Trying to write about the most overrated baseball players of all time is tough. The sport has been around since before the 1880s. As I did my homework, several names that were mentioned by so-called "experts" shocked me.
One name in particular I've seen is Pete Rose! I understand that his ridiculous amount of hits comes from playing for such a long time, but there's no way he can be called overrated.
He made the All-Star team at four different positions, has the most hits ever, and even has over 3,300 singles. He played hard, never gave up on any play, and even took out Ray Fosse in the All-Star game. You never see players play that hard in the All-Star game.
Anyway, my list consists of players that some may consider great. But, as I learned from the "is Jeter overrated" topic, you have to be considered a great player to be called overrated.
Here we go.
Nolan Ryan
The fireballer had 324 wins, 5,714 strikeouts, and seven no-hitters. That's the good news. Now for the hard facts. Ryan has the lowest winning percentage of any 300-game winner. He only won 20 games twice, and this was at a time before set-up men. It was also a time when pitchers started more than 40 games in a season.
Look at it this way: Ryan's win percentage was only slightly higher than the other pitchers he played with, .526 compared with .499. He never won a Cy Young award and only finished in the top three in voting three times in his 27 years. He also has the highest walks per nine innings of all 300-game winners, at 4.67.
Don Drysdale
While his earned run average was 2.95, he only had two years where he won more than 20 games. His win percentage was .526 and he played for a team, the Dodgers, that had the best team win-percentage in the National League during his tenure.
He also only had two full seasons where he lost fewer than 10 games, not exactly stats from a Hall of Famer that played on a great team his entire career.
Okay, I've been reading a lot of Jayson Stark, but he does make some good points.
Phil Rizzuto
Nicknamed Scooter, he has the most baseball quotes of anyone other than Yogi Berra, but he may just be the most overrated player in the Hall of Fame. He played 13 seasons with the New York Yankees, and, while his career was interrupted by World War II, and only managed a career batting average of .273.
While he was spectacular with the glove, he was rarely a great hitter. Yet he finished second in MVP voting in 1949 with a .275 batting average, .352 on-base percentage, and a .358 slugging percentage. And he won the award the following year with a respectable .324 batting average, .418 on-base percentage, and .439 slugging percentage.
Denny McLain
We all know about his legal troubles: McLain was suspended for consorting with gamblers, and he was convicted of racketeering, loan-sharking, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. But he also only had two dominant seasons.
His earned run average was slightly better than the league average during his career. He also only had five good seasons, even though his team, the Detroit Tigers, won 90 or more games three times and won the World Series in 1968. In 1970, he was suspended by Major League Baseball, and when he came back the next season, he posted a 10-22 record.
Reggie Jackson
This one may get some question marks, but Mr. October was only a one-dimensional player. While his one dimension was pretty good, he played the outfield and there are dozens of better outfielders.
He was only a .262 career hitter and only managed a .490 slugging percentage, and this is a guy that was supposed to crush the baseball. He only scored over 100 runs once in 21 seasons, and he could only muster an average of 134 games played a year.
Mr. October only finished in the top three in MVP voting twice and only struck out less than 100 times twice. Okay, so he delivered once in the postseason, but he wasn't a good teammate and was paid a lot of money.
Who's on your list?
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3 months ago
I liked this article better when it was written in book form and authored by Jayson Stark. Come up with something original.
3 months ago
I did get the first two from the book, but the fact is he made some good points about why they are overrated. I have seen many others say that Nolan Ryan is the most overrated player as well...so Jayson Stark wasn't all that original either. He just backed it up with stats.
I have not actually read the book so I have to ask, are Jackson, McLain and Rizzuto in the book also?
3 months ago
Nolan Ryan only had such a low winning percentage because he played on some genuinely atrocious teams. For example, he had a 2.76 ERA in 1987, but was somehow 8-16. In the years from 1972-1974, he always had an ERA under three, but also lost 16 games each season. Give the man some run support and he would have come close to winning 400 games.
3 months ago
I agree with the Nolan Ryan comment by Joe. But Reggie Jackson??? Before he got to NY he was on some great Championship teams in Oakland, he was a part of a great nucleus there, and it carried over to NY.
Who cares if he was a great teammate? Ask any of those players if the DIDN'T want Reggie on their team.
3 months ago
Saying Ryan pitched in a time before set up men works against your argument. If there were set up mine he would have likely had more no-decisions, keep his winning percentage higher. He was often overworked and gave up runs in latter innings, resulting in losses.
3 months ago
I am going to have to agree with what was said above regarding Ryan. I consider him one of the best pitchers of all time, and his paltry winning percentage doesn't sway me. He played on the 1987 Houston Astros, for goodness sake. He posted a great 2.76 ERA, but only got the run support for eight wins. Only two batters on the entire roster had a batting average over .300! The highest amount of RBI on the team was 96. Ouch.
from 3 months ago
Agreed. Wins and losses rarely tell the full story of a pitcher, and Ryan is a perfect example of that. To say he's not one of the greatest pitchers of the last 50 years when you just base it on wins is pretty ridiculous.
Also, he gave up walks, but not hits. See: seven no-hitters. That's a feat that may never be accomplished again.
3 months ago
Denny McLain isn't overrated.
from 3 months ago
Agreed
3 months ago
Hmmm, Let's see ... if I was starting a team from scratch ... yep, yep, I'll take 'em all. Just send me the paperwork.
3 months ago
I agree with LJ, as usual he is the voice of reason here.
3 months ago
All of you guys make great points...that said who would you choose as the most overrated player(s) of all-time.
Just curious what your thoughts are.
from 3 months ago
I thought Jeter was going to be in here and thank god you didn't put him in here because the people who voted in SI must of been retarded. How is somebody with a .300+ batting average, in his prime one of the best fielders at his position, and a great teammate overrated?
3 months ago
Each person has their own idea as to who is overrated. I do want to suggest that you revisit the information of Don Drysdale. I followed Don Drysdale his entire career. Being a Member of the Hall of Fame there is no question he has statistics that shine such as the 58 consecutive shutout innings he pitched in 1968, 167 career complete games with a 1/4 of them as shutouts, the fact that he hit 29 Home Runs as a pitcher in his career. No, this goes deeper than that.
It is difficult to describe Drysdale. He was huge and rugged, an outdoorsman who was an athlete. Standing 6-5 and weighing 220 he was as big as NBA power forwards at that time. His fastball was a frightening thing to behold, and he knew how to use it. He was a King brushback pitcher. He was the intimidator before Gibson and Mariachal. He used his brusher as a weapon, 154 hit batsmen, a modern NL record. He was quoted in The Times in 1962, "if they(Giants) hit one of mine, I'm going to get three of theirs and I'm not talking about .220 hitters either". His teammates loved him, he had their back and the other team knew it. His number 53 is retired by the Dodgers, he won 3 Cy Young awards, and was an 8 time all star who was a superstar on 3 World Series Champions.
Upon reflection you may feel as I do, that Don Drysdale is one of the most underrated and under appreciated stars of the 20th century. But that's my opinion. I enjoy reading good writing so keep up the fine work.
3 months ago
I've always thought Ryan was a bit overrated. He's got something like 4000 walks to go along with all of those losses. Compare him to a guy like Randy Johnson who strikes out batters at a higher clip, won 4 Cy Young awards and learned to control his nasty stuff. Its not really very close in my opinion.
3 months ago
You forget that Nolan Ryan pitched for the Angels and Astros for many years. Those teams were horrible, Cy Young would have had similar numbers. When you get 1 run a game it is hard for anyone to have a winning record. Give me a break!!!!!!!!
3 months ago
Nolan Ryan!!!!!????? What the hell are you smoking!? First off, you use the fact that he had a low winning percentage as a reason why he ranks as an overrated player in "your world". Well I'll tell you something, winning percentage for a pitcher to me is one of the most overrated statistics. Here's a wake up call buddy, a pitcher can only win a game if the offense hitting for him scores runs! Nolan Ryan played for some pretty weak offensive teams over the course of his career. If your team can't score at least a couple runs for you, then you aren't gonna win a whole lot of games. Let me use a recent example to make you see my point. Brandon Webb, ace of the Diamondbacks this year, has been a good pitcher for for many years, but he didn't really get acknowledged for it until last year when the Diamondbacks made the playoffs (due in large part to their talented offense). Prior to last year, Brandon Webb got little to no offensive support in his previous years of pitching and consequently his win total was not very high, BUT he was still the same pitcher.
So, in closing, before you look at a pitcher's winning percentage, why don't you first consider their ERA, strikeout to walk ratio, innings pitched, and games pitched. A pitcher cannot WIN a game by himself. Nolan Ryan is now and forever will be one of the best pitchers of all time. Oh, and by the way, I was never a fan of any team he ever played for, in case you think my opinion is biased.
from 3 months ago
Matt, I agree with you about ERA and K/BB ratio, but since when are "games pitched" and "innings pitched" top notch indicators of the quality of a pitcher? Would that mean that Joe Blanton had a great season last year? Or Livan Hernandez a few years back when he had around 10 CGs? No way. Sure, longevity is some mark of a good pitcher, but when you're talking about the best of the best, its much less meaningful.
By today's standards, Ryan's K/BB was below average. It wasn't even close to 2/1. He did have a real nice ERA, and he did throw those 7 no-hitters, but in my opinion the latter stat plays only a minor role when ranking a pitcher among the all time greats. Because then you have to look at perfect games too, and how many no-hitters equals one perfect game? I'm just saying, something like that is very hard to objectify. I agree that Ryan is one of the top 15 or 20 pitchers of all time, so he sure was great. But it seems like a lot of people would put him top 5 or 10, which seems too high to me.
3 months ago
i think another overrated player was ozzie guillen in his day......of course he is one of the best defense of short stops of all time and he was great in the post season he didnt even have a career 275 batting average with less then 100 Homers
2 months ago
Dumbest S@#$ i've ever seen. Nolan Ryan overrated. SHUT THE F#@$ UP!
Are you seriously only looking at his winning percentage? How about BAA?
He dominated and had a + .500 record on crap teams. ASK the players who batted against him if he was overrated.
Oh, and by the way the 1973 Cy Young should have been his. He had 1 less win and 0.47 higher era than Palmer. However, he had 9 more CG and 225 MORE K's. (On a team that was 79-83 that year).
When I search for overrated baseball players I don't want to see this Nolan Ryan was barely a winning pitcher BS anymore.
Who are those other guys???? Reggie Jackson hit 3HR in a game. Other than that, he sucked.
2 months ago
Bryan,
Wow...glad to see you're awake. Anyway, apparently you don't do your homework because Nolan Ryan is listed on many overrated lists...I can show you if you would like further proof that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Remeber that you have to be a great player in order to be considered overrated.
Also, what do you mean "who are those other guys"? It seems as though you agree that Jackson is overrated?
Who would you consider to be overrated??
from 2 months ago
He is on 'many overrated lists'!!! Brilliant! So that is what you are trying to do here, be like all the other dumb sports writers. Apologies John, I thought you were trying to write your own thoughts about sports. But if all you are trying to do is be like every other writer then nevermind. I retract my comments; you have accomplished your mission.
And I just read where you stole the idea and Nolan Ryan from Jayson Stark. Jayson is wrong about his Nolan Ryan argument as well. But he puts something called thought and time into his statements.
Why am I posting on this blog. This is a blog right? No wait you have articles? Oh, thats probably a blog. No mas.
Late
2 months ago
Bryan,
I'm not trying to be like the others but when a professional writer makes a good point, I think it's worth putting down in a blog. Jayson also wrote a book, I don't think people want to read a book about each player...so I just put some facts down on the page.
I love the comment about my blog...this coming from a guy who hasn't written anything on this site. I think comments from people who can't even write something themselves is pretty lame.
But hey, keep up the good work and maybe we'll see one of your blogs one day.
You never did answer the question...who would you put on the MLB overrated list?
2 months ago
Nolan Ryan was the most unhittable pitcher ever when he was on. He played for two teams that gave him absolutely no run support(just look at how he allowed the fewest hits per 9 innings EVER). Nolan Ryan had 61 career shutouts. Ozzie Smith was the most overrated player ever. He only had 30 or more doubles 4 times. 3 times he hit exactly 30 doubles. His career batting average was .262 and he also had 20 or more errors 5 times robbing Barry Larkin of a at least 6 golden gloves. Also how many homeruns did Ozzie hit, 28(lifetime)? For Larkin's career, he had a career average of .295, 198 career homeruns and in the playoffs hit .338.
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