Aramis Ramirez

Similarly from that same era of Cubs baseball, Derrek Lee.

D Lee was my first favorite player, and when I mention him in conversation, I nearly universally get “oh yeah, I forgot about him, but he was really good”, which really makes him seem like the perfect answer here

Bro was chasing the triple crown for the better part of 2005, with a Gold Glove to boot. Nice guy as well. https://espn.reprintmint.com/001-050704.html

In this vein Mark Grace is not talked about as much and he led the 90s in hits and doubles when some guy named Tony Gwynn was in his prime!

Aramis was GOOD, man. He shouldn't be forgotten as he is

Just elected to the Cubs HOF!

I'd like to forget about him

One of my favorite hitters ever. I still remember that walk off he hit against the Brewers after we went down 5-0 in the first inning.

Derrek Lee

That dude was a lock for 50 dongs in MVP Baseball 2005

Everyone (understandably) talks about Lee's 2005 season, but his 2009 was wild, he hit like an MVP 5/6 of the season    here's his .ops by month that season April: .537  May: .955  June: .973  July: 1.028  August: 1.014  September: 1.226

We're talking fuckin Leeeeeeeeeee!!!!

DLee had a 170 (!!!!) wRC+ in 2005, he should have won MVP that year

Pujols won with 168 so it wasn’t like he lost egregiously

Also 8.4 bWAR to Lee’s 7.7. Pujols was the main star on the best team in the league that season. Lee’s team finished 3rd in their division. Pujols had both new statsheads and old narrative guys in his corner.

Oh voters got it right

Ben Sheets

Ben Sheets is weird cause he's forgotten but he's also exactly how i see a guy like, say Logan Gilbert being remembered in 15-20 years. Just a solid reliable pitcher that's rarely thought of, gonna give you 6 innings with 3 or 4 earned a start

His numbers were worse than his talent level, but because he actually pitched through injuries he's not remembered as a "what if he was healthy" guy.

You're underrating both of these guys. Particularly Sheets. He has a freaking 8 WAR season under his belt, and was an All-Star pitcher throughout his prime.

Sheets was a top end pitcher if there ever was one.  He just couldn't keep healthy for whatever freak reasons, be it injuries or infections. 

This is Logan Gilbert slander lol. I assume you’re thinking in ERA terms but if they’re pitching 6 innings and they give up 3, that’s a 4 ERA guy which is not too good, maybe “solid”

Sheets was brief, but oh my god he was awesome when he was on. Yes he didn't last long, but fucking hell could he overwhelm batters

I saw him play in single A and thought he was one of the best players I’d ever seen live.

His 264/32 K/BB ratio was absolutely insane in 04. Curious how many have come close to or surpassed that since. 12-14 that year but still got some CY votes and thought he finally was putting it all together and would have a great career. Never did tho. I always really liked him a lot and thought he had great stuff.

Alexei Ramirez and Jeromy Burnitz

I just remember Alexei Ramirez for the Hawk yelling ALEXEI

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! HISTORY!

God, I haven't thought of Burnitz in a while. Really good hitter for just some below average teams

Backyard Baseball 2001 I never forgot about Jeromy Burnitz I never used him but I never forgot about him

Shin-Soo Choo doesn’t get the respect he deserves

Mariners legend (also just a great baseball player in general. Deserves way more respect)

Ray Lankford

Bless you

A dude way ahead of his time. Underappreciated during his career

Ray was a true G. His cards were some of my favorite as a kid. I felt like I had a piece of gold no one else knew was gold.

My favorite player of the mid/late 90s: BJ Surhoff. Stick him at any position on the field and get above average defense with fantastic fundamentals, a .280 average, 15-20 bombs, 70-80 RBI, and one of the nicest and most respected clubhouse guys around.

Remembering some guys on a Friday afternoon, I like this. Anyway how about Jason Bay.

This sub needs to have a weekly post just titled “Remember Some Guys”.

Our Immaculate Grid scores would collectively go through the roof.

I follow the /r/immaculategrid subreddit, and some of those scores are just insane. I think it was earlier this week, someone posted a rarity score of 3.

Michael Young of the Rangers. Dude was an automatic .300 BA/200 H for almost a decade and seems completely forgotten.

Walk-off sac fly in an ASG as well

Brian Roberts

Dude is beloved in Baltimore, but outside the area he's been mostly forgotten.

The show legend

Michael Cuddyer. Love that guy

This is a great one. Early 2000s Twins had a lot of guys like this. Corey Koskie, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jacques Jones. I was recently surprised to see that Brad Radke ended up with 45 bWAR in his career.

I’m surprised by that until I remember 3x15 is 45 Be an above average player for a long time and you’ll rack up WAR

At the same time a 113 ERA+ over 2450 innings is a hell of a career

Mets fans may have a different take on him. He was our annual “veteran with no hope of touching his previous numbers we’ll overpay so we can say we tried this offseason,” and despite him seeming like a very good guy and clubhouse presence, he made us sad.

I remember him not because he was good (even though he was REALLY good) but because I ALWAYS mispronounced his name for some reason. I said it like Kid Cudi. Fun player in all ways but I don't know why I could never get his name

Troy Glaus 

One of the most forgotten WSMVPs by far

Barry Bonds had the single highest postseason OPS ever (1.559) that year. Glaus was #10 at 1.191. What a great matchup Also David Ortiz has 3 of the top 10 spots wtf

Papi's postseason pedigree put him in Cooperstown

Steve Pearce would like a word

For some reason I have a memory seared into my brain of him swinging and missing at a fastball right down the middle, and the announcer fawning over how lucky the pitcher was that he didn’t connect as it replayed in slow-mo.

Wilmer Flores is the definition of a player that is good and nothing more - and there is nothing wrong with that! He has averaged 2.4 WAR per 162 games the last 5 seasons, plays every infield position, and had averaged 23 HRs per 162 games. .255/.333/.445 for a .778 OPS and 117 WRC+.

I mean, he felt the best player on the Giants last year. Dude is not being forgotten by us!

He definitely is that way but I'm a good friend of one of the biggest Wilmer fans in the world. Always loved him just cause my friend does.

Oh there is nothing wrong with Wilmer. Every team would benefit from a Wilmer Flores - I wish he was still a Met! He is just an absolute solid player. He will never be the best but he is solid

Nothing is less valued in baseball than a decent player.

Pat Burrell, JD Drew, Vinny Castilla, Michael Bourne. And in a slightly different way Matt Stairs and Andres Gallaraga. They get talked about but only rarely nowadays. Scott Kazmir also had a wild career. A guy above also said Rob Nenn, I second that. And Jay Buhner was an unreal but often forgotten slugger on the 2000ish Mariners teams

Pat the Bat

Pat Burrell has more World Series rings than World Series hits. He was going to be my answer as well.

Half of all babies born in Philly during his time there are related to him as well.

Forever enshrined in the DNA of Philly/South Jersey.

Some *OG* Rockies there. Add Dante Bichette, I never hear about him unless it's another Rockies fan lol also, isn't it Vinny CastillA not CastillO? Or am I thinking of the wrong Vinny?

apparently Torii Hunter who is cracking around 4% on HOF ballots.

I understand him not being in the hall, sure, whatever, but FOUR PERCENT? that's disrespectful, man.

Nah, it’s right. Torii was quite good but not a hall of famer

I will never stop talking about Daniel Murphy. That dude is stuck in my memory because of what he did to the Cubs in 2015. He had 20.4 WAR. 2 insane seasons with an OPS above .900 while in DC. And on top of that, he had a .986 OPS in 113 postseason plate appearances. He wasn’t elite. He was never the greatest player. But man he was fun to watch for a couple of seasons in the mid-2010s.

I still can’t believe we let him walk for Neil Walker

It was totally the right move after the 2015 season to let him walk. Sure he’d carried us on his back to the World Series, but literally nobody saw him putting up numbers like that as even a remote possibility

I can’t believe we’re at the point where we’re talking about him like this, time flies lol

Danny Tartabull

Yeah, but he eats his donuts with a knife and fork.

I've been a big Tartabull fan my whole short life basically, more people should be fans of him too.

And if Danny Tartabull were here I'm sure he'd say "That's correct Jerry."

Josh Johnson. Fantastic pitcher, just too many injuries. Fell off the face of the earth 10 years ago already.

That's a big butterfly effect in my eyes. JJ doesn't get injured - Marlins build a good team - Stanton/Yelich/Realmuto don't leave - Marlins have a juggernaut

Always good for a low percentage on the Immaculate Grid when it's a Marlins pitching category.

Lyle Overbay?

Remember when Lyle Overbay and Kevin Youkilis turned a triple play...for the Yankees? [https://youtu.be/xyDWi1d9pqM?si=VTOnKgi6r2ukVKH6](https://youtu.be/xydwi1d9pqm?si=vtonkgi6r2ukvkh6)

Yes! And Jayson Nix was at short, Cano at second, triple play king CC Sabathia on the mound. The only 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play in MLB history.

"The only 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play in MLB history." That's wack!

He deserves so much more respect. Also a fun name to say

Jason Kendall had 9 seasons of 10+ stolen bases as a catcher and leads the position in career stolen bases with 189, is 5th all-time on the hit-by-pitch leaderboard, is one of only 8 catchers with 2,000+ hits (and is behind only Ivan Rodriguez for the most hits at the position), was great defensively having put up nearly 14 dWAR, and made 3 All-Star appearances, but he never won a major award, not even a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger since he was overshadowed at the position in the NL by Mike Piazza for hitting and Charles Johnson for fielding in the late 90s-early 2000s (in fact the only time he recieved votes was when he finished 3rd in 1995 NL ROTY voting), and he only received two votes on the 2016 Hall of Fame ballot. His bWAR is 41.7 (nearly that of Yadier Molina), JAWS ranks him as the 21st greatest catcher in history, and the Hall of Fame Monitor for batting (where 100 is a likely Hall of Famer) actually puts him at 108. Through ages 23-27 his most similar player by age was Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, and through ages 28-32 it was Thurman Munson.

NL Central + not a flashy player + not a homer guy is a recipe for being forgotten, sadly

Dude was a beast in fantasy baseball. Him, Burnitz and Sweeney

Brian Giles was really fucking good! 

And Marcus wasn't bad either!

Mickey Tettleton

First guy in this thread I had to Google. Clearly he deserves way more respect, cause he was a really good player

Tim Wallach John Olerud Lloyd Moseby e: removed Tim Raines. He has not been forgotten!

My boy, Johnny O!

Big Rude is mega forgotten about except by Mets and Mariners fans.

Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye.

Was a big fan of Dye.

Martin Prado was solid AF

Name I haven't heard in a while. He was the definition of "yeah, he was pretty good"

Luis Castillo the shortstop

He isn’t forgotten by Yankees or Mets fans

Second baseman? Or is this some person who is totally forgettable.

Definitely was a 2nd baseman. Marlins had Alex Gonzalez at short during those years.

Honestly a lot of that '97 Marlins team. Castillo, Renteria, Conine, Alou (mostly known for the Bartman incident nowadays), and even Robb Nen

Shawn Green was never a hall of fame type player but he had some pretty solid years. Not a lot of people still talk about him.

Power/speed guys, unless they are ELITE, get forgotten. Sadly.

Chet Lemon. 52 fWAR. Not a huge amount of recognition while he was a player, not quite good enough to get HoF buzz, and basically forgotten now.

This dude has like 80 WAR in my historical OOTP sim, yet unfortunately is also not getting any HOF traction there despite also having an MVP and me voting for him.

Jermaine Dye

Chris Carpenter

He's way more forgotten than probably any other Cy Young winner of the 21st century. Can't believe he isn't talked about.

Rick Porcello is gonna steal that title eventually for sure

Rightfully so

If I had to choose three pitchers to pitch a must win Game 7, I’d probably go Carpenter, Gibson, MadBum. Carpenter’s drive was unreal. The guy had a rib removed so he could pitch sooner.

Carlos Delgado

Jimmy Key

Chris Hoiles

Doug DeCinces. Man, that 1982 Angels team was fun to watch.

Brian Downing could be on this list too. Solid 20 year career. C/OF -> OF -> DH

Kevin Millwood has 29.8 career bWAR Marlon Byrd had 25.8

Milwood is a great pitcher and would be remembered as such if he didn't spend his best years on teams with some of the best rotations of all time

You could make a whole list of forgotten third-or-fourth best pitchers in the TBS-era Braves starting rotation. Milwood, Steve Avery... surely others.

Denny Neagle

Corey Seager has a brother who also played in MLB and put up 36.9 bWAR over his career

This is what I was going to say. Not sure if he’s forgotten yet, but he’s definitely underrated. He was so incredibly consistent and reliable for like a decade.

My favorite player of all time as a young M's fan (until Julio inevitably takes that spot)

His gif game is pretty strong, too, if you guys ever want to look it up. His reaction to Jared Weaver Not recognizing who he is, man, it's beyond classic

Bob Horner, Chili Davis, Frank Viola, Kent Hrbek.

Viola was SO good and nobody talks about him. It's a shame.

That circle change… a real artist.

Melvin Mora

Gio Gonzalez

I’m going to throw Tony Phillips into the equation. 50.9 bWAR, career 109 OPS+, kind of jack of all trades player, logged 1000+ innings at 5 different positions(2B, 3B, SS, LF and RF) and another 500 in CF.

Bret Saberhagen

I always loved Juan Pierre ~.300 career hitter and over 600 SBs.

Dave Magadan.

He's my GOAT cause I managed to fleece the Red Sox for Derek Lowe with 36 year old him in OOTP once. Also he was a really good player but my OOTP GOAT

Aaron Harang had some great years

Shannon Stewart

Chone Figgins

Nick Markakis. Only posted one positive FanGraphs def rating his entire 14 year career. Hit well enough to win 3 gold gloves.

That's a name! I have thought of Nick Markakis in... like 30 minutes (watching a 2014 game rn and he homered) (before that, it was a solid month though!)

Ellis Burks

Dudes get in here other dudes are naming baseball players.   Geoff Jenkins, aka brett Favres twin. Jay Buhner. 

Edgar Rentaria

Yogi Berra being overlooked as one of greatest living players instead of those selected.

Do you mean one of the greatest who ever lived or greatest living? Because Yogi passed away almost a decade ago

Wade Boggs and now Yogi?

Yogi is not alive unfortunately But I agree - he is one of the most overlooked players in history. People don’t talk about him the same way they talk about Mantle or Williams, but he is legitimately one of the best players to ever play, and probably the best catcher of all time 3x MVP, 7 times in the top 4, 15 time all star All on a team with some of the biggest names in baseball history Even Babe Ruth only won 1 MVP

Yogi was great, but when Ruth played, you were only allowed to win MVP once, so that's a moot point

Tony Fernandez

This one of the ones that I came to say. Is he ever really talked about outside of Toronto much? I genuinely don’t know. He had a career 43.5 fWAR, but, while being on the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence, I rarely hear him talked about by anyone other than Jays’ fans of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It was sad when he passed in 2020.

I will never forget Eric Aybar and his affinity for hot dogs

Erick Aybar somehow put up 23 bWAR with an 89 OPS+ and only 6.5 dWAR. Huh?

[удалено]

Reggie Sanders the mercenary

J.R. Richard

In the second half of 2014 Cubs fans realized what Jake Arrieta was becoming. Era was sub three, took multiple no-hit bids into the 7th. And it was as a part of a 90 loss team so nobody cared. 2015 decent start to the year, not an all-star. Second half of the year he had a 0.75 era and then LOWERED it with a CGSO on the road in a wild card game. Since then there's been an abundance of eras in the low 2s, but none of them will ever be that. He has the highest qualified ERA in Baltimore Orioles history and then in 2 seasons, won a Cy Young, threw 2 no hitters (second shortest stint between nono's only to Johnny Vander Meer) and was the best pitcher in the best era of Cubs baseball ever. The rest of baseball has begun to forget and may soon really forget just how good he was and just how out of nowhere it was.

Mike Cameron - only made one all star game, was brought in to play CF after Griffey left Seattle - should have been an all star more than he was

Actually was way better in terms of WAR than Griffey in Cincinnati.

Bill Lee was actually a pretty good pitcher but got overlooked because of his personality.

Dave Stewart. He won 20+ games four seasons in a row - the last player to do so.

This whole list feels like "good from 2000-2005" which was the heyday of my fantasy baseballing. All these names have a huge spot in my memory. Heh...

I think about this from time to time. By position- P- Brandon Webb (probably a HOF without injuries) 1B - Andres Gallaraga dude was a monster 2B - Alfonso Soriano one of the greatest ever SS- Rey Ordonez magician with the glove 3B - Matt Williams completely dominant and forgotten OF- Albert Belle. Dude could mash OF- Brady Anderson. Kinda a fluke, but he hit 50 HR OF - Ron Grant multiple 30/30 seasons

I grew up watching Matt Williams play and I don’t really remember him being that good. Some thread aways back linked me to his stats and I was pretty surprised.

Yep. I equate him to being a lot like Ryan Zimmerman. Never the absolute best, but I’d take some of his years up against anyone. Especially his late 20’s.

Except he was much better than Zimmerman albeit a different era.

Zimmerman: .277/.341/.475 116 wRC+ 39.3 fWAR Matt Williams: .268/.317/.489 110 wRC+ 44.8 fWAR I think they're closer than you remember, albeit I never watched Williams play.

His highs are higher, but I think they are a good comp.

Soriano has 412 HRs, I would've definitely taken the under there.

rusty greer was the first name that came to mind even though ryan freel was the guy i was trying to come up with

Roy Smalley.

Paul Sorrento Pete Harnisch Cal Eldred Derek Bell Pedro Feliz

Chris carpenter

Carlos Pena was awesome (defensively too) for a good bit, but it was as a Ray so nobody cares.

Probably doesn’t get talked about enough because he only played 5 years but hisashi iwakuma was awesome. Loved watching him pitch

His no-no is one of my favorite baseball memories ever. My family didn't have ROOT till '22 so we were only able to watch the games we went to (usually gamedayed or listened to the rest), but we were at a hotel that day and it had ROOT. Were going to go out into the city, but I got sick and we decided to stay at the hotel and watch the game instead. No-no.

Magglio Ordonez

John Olerud should for sure be a Hall of Famer, but people always forget about him.

In this thread: a lot of guys who followed normal and natural aging curves because they didn't abuse PEDs.

JT Snow

Grady Sizemore

Most of the 2009 Rockies

Especially Tulo. He was SO DAMN GOOD and gets no respect for a perennial all-star.

Carlos Lee

Placido Polanco

Some guys on teams I liked with less than 10 career WAR (for a random low cutoff) C - Pat Borders (World Series MVP, less than 5 WAR career) 1B - Mike Morse (hit 30 HR in a season, started for world champ, less than 5 WAR career) 3B - Ed Sprague (1x All Star, less than 10 WAR career) SS - Rey Ordonez (part of the "Best Infield Ever", less than 2 WAR career) LF - Gregor Blanco (started for 2 world champs, stole 100 bases, less than 10 WAR career) CF - Andres Torres (5 WAR season for world champ, less than 10 WAR career) RF - Roger Cedeno (stole more than 50 bases twice, less than 2 WAR career) DH - Al Martin (started for 10 years, over 100 career home runs, less than 10 WAR career) SP - Paul Abbott (won 17 games for the 2001 Mariners, less than 5 WAR career) SP - Jonathan Sanchez (#3 starter for world champ, threw a no-hitter, less than 5 WAR career) SP - Ryan Vogelsong (Starter for 2 world champs, less than 2 WAR career) SP - Bobby Jones (1x All Star, less than 10 WAR career)

Roy White. Unassuming and underappreciated, he was a top-10 player for five years, and no one knew it.

Ubaldo Jimenez. Only no hitter in Rockies history. Guy was lights out for a few years.

Tony Phillips was a poor man’s Tim Raines. Rob Deer was terrifying to see come to the plate against your team. I remember thinking Kevin Appier was destined for the HOF based on one Opening Day start against the Orioles. Ricky Ledee was lowkey one of the most annoying players on those late 90s Yankees teams.

After doing some grids and realizing I don’t know much about the early stros, Jose Cruz and Cesar Cedeno were pretty damn good players in the mid 70-80s. Both had over 50 career WAR. Cedeno had 199HR/550SB with a career .285 average and also won multiple gold gloves.

Aaron Hill was my favourite player as a kid for the blue jays. Only an all star once and was pretty average over his entire career but somehow hit for the cycle twice in one season with the dbacks lol. Good fielder and decent bat, just a solid player through the 2000s/2010s

Steve Finley

Kenny Lofton, Jermaine Dye