Most overlooked active player?

[nat]

Cano is going to breeze into the hall of fame. He's as good or better than Utley, but he's much much more appreciated. The Utley/Whitaker comparison is a good one. Similar players, who were similarly overlooked.

It's tempting to think that being a Diamondback is going to lead to Goldy being overlooked, but that record doesn't really show that. The man has made the all-star team every season except his rookie year. Yeah, at one point the same was true of Utley, but for Goldschmidt to rank up there on the overlooked board we'll have to see if he continues to attract attention over the long haul. (Utley didn't.)

dWAR has its problems, but Mattingly doesn't illustrate them. He's got negative scores because he was a first baseman, and it's really hard for a first baseman to have a positive dWAR. On baseball-reference look at the Rpos and the Rfield columns. Rpos is a positional adjustment - basically a penalty for playing an easy defensive position (like first base) or a bonus for playing a hard one (like shortstop). Rfield reflects the run values of the plays actually made, and Mattingly's Rfield is actually quite respectable for a first baseman. (And a LOT better than Jason Giambi's.)

Edited to add: Rpos and Rfield are components of dWAR.