Bottom of the fourth: Bobby Abreu and the Phillies are exposing Mark Prior for the fraud he is. It's 5-2 Phils, including a first-inning grand slam by Abreu.
Hey Prior: Why don't you march those monster calves back to USC! Your garbage might impress some hack scout, but it doesn't impress me!
Since we're on the topic of overrated players, I'd be happy to hear your picks for the biggest frauds in baseball. I pick Prior. Kris Benson is way too easy.
Bottom fifth: Chase Utley homers! Take a seat, drumsticks.
Juan Pierre. In so far as he's pretty good, but everyone thinks he's superlative?
Nice catch by Bell there.
Posted by: Oisin | Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 03:32 PM
no way, prior is a horse. he's a great pitcher. just had a bad outing.
Posted by: el123chico | Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 06:17 PM
I would actually say that Prior's teammate Kerry Wood is a bit of a fraud.
Posted by: Tom G | Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 08:34 PM
I-chi-ro!
Posted by: tim | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 07:27 AM
Regarding the above "nomination" by tim: utter nonsense. You clearly have never seen him play.
Posted by: Tom Goodman | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 10:03 AM
Yeah. Dude. Don't diss Ichiro. He's like Spiderman.
I nominate Carlos Beltran as most overpaid player, if not most overrated...
Posted by: Deanna | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 02:06 PM
Actually, I have seen him play, back in June at McAfee Coliseum. I did a whole post comparing him to Abreu using VORP (value over replacement player). He's fun to watch, no doubt, but statistically, he's no match for Bobby as far as helping his team win. To me, this is the essence of what overrated means: flashy on the surface, but not so great when you delve a little deeper.
I also realize he's far better defensively than Bobby, but until somebody comes up with a truly solid and widely accepted way to quantify defense, I'm still skeptical. I tend to side with Baseball Prospectus, who hedges all of the defensive stats they quote, like Defensive Win Shares and Zone Rating, with statements like "well, these aren't great, but they're the best we've got."
Ichiro is a pretty cool, dude, though. Loved him on that Costas interview last year.
Posted by: tim | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 03:13 PM
The Mariners have had losing teams for the last two seasons which makes a huge difference to the number of runs a batter at the top of the order is likely to score. So, if one delves deeper one discovers that Ichiro has been scoring a lot of runs for a team that overall doesn't score many lately. And defensively he is one of the best outfielders in either league. The issue here isn't whether or not he can be compared to Bobby Abreu (I don't think much comparison can be made between a leadoff hitter and a guy who bats third), but whether or not he is overrated. I stand by my earlier comment.
Posted by: Tom Goodman | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 04:17 PM