Stark on Overrated and Underrated Players

This past spring I read  The Stark Truth , by Jayson Stark, a columnist and frequent commentator on ESPN. Overall, I found the book a worthwhile read: I have one major criticism, but his topic is a lot of fun so I thought I’d share my reflections on his choices of the most overrated and underrated players of all time.

I like Mr. Stark when he appears on ESPN. But I do not like his writing style. Or at least, I don’t like his style in this book (I’m not familiar with his writing style for the Philadelphia Inquirer). I found myself only being able to read this book in 10-page sections — that is how annoying I found his approach! Practically every sentence — certainly every paragraph — tried to be cute and clever. I literally yelled out a few times “Stop! Just write like a normal, boring person for a few pages, please!” His style is just too over-the-top for me — frankly, I’ve never read any other author quite like this.

But his topic certainly was an interesting one: selecting the five most underrated and the five most overrated baseball players at each position, and detailing why in each case. For someone like me, this is great fun.

I generally agreed with many of his selections, though I’m sure if I spent enough time my lists of five would have come out differently in many cases. A few random bits I’ll note here, as teaser for any readers who might be inclined to get the book:

• I definitely like the inclusion of Don Drysdale as second on the overrated RHP list after the consensus-#1 selection of Nolan Ryan. I’m actually not as down on Ryan as most other serious baseball fans are, but I agree with Drysdale here. And I like his top three for underrated RHP: Feller, Marichal, and Blyleven.
• I don’t know that Frank Tanana deserves to be 4th on the list of overrated LHP (who really thinks of his career that highly?), though I agree that Barry Zito deserves to be 5th given his current fat contract. For most underrated LHP, Babe Ruth is an interesting selection. And I like Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, and Lefty Grove as next on this list — they are known as all-time greats, but could use a bit more recognition I think.
• I definitely agree with Lee Smith as top of the most overrated relief pitcher list, and also agree with Goose Gossage as top of the most underrated. Oh, and my personal favorite pitcher as a kid, and the one who I patterned my own pitching style after — Dan Quisenberry — makes it as 5th on the most underrated list too.
• My dad would probably be glad to read the section on Yogi Berra as the most underrated catcher of all-time (as he and I used to argue over who was the all-time best at the position, Bench or Berra). And many would agree with including Ted Simmons and Gary Carter somewhere in the top-5 for most underrated too.
• Steve Garvey is the top most-overrated 1B, and I agree he should at least be on the list somewhere. And ditto for Tony Perez who is listed 4th, and for Gil Hodges who is listed 5th (and will likely one day be one of the most marginal Hall-of-Famers ever, joining Perez in that respect). Choosing Hank Greenberg as the most underrated 1B of all time is a fine selection in my opinion.
• I cracked a smile when I saw Steve Sax as the most overrated 2B — definitely agree there. The most underrated 2B list includes Craig Biggio and Bobby Grich, two good choices. He then lists Rogers Hornsby third, which is very odd since he is generally regarded as one of the all-time best at the position. Stark’s reason is his anger at the Cardinals for not having Hornsby as one of their five nominees for Greatest Cardinal in History — a mistake with which I agree 100% (Umm… Lou Brock instead of Hornsby? Really?)
• I would have probably listed Pie Traynor as #1 most overrated 3B over Graig Nettles. But for most underrated I gotta agree with Ron Santo: when will he get into the HOF? Eddie Mathews, Darrell Evans, and Ken Boyer are also good choices on this list.
• At SS, clearly Phil Rizzuto had to be on the most overrated list somewhere and being first is fine with me. Stark lists Barry Larkin as the most underrated, and I’ll agree with that if Barry should struggle to get into the HOF when his time comes.
• I won’t argue with Lou Brock as the most overrated LF of all-time, and I definitely agree that Stan Musial, Tim Raines, Ralph Kiner, and Minnie Minoso are underrated.
• I don’t know about listing Andruw Jones as the most overrated CF of all-time — he is still surprisingly young, so I have a wait-and-see attitude on his career. Hack Wilson though… definitely… he’d be my #1 here. And speedsters Juan Pierre, Mickey Rivers and Omar Moreno are good choices here too. Stark makes a good point about Duke Snider being overshadowed by Mickey and Willie, and I like Jimmy Wynn’s inclusion on the all-underrated CF list too. And Tris Speaker… how often do you think of Tris Speaker when you think of Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner? Not often enough I bet.
• I like listing Darryl Strawberry as an overrated RF, and Chuck Klein too: He had a few huge seasons, but during the everyone-hits-well 1930s and he played in the Baker Bowl and those two factors inflated his numbers. I like listing Frank Robinson as underrated here, because like Speaker in CF, how often do you automatically think of Frank along with Mays, Mantle, and Aaron? And Dwight Evans was a consistently good player, but always overshadowed for me by Jim Rice’s more explosive numbers.

A final section is also a lot of fun, as Stark lists his choices for top-3 underrated and top-3 overrated by franchise. This involves some repeats from the lists-by-position, but some additional names are introduced too.

So my writing-style criticism aside, if you are a big baseball fan you will enjoy this book, so check it out at your local bookstore or order it from Amazon !

(This posting is re-posted with only minor edits from its original publication at my Philosopher Stone blog on April 6, 2008 .)