Billy Butler and Baseball's 10 Most Underrated Hitters

Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine knew he had to be careful with Billy Butler on Tuesday night. His club was clinging to a 4-3 lead against Butler's Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Butler was coming up with two men on and nobody out.

Valentine took Daniel Bard out and put in Matt Albers. Butler greeted him by launching a go-ahead three-run homer deep into the night. Like a boss.

You have to love guys like Billy Butler. He may look like a truck driver, but the dude is one of the best hitters in baseball.

Despite that, one gets the sense that a lot of people aren't really aware of how good Butler is. He's painfully underrated, and he's far from the only hitter in baseball who doesn't get the love he deserves.

Here's a countdown of the 10 most underrated hitters in baseball.

10. Alexei Ramirez, SS, Chicago White Sox

2012 Line: .192/.211/.256

Career Line: .274/.318/.413

Alexei Ramirez is off to a brutal start this season, and that's more than a little concerning given how he regressed as a hitter in 2011.

The good news for the White Sox is that Ramirez is bound to turn things around eventually. His track record speaks for itself, as Ramirez has been one of the best hitting shortstops in baseball since 2008.

From 2008 until now, the only shortstops with more hits than Ramirez are Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez, and Ramirez no longer plays shortstop. Ramirez has also racked up 298 RBI since 2008, which ranks fourth among shortstops.

Ramirez finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2008, and he won a Silver Slugger in 2010. Despite those accomplishments, a lot of fans think he's actually overrated.

Relative to the other players at his position, he's not. Few shortstops have handled a bat better than Ramirez over the last couple of seasons.

9. Josh Willingham, OF, Minnesota Twins

2012 Line: .303/.415/.584

Career Line: .263/.362/.479

Josh Willingham's first season in Minnesota is going better than a lot of people expected it would. He had a very solid season with the Oakland A's in 2011, but he's been even better so far this season.

Willingham's track record suggests he's not going to be able to maintain a .300 average. Between 2007 and last year, he consistently hovered in the .245-to-.265 range, which makes him merely an average hitter by typical major-league standards.

One thing Willingham has always done in his relatively brief career is hit for power. He averaged 22 home runs a year between 2006 and 2011, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Nothing too sexy, perhaps, but there aren't too many outfielders who have hit more home runs than Willingham.

I view Willingham as a kind of perennial B-student. He always does well, but he never stands out and never gets any recognition. He's never made an All-Star Game appearance or won a Silver Slugger. In fact, the most notable thing he's done in his career is finish ninth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2006.

If he stays on his current pace, this could be the year Willingham finally gets his due. 

8. Omar Infante, 2B, Miami Marlins

2012 Line: .309/.340/.638

Career Line: .276/.319/.400

Omar Infante is having a pretty strange season so far. It's not a shock that he's hitting over .300, but what's weird is that he's doing so with a BABIP under .300. He also has just 13 RBI to go along with his six home runs.

Though he's only been an everyday player in the National League for a couple of seasons, Infante has been one of the more consistent hitters in the Senior Circuit since he joined the Atlanta Braves in 2008. Since then, he has a batting average of .297. That puts him just barely behind Adrian Gonzalez and our friend, Billy Butler.

Infante had his best season in 2010, a year in which he hit .321. Only a handful of hitters in the league hit for a higher average, and Infante ranked above star hitters like Robinson Cano and Ichiro Suzuki.

Infante made his one-and-only All-Star appearance that year. Don't be surprised if he makes another one this year. If he does, that's when we can stop calling him underrated.

7. Ben Zobrist, INF/OF, Tampa Bay Rays

2012 Line: .206/.361/.433

Career Line: .255/.348/.434

Ben Zobrist hasn't quite gotten rolling yet this season, but his track record suggests it's just a matter of time before he does. Since 2009, Zobrist has been one of the more dynamic hitters in all of baseball.

From 2009 until now, Zobrist boasts a batting line of .264/.366/.452, and he's been good for about 20 home runs and 90 RBI each year. To boot, he's tacked on 61 stolen bases since '09.

Zobrist's 2009 season, in particular, was excellent. He hit .297/.405/.543 with 27 home runs and 91 RBI. The only player with a higher WAR that season was Albert Pujols, according to FanGraphs. 

Since the start of that season, Zobrist's WAR is an even 20.0. That ranks him ahead of players like Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez and Robinson Cano.

To be fair, I'd say Zobrist is more underrated as a player than he is as a hitter. He's one of the most versatile players in baseball, and he's been an invaluable asset for Joe Maddon's Rays team over the last couple of seasons. Offensively, there really aren't that many players who can match his set of skills.

6. Corey Hart, OF, Milwaukee Brewers

2012 Line: .240/.325/.510

Career Line: .276/.333/.488

Corey Hart entered Tuesday's action mired in a bad slump. At the end of the day on April 25, he was hitting .305/.408/.746 with six homers and 13 RBI. He hasn't added to those numbers since.

This is Hart's M.O. He's a streaky hitter who can be extremely hot one moment and then go cold for several weeks.

Despite the fact that he's had his ups and downs throughout his brief career, Hart has always managed to put up solid numbers. These numbers just tend to get overshadowed, which is bound to happen when one has to share a lineup with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

Since 2007, Hart has hit exactly 119 home runs. That's more than Evan Longoria and Robinson Cano have hit, and there aren't many outfielders who have hit more home runs over that span. Hart's .493 slugging percentage since 2007 doesn't look all that great, but it ranks him ahead of notable sluggers like Carlos Quentin and Jay Bruce.

Hart has gotten some All-Star love in his career, but this is the first year of his career in which he hasn't had to play second fiddle to Braun and Fielder.

5. Michael Bourn, OF, Atlanta Braves

2012 Line: .328/.397/.397

Career Line: .274/.339/.360

Michael Bourn is on track to have the best season of his major league career. His .328 batting average ranks among the National League leaders, and he's once again tearing up the basepaths.

Bourn came into his own in 2009, when he was still with the Houston Astros. He hit .285 that year with a .354 OBP. His improved ability to get on base allowed him to steal 61 bases.

Nevertheless, Bourn is often overlooked when the best leadoff hitters in baseball are discussed, and that's simply not fair. Since 2009, only three players in the National League have collected more hits, and none of them are leadoff hitters. 

Overall, Ichiro has more hits than anybody in baseball since 2009. Bourn, however, has him beat in both wOBA (see FanGraphs) and WAR. 

At the rate he's going, Bourn isn't going to stay under the radar for long. Anybody who hasn't noticed that he's one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball will catch on soon.

4. Shin-Soo Choo, OF, Cleveland Indians

2012 Line: .221/.343/.314

Career Line: .288/.382/.466

As you can clearly see, it's been a rough season for Shin-Soo Choo so far. For that matter, 2011 was a pretty rough season for him, too.

I'm including him on this list because Choo is a much better hitter than he's shown over the last year and a half or so. Between 2008 and 2010, he was one of the best hitters in baseball.

Those three seasons saw Choo hit .302/.397/.500 with 56 home runs, and he outperformed some heavy-hitters. He had a higher OPS than Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Evan Longoria, and he had a higher wOBA than Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun.

Choo's WAR for those three seasons was 14.2, according to FanGraphs. That ranked him above such players as Josh Hamilton, Derek Jeter and Troy Tulowitzki.

For his heroics, Choo got nothing. No All-Star appearances, no Silver Sluggers. Nothing. He deserved better.

3. Placido Polanco, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies

2012 Line: .269/.303/.317

Career Line: .300/.345/.405

Fans love two types of hitters: power hitters and speed demons.

Placido Polanco is neither. He's a singles hitter, occasionally pitching in with doubles and triples.

Polanco isn't just any singles hitter. Since he broke into the majors in 1998, he's hit exactly 1,536 singles, seventh-most over that span. All told, he has 1,994 career hits.

He got a bit of recognition in 2007, when he hit .341 as a member of the Detroit Tigers. But overall, Polanco's career is largely undecorated. He'll likely retire with well over 2,000 career hits and a batting average right around .300, and he's going to be quickly forgotten.

Baseball fans should recognize Polanco for being one of the most consistent hitters in the sport for over a decade. 

2. Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore Orioles

2012 Line: .246/.326/.407

Career Line: .294/.364/.451

Nick Markakis didn't get off to a blistering start this season, but he's coming around. His numbers are getting closer to where they should be. 

Markakis' sin is that he's a boring player. He's always good, but rarely spectacular. His other sin is playing in Baltimore, where the Orioles have long been an AL East doormat.

Since he broke into the big leagues in 2006, Markakis has just gone about his business. His .294 career average ranks eighth among outfielders with at least 3,000 plate appearances since then, and he's collected exactly 1,102 hits since 2006. Only seven hitters have collected more. 

Markakis placed sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2006. Since then, he hasn't made an All-Star appearance or won a Silver Slugger. He's been largely ignored by baseball fans.

He's still only 28 years old. By the time his career is over, Markakis is going to have some pretty impressive career numbers. Between now and then, he's bound to get the love he deserves from baseball fans.

1. Billy Butler, DH, Kansas City Royals

2012 Line: .296/.341/.530

Career Line: .297/.359/.461

We've come to the man of the hour, at last.

Billy Butler has been a model of consistency since he became an everyday player in 2008. He's a .298 hitter since the start of the '08 season, and that ranks him ahead of stars like Troy Tulowitzki and David Wright. His .823 OPS since 2008 ranks him ahead of stars like Hunter Pence, Torii Hunter and Michael Young.

Butler's specialty over the last couple of seasons has been hitting doubles. He's hit 171 of them since 2008. Only three players in baseball have hit more.

This season, we're seeing Butler send balls over the fence at a more consistent rate. He's already hit six home runs, which puts him on pace to hit over 30 home runs for the first time in his career.

This is a legitimate possibility. For once, Butler has some company in Kansas City's lineup. If he keeps up his hot start, his first All-Star appearance will be in the cards, and he's also going to make a run at his first Silver Slugger.

The few existing Royals fans already love Butler. Baseball fans in general will come to love him, too.

If you want to talk hitters and/or favorite Call of Duty loadouts, hit me up on Twitter.