New York Yankees: Sports Illustrated Gives New Meaning to Overrated

If you haven't heard yet, Sports Illustrated recently released a poll asking 228 MLB players:

Who is the Most Overrated Position Player in Baseball? 

And the winners, listed in order were as follows:

1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Derek Jeter
3. Jayson Werth
4. Nick Swisher
5. Albert Pujols
6. Ichiro Suzuki
7. Hanley Ramirez
8. Jayson Heyward
9. David Wright
10. Coco Crisp

It is no shocker that the New York Yankees have the most overrated players in baseball, landing in three of the top five spots for 2012.

This also marks the second year in a row that A-Rod nabbed the top spot, while his teammate Jeter and the Nationals' Werth both jumped up a spot from 2011.

If you didn’t know, Jeter was SI’s 2008 overrated champ, but I guess winning his fifth World Series deserves a little creditability, right?

Oh and let's not forget Swisher, as finally the energy-filled outfielder broke into the top 10 by making the biggest leap, going from sixth to fourth amongst voters.

The Real Deal

This SI feature is obviously an annual event, as I have read some type of most overrated in baseball survey results for at least five years now.

So presumably this means the answers are based on the past season's performance…right?

And what about busts like Joe Mauer, John Lackey, Carl Crawford, Chase Utley, Jason Bay and Vernon Wells?

And do not say that being habitually on the DL doesn't count, because if you are not on baseball field you are not producing anything…right?

Overall, it seems that the responses are based more on individual paychecks, and non-baseball related issues than actually the question that SI clearly states…to choose the most overrated position player in baseball.

Now I am wondering whom SI picked as the 228 voters, because they seem pretty dumb—or just overcome by jealousy?

My guess and hope would be the latter, because that would be logical.

I mean try to find me a guy who wouldn’t want to:

- Walk in Jeter’s shoes for a day.

- Ink a Werth’s worth contract.

- Love the game like Swisher does.

- Win three MVP awards like A-Rod.

- Be considered Jeter’s equal like Wright.

- Be a National icon for playing baseball like Ichiro is in Japan.

- Born with the raw baseball talent that Heyward and Ramirez possess.

- To be called the best player EVER like Pujols.

Also, why doesn’t SI publicize the voters’ names?

I wish SI would take a re-vote, but this time the players’ names would be published next to their answers. My guess is the results would be different.

So What Defines Overrated in Baseball

Here are some facts about what it takes to be labeled overrated:

- Between A-Rod, Jeter, Werth, Swisher and Pujols, they have won a combined 10 World Series rings, six MVPs, 18 Silver Sluggers and have a combined net worth that is bigger than the national debt.

- All top-five winners have won a World Series within the last five seasons.

- Jayson Heyward won the Rookie of the Year in 2010 and had a sophomore slump, but is playing pretty well this season.

- David Wright has the third best batting average (.351) through the first half of the 2012 season.

- Ichiro has had 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons.

So how are SI’s 10 most overrated players preforming in 2012?

Here are the top 10’s June stats:

Player	Team	G	AB	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	SB	AVG
Jason Heyward	Braves	24	89	31	15	9	1	6	18	15	5	0	16	1	0.348
David Wright	Mets	28	103	35	21	9	1	4	20	20	16	4	11	3	0.340
Albert Pujols	Angels	26	95	31	16	11	0	4	17	19	14	3	8	2	0.326
Nick Swisher	Yankees	25	84	27	16	7	0	4	17	14	12	0	20	1	0.321
Ichiro Suzuki	Mariners	26	115	32	26	3	0	3	15	9	3	1	11	4	0.278
Coco Crisp	Athletics	26	91	24	18	3	1	2	14	10	11	0	14	9	0.264
Derek Jeter	Yankees	26	112	26	21	3	0	2	13	7	9	0	18	2	0.232
Alex Rodriguez	Yankees	26	95	22	12	4	0	6	17	16	13	1	30	0	0.232
Hanley Ramirez	Marlins	25	97	22	14	4	1	3	10	8	12	0	18	0	0.227

Maybe SI should ask the same 228 players if they think winning is overrated too, because this group seems more like an All-Star roster—and a pretty darn good one.