player.

red = too high or why are they on the list the first place
blue = career isn't over yet


50. Jorge Posada
49. David Ortiz
48. Alfonso Soriano
47. Cliff Lee
46. Jason Varitek
45. Jose Canseco
44. Scott Brosius
43. Brady Anderson
42. Chuck Finley
41. Phil Rizzuto
40. Lou Brock
39. Jonathan Papelbon
38. Vernon Wells
37. Joe Torre
36. Kirk Gibson
35. Johnny Sain
34. Bernie Williams
33. Brooks Robinson
32. Wade Boggs
31. Edgar Martinez
30. Sammy Sosa
29. Denny McClain
28. Mike Mussina
27. Larry Walker
26. Ken Caminiti
25. Omar Visquel
24. Richie Ashburn
23. Ralph Kiner
22. Ozzie Smith
21. Phil Niekro
20. Dave Stewart
19. Jason Giambi
18. Thurman Munson
17. Bucky
16. Pee Wee Reese
15. Joe Carter
14. Barry Zito
13. Nomar Garciaparra
12. Mike Piazza
11. Jack Clark
10. Mark McGwire
9. Hideo Nomo
8. Darryl Strawberry
7. Don Mattingly
6. Mo Vaughn
5. Pete Rose
4. Don Sutton
3. Carl Yastrzemki
2. Roger Maris
1. Nolan Ryan

 

^^^^

what does black mean?

 

Wow. What a buffoon. Sensationalism doesn't earn you credibility, bleacher report writer.

 

Which we all just gave a healthy amount of free web hits....

 

Red Too High or Why are they even on the list.

Nolan Ryan (look at some of teams he played for, some of the greatest pictures ever would not win 15 games playing for 70-late 80s version of Rangers and Angels)

Pete Rose (What about his on base percentage and his super low strikeout ratio; 52 a year, he and Barry Bonds do not get enough credit for that, it shows great patience in a hitter)

Don Sutton (Is rated fairly in baseball history, not in the running for the greatest pitcher ever, but very good pitcher nevertheless, if a player does reach 300 wins, I think is a worthy hall of fame nomination since the feat started to become rarer and rarer)

Hideo Nomo (Huh? He was never considered elite pitcher, except briefly with his 2nd stint with Dodgers in a very weak 2002-2003 National League. He was never put in the same league as say Maddux; Clemens; or arguably fairly mild player, like Jaime Moyer. He's still the most well-known Japanese player, because there still hasn't be too many breakout Japanese players in the Majors, outside of Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki. He is by far the best Japanese pitcher ever in the MLB history. He is still recognize as the most famous baseball player from Japan by Japanese and American people).

Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire (Should not be on this list, granted there batting averages could be higher, but both players are like two of the most devastating offensive players in history. McGwire only had three seasons where he hit under 24 homeruns, 2 were from injury and 1 was his rookie season. In their best seasons, I thought their batting averages were pretty fair, McGwire actually had very high career on base percentage, 79th all time in front of the likes of Rod Carew; Joe Morgan; Honus Wagner; Tony Gwynn; and A-Rod.I actually think both players should've been first ballot HOF, even with the steroids controversy. Sosa had 3 60+ home run seasons and was fairly good at stealing bases early in his career; on baseball reference both players are ranked #102 (McGwire) and #158 (Sosa) all time, which is very low for both of them.

Edgar Martinez (He's like the one of the most underrated players ever along with Rafael Palmeiro and Lance Berkman; OBP is 24th all time; his slugging is 69th all time )

Darryl Strawberry (Was rated fairly when he was actually good, he was one of the premier players in baseball and might have been one of the best 1st nine year runs in the history of major league baseball, 10 seasons over 20 home runs in a era where it was not as common, he actually had a good career for most players)



The bottom guys (39. - 40.); seriously I think he just started putting names on the list at that point, some of those guys are not seen as franchise players anyway or even seen as hall of fame worthy, much less being hyped up by the media. Jose Canseco was pretty good in his earlier days, but he wasn't as highly rated or consider such stalwart once he was moved to Texas. When were Chuck Finley; Ken Caminiti; and Brady Anderson overrated?

 

Blue is players, like Posada; Cliff Lee; David Ortiz; Alfonso Soriano; and Vernon Wells

 

Wait, this guy has Nolan Ryan and Pete Rose in the top 5 over-rated?!?

What a waste of time reading that article.

The greatest strikeout pitcher that ever lived and one of the greatest hitters of all time overrated?

Caminiti at 26? I thought you actually needed to be over-hyped before you are overrated...sheesh

 

Well, I saw that it was a slide show and closed the link. Those things are tedious. Just give me the damn list. (thanks, plutoblue)

 

He doesn't know what he talking about that list has serveral Hall of Famers on it .

 

I love love love Nolan Ryan, but I do agree that he is one of the most overrated players in history and it has nothing to do with his W/L record. Ryan certainly deserves to be a Hall of Famer, but most people would rank him as one of the Top 5 or 10 pitchers of all-time (not to mention his record HoF ballot) and he's just not.

I think he's overrated for a variety of reasons. He pitched most of his career in an offensively-depressed era and in extreme pitcher's parks, which artifically deflated his ERA. His career ERA+, which corrects for park and league factors, is only 112. He only had 2 seasons of >200 IP and >140 ERA+ - in 1976, he had an ERA of 3.36, and that was below average from an ERA+ perspective!

Yes, Ryan is the K king, no doubt about it, but he's also the BB king, and by a far greater margin. His career 2.04 K/BB ratio is just not very good, equaled or bettered by pitchers like Kyle Lohse and Brett Tomko. The name of the game for a pitcher is not allowing baserunners, and while strikeouts are a great way to do that, Nolan allowed a lot of baserunners for such a dominant arm. His 1.25 WHIP ranks 265th all-time.

So, in the end, Ryan is certainly a HoF pitcher, but by no means a first-tier one.