All underrated team

Here is the rival team to last week's all overrated team. Most casual fans would probably pick this team to lose in a head to head series, but I think that this team would not only be better, It would be a lot better, and probably win 7 or 8 7 game series out of 10.

Catcher Brian McCann - Braves
McCann is best known for homering off Roger Clemens in the 2005 post season, but he turned into a star in 2006, funny thing is the Braves finally missed the playoffs, so no one noticed. McCann is the only catcher that I think has a chance to rival Joe Mauers dominance of the position for the next ten years. Someone else may emerge, but as of now only McCann, Victor Martinez, Michael Barret and Jorge Posada are close to Mauer's production at the plate. Barret will be 30 this year and Posada will be 35. Both have likely already peaked. Martinez can hit, but can't throw out a base runner to save his life, and there are reports that he may be moving to first base in the future. McCann will be 23 (younger than Mauer) and out performed him in OPS and RC/27 and was just behind him in EQA.

First Base: Travis Hafner - Indians
With apologies to Lance Berkman and Nick Johnson, Hafner might be the most underrated player in all of baseball. His production was matched only be Albert Pujols last season and he didn't even make the all star team. Hafner led all major leaguers in EQA with an incredible .355, was second to Pujols in OPS, 1st in RC/27, and second to Manny Ramirez in OBP by less than .01. What more does the guy have to do?

Second Base: Orlando Hudson - Diamond Backs
Chase Utley, the best player at the position finally started getting credit this year, and many of the best second basemen are established stars, but you never hear about Hudson who put together a hell of a year in the desert. He posted solid numbers with a .354 OBP and a .454 SLG, all while playing stellar defense. A very solid player at a position that is thin.

Third Base: Garret Atkins - Rockies
At one of the deepest positions in the majors, it is hard to stand out but is a crime when you post a line of .409 OBP, .556 SLG, .310 EQA, 8.4 RC/27 and an outstanding VORP of 62.7 good for 17th in the majors. According to VORP, Atkins was better than AL MVP Justin Morneau, $252 million dollar man Alex Rodriguez and New York Met stars Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Jose Reyes. Atkins may never eclipse the shadow of Miguel Cabrera, Chipper Jones, ARod or Wright, but he should be in the conversation.

Shortstop: Carlos Guillen - Tigers
With apologies to Bill Hall, Guillen was virtually unknown among casual fans prior to the Tigers playoff run, but he, not Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Joel Zumaya or Magglio Ordonez was the key to the team's success. When he was out during August, the team stumbled bad enough to lose the huge lead it had built up over the summer, and upon his return, the team went on a very improbable playoff run to the world series. When looking at his stats, it's easy to see why. Guillen was second only to Derek Jeter among full time shortstop in EQA, OPS, OBP, and RC/27 and second to Hall in SLG. He also is a better fielder than people give him credit for. DMB rate him as average range, the same rating given to Tejada, Reyes, Rollins, and gold glovers Vizquel and Jeter. DMB is not perfect, but I have found that they do their homework when rating a player's range. They were one of the first to praise Andruw Jones's exceptional range in center, and also one of the first to point out that it had diminished. Guillen does make a lot of errors, but at the toughest position on the field, that's understandable.

Centerfield: Mike Cameron - Padres
A tough position to rate because centerfielders are almost overrated by definition as they are usually the most athletic player on the field. Cameron has somehow managed to do it. He has had some bad years, but for the most part he has put together a good career despite getting traded every two years or so. He has been traded for Ken Griffey and Paul Konerko among others. He had another solid year while playing in cavernous Petco Park posting a line of: .355 OBP, .482 SLG, 6.3 RC/27 and .291 EQA all while being perhaps the best centerfielder in the game.

Outfield: Matt Holliday - Rockies
I remember when all the Rockies were overrated (Bichette, Castilla anyone?) but today it seems they are underrated. Holliday just like Atkins was one of the top players at his position last year and it seems like no one noticed. Holliday posted an OBP of .387, a SLG of .586, an EQA of .304 an a RC/27 of 8.0. He also did ok in traditional categories with 10 SB, 34 HR, and 119 R. In short, he was considerably better than Alfonso Soriano who was treated like the greatest thing since sliced bread when he hit the market this winter.

Outfield: Jason Bay - Pirates
To be fair, Bay has gotten some love from the press. In part because the Pirates are so bad, but in 2005, he was one of the top 5 hitters in baseball and he was never acknowledged for it. Bay posted a line of .396, .532, .309 and 8.2. Very comparable to Holliday. Some outfielders like Bay seem to get crucified for striking out so much. Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, are among them, but did anyone notice that Soriano struck out 160 times last year while batting lead off? Or how about Ryan Howard and his 181 ks? It never comes up, but Burrell especially has almost been run out of town for striking out a mere 131 times last season.

SP: John Lackey - Angels
How Roy Oswalt has not won a Cy Young this late in his career is truly astonishing, but the fact that Lackey has flown under the radar the last two years while pitching in Anahiem gives him the nod. Lackey posted an OPS against of .671 last season, better than Pedro Martinez, Jason Schmidt, John Smoltz and the aforementioned Oswalt. He also had a VORP of 47.1, 18th in baseball among starters. Lackey is not a guy who will contend for the Cy Young every year, and he shouldn't be treated like one, but he is definitely a solid front of the rotation guy who could have a year where he does put up Cy Young numbers.

RP: Joe Nathan - Twins
Hard to make the argument that he is underrated, but he actually is. He has been the best closer in baseball for the last 3 years, but still has had a hard time breaking into that top tier of the discussion that includes Mariano Rivera, Billy Wagner, KRod and Trevor Hoffman. Nathan was absolutely lights out last year allowing 7.2 R/9, .454 OPS, and striking out 12.5 per 9. Basically he turned every hitter he faced into a hitter of Tom Glavine's production.

All overrated team

For my return to blogging, I have picked a topic that I have thought a lot about. Sick of always hearing about the same guys over and over again, and how good they are supposed to be I have decided to compile a team of the most overrated players the sport has to offer. These are not bad players by any means, but they are regarded among the best players in the game, and that is simply not true. They will be followed quickly by a team of all players most underrated and the results of a simulated series between the two teams on Diamond Mind Baseball.

Rules: The team will consist of players at their regular position, the outfield will have one centerfielder and two corner outfielders. Stats from the 2006 season will be used.

Catcher: Pudge Rodriguez, Tigers
This former MVP is a shadow of what he once was. He was never a particularly patient hitter, but the last two seasons, he has posted OBPs of .290 and .332, yet he somehow got the start over Joe Mauer in the ASG, hopefully for the last time. He edges fellow All Star AJ Pierzynski on the basis that he can no longer hit right handed pitching (.310 OBP, .409 SLG in '06).

First Base: Nomar Garciaparra, Dodgers
Q: How do you post a .286 OBP and a .408 SLG in the second half and still get consideration for the MVP? A: By being a former Boston Red Sox superstar! Nomar's second half was worse than the likes of: Emil Brown, Kevin Millar, Aubry Huff, Mark Ellis, Ryan Shealy, David Bell, and over 150 other players who came to the plate at least 200 times. He hasn't put together a great season since 2000. Please stop considering him one of the games elite.

Second Base: Robinson Cano, Yankees
I'm sick of hearing about how great this guys is. He had a very good year, but he only took 18 walks in 508 PAs, only posted a .328 OBP and a .372 SLG against lefties, and a .358 in play average suggests that he will not post that high of a batting average again. Still a good player, but not someone to build a team around.

Third Base: David Wright, Mets
It's not really fair to give this to Wright since Pedro Feliz still manages to keep his job despite being absolutely atrocious once again, but the fact remains that many consider Wright to be the best third baseman in the majors when in reality, he's #5. Wright posted a VORP of 54.3, solid but not close to cream of the crop Miguel Cabrera, and well behind Garret Atkins. Wright edged ARod and Chipper in VORP, but this was mainly due to the fact that he played much more than Chipper and ARod's huge pile of errors hurt him. Chipper was second only to Cabrera among third baseman with at least 400 PAs in EQA and led all third baseman in SLG and RC27.

Shortstop: Julio Lugo, Red Sox
Lots of good choices here, last year's runaway winner Jose Reyes showed that he wasn't all hype with a solid season. He still isn't at the superstar level that some place him, but he's getting close. Rollins and Young are also vastly overrated, mainly due to the great hitters parks that they play in, but Lugo has been bugging me the whole offseason. He has been declared the best Red Sox shortstop since the Nomar. For a minute, let's ignore that even in a career year, he wasn't as good as Orlando Cabrera at the plate or in the field, and let's also ignore the fact that he has never hit better than Renteria's 2006 season upon departing from the Sox. We shall instead focus on Lugo's career as a whole. His career highs are: EQA: .276, OBP: .362, SLG: .427.
Decent stats for a SS, granted those are career highs, but if he does that, the Sox will be thrilled. He's much more likely to revert to his career numbers of .258, .340 and .402. OK stopgap numbers but not enough better than Alex Gonzalez's .233, .299 and .397 to make up for the huge differences in defense and salary. Especially if they choose to bat him at the top.

Centerfield: Juan Pierre, Dodgers
5 years, $45 million for a guy who brings little more than a fast baserunner. Not near as good a player as the guy he is replacing at a much higher cost. The question was posed this offseason: would you take Pierre for free on the condition that you had to play him everyday and bat him leadoff? After a bit of thinking, I decided that no, he still wouldn't be worth it. He has posted some decent years with OBPs of .361 and .374 in his first two years with the Marlins, but these averages are very dependent on batting average, and his walk totals have decreased each of the last 3 years bottoming out at 32 last year. For a guy who bats leadoff everyday, this would only be ok if he banged out hits at an Ichiro 2004 level. He of course doesn't as he hits have fallen from 221 in '04 to 204 in '06 despite experiencing an increase in ABs. Some may claim that he makes up for his hitting inadequacies with speed and defense, but he gets caught stealing a lot (20 times in '06, 24 in '04), and he has notoriously weak arm in center.

Outfield: Jeff Francoeur, Braves
Blossoming into a superstar? That's what some guy wrote about Francoeur's 2006 season. I wonder if he was watching the same player I was. The one who struck out 132 times and only walked 23 while posting an EQA of .250, an OBP of .293, an RC27 of 4.2 (last among regula rightfielders), and a VORP of -1.0. That's right, according to baseball prospectus's VORP statistic, the Braves would have been better off with an average joe in right than the were with this "budding superstar." Guys like Francoeur are the reason the A's compete every year, he looks great in a uniform, but really doesn't belong in one.

Outfield: Carl Crawford, Devil Rays
Yet another thing that bothered me a lot this offseason was the press that Crawford got, about how foolish the Rays would have been to trade him. Now, I'm not sold on the Ray's prospects: Dukes, Upton and Young. All seem to be talented guys with issues and none have a spectacular batting eye, but still if the Rays could have got a good young pitcher like Scott Olsen or Josh Johnson from the Marlins, they were foolish not to make the deal. Crawford is a decent hitter with good speed, but he has no business being on ESPN's best overall player poll when the likes of Beltran, Cabrera and Mauer were left off. Crawford posted a VORP of 41.1, 6th among MLB leftfielders in 2006, well behind underrated contemporaries Bay and Holliday.

SP Barry Zito, Giants
Zito edges the Sox's Josh Beckett on the strength of the absurd the Giants just gave him. In 2001, Zito was a stud who won the Cy Young, now he is little more than an innings eater. Zito's K/9 has fallen by almost 2 since that season, and his R/9 has increased by more than 1. The guy walked 99 last year, second most in the AL, while allowing almost a hit per inning and 27 homers. In OPS against, he was much worse than Jason Jennings while pitching in a good pitchers park. Jennings of course, called Coors field home in 2006.

RP Bobby Jenks, White Sox
A position where it's quite difficult to be overrated, Jenks takes it. We're giving Isringhausen and Lidge do overs on bad seasons, but Jenks has never earned that kind of respect. He's thought to be a lights out closer, mainly due to a great 2005 playoffs but he was actually quite hittable in 2006. He allowed 4 BB/9 and 12.8 R/9, and right handers had little trouble with him posting an OBP of .344 and an SLG of .421. These numbers would be decent for a starter, but for a closer, they're not what you want.