Most underappreciated/undercollected players

[olecow]

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

[bbcard1]

Prewar: Billy Sunday
Postwar: Bill White / Curt Flood

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by olecow

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

I agree with Eddie Mathews. Being a Mathews collector I like it though. Now if his rookie wasn't a hi # 52 Topps.

[packs]

Joe Wood. His Cracker Jack and T207 are expensive but most of his other cards are treated like they're commons.

[Golfcollector]

Top 26 all time WAR list that seem underappreciated ( I had to include #26 because my initial thought was WTF? 26th in career WAR?
#9 Rogers Hornsby
#10 Eddie Colins
#16 Mel Ott
#18 Frank Robinson
#20 Joe Morgan
#23 Carl Yastrzemski
#26 Adrian Beltre


My favorite Crawford comes in at 47 on the top 50...but no one pay attention so I can get some of his stuff on the cheap

[jchcollins]

Frank Robinson I have always felt was underappreciated given his stats in a post-war hobby that sometimes seems to drool on Mantle, Mays, Williams, Aaron, and Clemente as if they were the only marquee names.

Another just for me personally is Roy Campanella. When I first started collecting old cards as a kid in the 1980's, you heard a lot more about him. He still routinely turns up along with Hartnett, Cochrane, Dickey, Berra, Bench, Fisk, Piazza et al. in the GOAT debates for catcher - but it doesn't seem like a ton of folks out there collect him. If you consider a career that was cut short on both ends - it was actually cut shorter by his delay into the majors on the front side of his career than it was the accident at the end of it, I believe - then I think he really does qualify as one of the greatest players - even though his stats don't necessarily show it. I guess there is also the factor of Jackie Robinson - if you are going after the historical aspect of trailblazing Brooklyn Dodgers - you are probably going to lean towards Robinson over Campy.

[Bram99]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Frank Robinson I have always felt was underappreciated given his stats in a post-war hobby that sometimes seems to drool on Mantle, Mays, Williams, Aaron, and Clemente as if they were the only marquee names.

Another just for me personally is Roy Campanella. When I first started collecting old cards as a kid in the 1980's, you heard a lot more about him. He still routinely turns up along with Hartnett, Cochrane, Dickey, Berra, Bench, Fisk, Piazza et al. in the GOAT debates for catcher - but it doesn't seem like a ton of folks out there collect him. If you consider a career that was cut short on both ends - it was actually cut shorter by his delay into the majors on the front side of his career than it was the accident at the end of it, I believe - then I think he really does qualify as one of the greatest players - even though his stats don't necessarily show it. I guess there is also the factor of Jackie Robinson - if you are going after the historical aspect of trailblazing Brooklyn Dodgers - you are probably going to lean towards Robinson over Campy.

+1

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by olecow

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

+1 as to post-war: the second best (only to Schmidt) third baseman of all time and a 363 game winner with 13 20-win seasons (after all, that's what a pitcher is supposed to do for his team is win, isn't it?).

Pre-war, I'd have to go with Foxx and Hornsby, although RATS 60 is right that Foxx is behind Gehrig by all rational sabermetric measures. But Hornsby--three .400 seasons with good to great power, .358 lifetime BA and two triple crowns (yes I know that NL league batting averages were .280 or better during Hornsby's rein as the NL's best hitter, but still)!!!

Best holiday wishes to all,

Larry