The All Overrated Team

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by rajah424

I don't think many people would vote for Billy Herman or Mazeroski as the greatest ever at their position. The majority of people that voted in the All Century poll did vote for Robinson as the greatest 2nd basemen ever. You stated I don't think anyone considers him the greatest second basemen of all time and clearly many people do. I cannot think of another player that comes close to Robinson at having his status as the greatest at his position be based more on his reputation than his performance.

All that said, i do think Robinson was a great player, one of the greatest, and probably a even better human being. It's not his fault his ML career started so late but the truth is his numbers just don't add up to being the greatest at his position as many people seem to rank him. This is why i think he is one of the most overrated players.

People seem to think being labeled overrated is a huge putdown but i don't. In Robinson and Clementes' case it is probably a compliment to know that so many people rate you that highly based on what you did off the field as much or more than what you did on the field.

I guess putting wildly undeserving guys in the HOF strikes me as more overrated than people saying Jackie was the greatest second basemen of all time when he's only among the greatest.

I will say I was surprised that so many people picked him at number one, but nobody with an ounce of analytical ability would do that. That being said taking in a sample of baseball sites just in the order they pop up on google they have him rated 8th, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 5th. I'd argue with 7th and 8th, that they are relying too much on counting stats, but still that averages out to 5th.

To me even if you meant overrated by the general public the leap from 5th to 1st is less than Mazeroski's leap from MAYBE top 50 to HOF, leapfrogging a couple dozen guys with better numbers.