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Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B
Great pick. Heilmann definitely wasn't overlooked by his contemporaries, thankfully. I was incredibly fortunate to know several of his teammates and opponents; all spoke highly of his caliber of play and personal character.
Heck, even his autograph is overlooked and undervalued. There isn't very much signed material out there, and most of what survives isn't really aesthetically appealing. Lots of small cuts removed from album pages, or multi/team signed pages. It's really difficult to secure something nice on Heilmann; such items should be worth much more than they are. Similar HOFers from his era who died young in the same decade are common by comparison. The closest in comparison from standpoints of dying young in the 50's, rarity and finding a signed piece of any quality may be Arky Vaughan, but much more survived in the way of poor quality cuts. And of course, Heilmann was the better player of the two.
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I would disagree with that. I would take an OPS+ 136 shortstop who was good defensively over an OPS+ 148 outfielder who was not good defensively.
I don't understand all of the Hall of Famers in this thread. The only Hall of Famers that I would say are underrated are Johnny Mize, Arky Vaughan and Eddie Plank. 3 guys who were overlooked by the writers and had to wait too long for election. I am seeing a lot of names of players whose baseball cards are undervalued, but definitely not their careers.