My All-Time under appreciated MLB team

Justacommeman

These are MY favorites. Big fan of each of these players for one reason or another and I always found them under appreciated by others. Yours will differ

Can't be in the Hall

1B Norm Cash
2B Bobby Grich
SS Toby Harrah
3B Darrell Evans
RF Dwight Evans
CF Cesar Cedeno
LF Willie Horton
C Ted Simmons
P Mickey Lolich
RP Mike Marshall

I'll pass on the DH

mark

Wingsrule

All sorts of Tigers!

Darin

My lineup:

Willie Wilson CF
Al Oliver LF
Tony Oliva RF
Will Clark 1B
Cecil Cooper DH
Thurman Munson C
Bill Madlock 3B
Frank White 2B
Bert Campaneris SS

Dave McNally P
Dan Quisenberry RP

orioles93

I'll throw out my lineup of guys I feel are under appreciated.

1B Mark Grace
2B Jeff Kent
SS Dave Concepcion
3B Gary Gaetti
RF Dave Parker
CF Jim Edmonds
LF Moises Alou
C Lance Parrish
DH Harold Baines
P Mike Cuellar
RP Billy Wagner

dallasactuary

Some excellent choices on both of your teams. At CF, and this is no coincidence, I think the top two are Cedeno and the man he replaced, Jimmy Wynn. In fact, you could make a credible most underrated team out of nothing but Astros from the 60's - 80's. Bob Watson, Doug Rader, Jose Cruz, BIll Doran and others were all much better than most people realize. And they had bona fide stars like Rusty Staub and Joe Morgan who were destined for careers of obscurity had they not been traded to larger market and/or better teams.

Joe Morgan is especially fascinating to contemplate. When he lost the ROY in 1965 it was, by far, the worst ROY pick in history. And if he hadn't been traded to the Reds, and in so doing creating the Big Red Machine, he would likely have never won an MVP Award, never appeared in a WS let alone won two, and might be thought of today, to the degree he was thought of at all, as comparable to Grich and Whitaker instead of the greatest second baseman of all time. The Astrodome hid many a great career.

Justacommeman

Love the sig line Dallas! You did not disappoint

mark

Coinstartled

Willie Horton was great. In the 1960's your baseball heroes didn't reside in mansions, but if you were real lucky, in your neighborhood.

As we left Livonia in 1965, one Denny McClain moved in three blocks away.

Damn!

dallasactuary

@Darin said:
My lineup:

Willie Wilson CF

This has been nagging at me; if you're going to put a Royals CF on a most underrated team I think it has to be Amos Otis. He was one of my favorites back in the day; a classic example of a player that gets underrated because he wasn't great at anything, but was very good at everything.

Justacommeman

I would have had Otis if not for Cedeno. Keeping Cruz out was tough too

m

Darin

It was actually a toss up for me between Otis or Wilson, before finally settling on Willie.
It was more a lineup choice, Willie was the greatest leadoff
hitter for the Royals of all time. I don't think Mark or Orioles93 actually named their players
in a lineup format, but I did and that affected my decision. I could put Amos in left and bump
Oliver off the team.LOL.
Amos Otis is my second favorite Royal of all-time, behind only George.

I also considered Jose Cruz for my team, but actually forgot about Cedeno.
Both of those players were very good.

Justacommeman

For sure I didn't in line up format otherwise Willie Horton would have to lead off on my team. Not a pretty picture

m

Darin

@Justacommeman said:
For sure I didn't in line up format otherwise Willie Horton would have to lead off on my team. Not a pretty picture

m

Let's make a bet which of our leadoff guys gets more stolen bases during a season. LOL.

Justacommeman

@Darin said:

@Justacommeman said:
For sure I didn't in line up format otherwise Willie Horton would have to lead off on my team. Not a pretty picture

m

Let's make a bet which of our leadoff guys gets more stolen bases during a season. LOL.

Your guy will have more in a double header then my will all season. My team will be managed by Earl Weaver and the three run homer.

m

dallasactuary

But if I'm going to question someone else's team, I guess I need to submit my own team (no batting order consideration):

RF: Bobby Bonds
CF: Jimmy Wynn
LF: Minnie Minoso
SS: Jim Fregosi
3B: Sal Bando
2B: Bobby Grich
1B: Dick Allen
C : Bill Freehan
P: Luis Tiant

I could be convinced that each and every one of these players belongs in the HOF; at the very least, I could make a strong case for each of them. Not even getting close to getting voted into the HOF, and that not raising a peep of protest from the general public, is at least one reasonable way to define "underappreciated".

Gene Tenace remains the most underrated player who ever played the game, but was clearly not a HOFer.

Justacommeman

I had Freehan on my original list. Great team Dallas. I'm surprised you had Bando over Evans. Sal was very very good.

m

orioles93

I almost listed Kenny Lofton as my CF.

dallasactuary

@Justacommeman said:
I had Freehan on my original list. Great team Dallas. I'm surprised you had Bando over Evans. Sal was very very good.

m

Evans was better than Bando, and himself a HOF deserving player, but he hit 400 HR and I think he's also more appreciated than Bando. Bando was the forgotten superstar on a great team - much like Campy, who I also considered - and deserves so much more credit than he gets for what made that team great. Reggie and {barf} Hunter get all the credit, and the only HOF spots, but Bando, Campy, Rudi and Tenace were great year in and year out, and they got a "where did that come from?" year out of Mike Epstein in 1972 that earned him more MVP votes than Reggie. Fun fact about the 1974 A's - Dick Green almost won the World Series MVP despite going hitless for the entire Series.

Darin

Dallas- Thanks for explaining why Gene Tenace wasn't on your team.
He was the first player I was looking for when I saw your post. LOL.