Underrated postwar players?

[Yastrzemski Sports]

I’m going with Bert Blyleven. Bert has often flown under the radar and took a while to get into the Hall. Early in his career Bert was the victim of being part of bad twins teams. Here are some of his seasons:
1970 10-9 3.18, 1971 16-15 2.81, 1972 17-17 2.73, 1974 17-17 2.66.
I really want to focus on his 1973 season. Bert was 20-17 with a 2.52 era. He led the league with 9 shutouts. Bert lost 8 games by 1 run. He should have won 30 games that year. He was 7th in the Cy Young voting which was won by Jim Palmer at 22-9, 2.40. I think Blylevens season was much more impressive.
Bert retired 3rd all time in strikeouts. He is 12th all time in WAR for pitchers. Overall his w/l record is not that impressive due to all of those brilliant season with a lot of undeserved losses. Bert is a very underrated pitcher of the postwar era and had a lot of impressive and unnoticed accomplishments.

[Gr8Beldini]

Joe Rudi

[Peter_Spaeth]

To find as good a pitcher as Seaver (in terms of rookie years), you have to go back as far as Spahn and as far ahead as Clemens, IMO. And his rookie, even in high grade, is hard to find well-centered without tilt and/or print bubbles.

Morgan's cards are cheap for who he was, arguably a top five second baseman and if you like the newer metrics you could make a case for even higher than that.

[jchcollins]

Besides his rookie, Ernie Banks cards have always been very affordable as well.

[irv]

Despite the fact he isn't in the HOF (he should be), Minnie Minoso's RC's are still reasonably priced. His 52 Topps card is tough to find centered, and I have seen an uptick lately, but I still think they are undervalued considering what this guy brought to baseball.

9× All-Star (1951–1954, 1957, 1959–1960²)
3× Gold Glove Award (1957, 1959, 1960)
3× AL stolen base leader (1951–1953)
Chicago White Sox No. 9 retired
Member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction 1996
http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/n...f1utvju92wsadk

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by irv

Despite the fact he isn't in the HOF (he should be), Minnie Minoso's RC's are still reasonably priced. His 52 Topps card is tough to find centered, and I have seen an uptick lately, but I still think they are undervalued considering what this guy brought to baseball.

9× All-Star (1951–1954, 1957, 1959–1960²)
3× Gold Glove Award (1957, 1959, 1960)
3× AL stolen base leader (1951–1953)
Chicago White Sox No. 9 retired
Member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction 1996
http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/n...f1utvju92wsadk

I agree Dale. Besides, the OP labeled the thread 'Underrated postwar player' - before diving into card values...and, especially because of his HOF snub, Minnie gets my vote for most underrated postwar player. Tony Oliva and Luis Tiant, two more snubs (and fellow Cubans...coincidence, I think not ) are my next two in such rankings.

[AGuinness]

Jumping off of Joe Morgan, I think that either second basemen in general can be considered underrated and/or they get dinged because of their position. For the most part, it seems to me that players end up at 2B because they couldn't cut it at SS or 3B for some reason. And it seems like a number of second basemen would qualify for being considered underrated besides Morgan: Rogers Hornsby, Bobby Grich, Carew (who played a lot of 2B), Lou Whitaker, etc.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

I agree Dale. Besides, the OP labeled the thread 'Underrated postwar player' - before diving into card values...and, especially because of his HOF snub, Minnie gets my vote for most underrated postwar player. Tony Oliva and Luis Tiant, two more snubs (and fellow Cubans...coincidence, I think not ) are my next two in such rankings.

So you're saying that 3 deserving players are kept out of the HOF simply because they are Cuban?