The Stark contrast in rating the overrated
Sandy Koufax: Most overrated left-handed pitcher in major-league baseball history.
Steve Garvey: Most overrated first baseman in major-league baseball history.
Steve Sax: Most overrated second baseman in major-league baseball history.
Jason Stark, who may be overrated to those tired of seeing him appear on ESPN, or underrated for those who just now figured out what he does in baseball information on ESPN.com and beyond, has carefully formed those opinions, and more, of course, in his new book, "The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History" ($24.95, Triumph Books, 206 pages), which has been out since early May.
The book jacket says Stark isn't trying to end the debate of who's been overhyped or overlooked, from Hank Aaron to Todd Ziele, more likely he's trying "to energize it for years to come." Mostly because as more players qualify, these lists can change. Stark's introduction does a fairly decent job explaining how people can become one or the other, with a lot based on media coverage, post-season accomplishments, salary, city the career is spent, and Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Which leads us to the first of the three Dodgers mentioned above:
Koufax, the Dodgers' iconic Hall of Famer, falls here because of his injury-shortened career. His glory years, Stark writes, "made That Other Half (of his career) irrelevant ... it's the job of us killjoys here at reality-police headquarters to blow the whistle." The last six years of Koufax's career were astounding, we all can agree -- 129-47 record, 2.19 ERA, three Cy Youngs, four no hitters." But in the "bad half of Koufax's career ... he was more like Jamie Easterly. Possibly Baylor Moore." Yikes.
A 36-40 record and 4.10 ERA in his first six seasons. Take out the two seasons when he had to be on the major-league squad because he signed as a "bonus baby," that's a 32-34 record and 4.10 ERA, and a 5.3 walks-per-nine-inning ratio for four season before 1960.
Six tremendous season in a 12-year career. And six other seasons between 1955 and 1960 where he had the second-worst ERA in the entire sport.
Sure, no one in the Hall has fewer wins of all left-handed starters -- 165. And the romance factor was evident when Koufax received more votes than any pitcher of the 1900s except Nolan Ryan in the 1999 All-Century fan voting.
We just can't go on with this. Stark's right. Again.
Garvey, who we have no problem arguing every year deserves to be in the Hall based on his NL consecutive-games played record, career .294 average, 2,599 hits and 272 homers, plus four Gold Gloves, gets the treatment by Stark as well for being "Mr. Perfect" in the eyes of too many. Even though he had a .550 career postseason slugging percentage? Stark brings that up, then shoots it down when comparing his stats against others he played against in his era. "Garvey lovingly constructed his personal glitz bubble, and he built it well," Stark writes. He also claims that Bill James once said that if you fed the right information into a computer and asked it to pick the prefect overrated player, you would get -- Steve Garvey."
Ouch.
Sax, we really don't have a problem with here. The 1982 NL Rookie of the Year jumped in at the tail end of the 1981 World Series title team, replaced Davey Lopes, and still won the award over Ryne Sandberg. Defense, of course, was Sax's annual undoing. Despite the fact he made Mr. Burn' Springfield Nuclean Power Plant softball team in 1992 on "The Simpsons," Sax had 30 more errors at second base than his nearest competitor from '82 to '92. Eight seasons with the Dodgers and three more with the New York Yankees clinched his overrated status as well.
We bring up Koufax, Garvey and Sax in some detail here only because they've made the top of the overrated list, consider their Dodger status. But they aren't alone (nor should they be) if overratedness is considered to be a Southern California epidemic.
Other Dodgers, current or past, who also made the list:
Maury Wills: No. 2 on the most overrated shortstops list (behind Phil Ruzzuto);
Tommy John: No. 2 behind Koufax on the overrated lefties list; maybe because his name comes up every time someone wants to recover from arm surgery the way he did:
Don Drysdale: No. 2 on the most overrated right-handed pitchers list (second to Nolan Ryan);
Kevin Brown: No. 5 on that same list;
Juan Pierre: No. 3 on the overrated center fielders list, and lately, No. 8 in the Dodgers' lineup;
Charles Johnson: No. 4 on most overrated catchers list (remember, he came to the Dodgers in the Mike Piazza deal with Florida);
Gil Hodges: No. 5 behind Garvey among overrated first basemen;
J.D. Drew: No. 2 on the overrated right-fielders list (and by the way, A player poll in this week's Sports Illustrated asked 413 major leaguers: “Which player gets the least out of the most talent?” Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew finished second to teammate Wily Mo Pena, 10 percent to 13 percent.)
Darryl Strawberry: No. 3 on the overrated right-fielders.
The Angels, however, have just one candidate:
Frank Tanana: No. 4 on the overrated lefties list, one spot above Barry Zito (USC), whose contract with the San Francisco Giants elevated him to this status.
As for those underrated (which is hard to do if you're in L.A. or even Anaheim), consider these candidates who spent time as Dodgers or Angels:
Duke Snider: No. 1 among center fielders.
It's pretty tough to be underrated when you're in the Hall of Fame, but, says Stark: "Snider is still underrated. It says so right here in this book. So it must be true." Stark says, compared to New York iconic center fielders of his day -- Mays and Mantle -- Snider was "sort of the Jay Buhner of his era" who finished 24th among outfielders on the ballot in 1999 for baseball's All-Century team.
Jimmy Wynn: No. 3 on the same list above;
Bert Blyleven: No. 3 on the right-handed pitchers list;
Gary Carter: No. 4 on the catchers list;
Dick Allen: No. 4 on the first-baseman list (although he only spent 1 year in L.A.)
Bobby Grich: No. 2 for second basemen;
Jeff Kent: No. 4 for second basemen;
Frank Robinson: No. 1 on the right-fielders list (again, a Hall of Famer, who, again in that All-Century balloting, got one-third as many votes as Ken Griffey Jr.)
On a team-by-team basis, Stark also picks a top-three list for each:
Angels overrated:
1. Mo Vaughn
2. Mark Langston
3. Danny Goodwin
Angels underrated:
1. Bobby Grich
2. Jim Fergosi
3. Tim Salmon
Dodgers overrated:
1. Koufax
2. Sax
3. Darren Dreifort
Dodgers underrated:
1. Snider
2. Reggie Smith
3. Ron Cey
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