Still great, but overrated athletes

[Lafayette]

Golf: Rickie Fowler - dude is always thought to be in top 5, but hasn't won much of anything.
Tennis: Isner, Tsongas
Boxing: Jake Paul - will not fight anyone within 20 years of his age and they must come out of retirement. AKA Fake Paul, Fraud Paul
Women's soccer - Rapinoe - hesitant bc early on she was dominant, but hung on way too long on the USWNT; plus she can't hold a candle to her wife's accomplishments.

 

[HiltonHeadJ]

The best shortstop of that era defensively was Visquel. Gold gloves I think are for defense. I’m a Sox fan but if I were starting a team tomorrow I would take Jeter. Can’t believe I said that.

 

[uconnbill]

You may have had something until you brought up Eli.

Eli was clutch when it was time to shine. He put the GOAT twice with better teams and made the plays when they were needed.

I think Big Papi was overrated and used steroids and yet he got a pass. Yes he was very good in the playoffs, but when you stand on the plate it is easy when no one challenges you inside. Nolan Ryan, Gossage, Gibson and others would have hit him and pushed him off the plate one way or another.

 

[uconnbill]

Franco Harris ran out of bounds all the time. He and Eric Dickerson were overrated
Pippen was good but not great. I will get hammered here but Ewing was never great but had a good jump shot

 

[Lefty2one]

I think Ewing is properly rated. If anything, history is forgetting him. His knees were pretty much toast by the time he hit 30. He also had by far the worst supporting casts of any of the 90s stars.

He's always rated below Hakeem, Shaq, and the Admiral and often not mentioned in the same conversation.

 

[uconnbill]

I think Ewing is properly rated. If anything, history is forgetting him. His knees were pretty much toast by the time he hit 30. He also had by far the worst supporting casts of any of the 90s stars.

He's always rated below Hakeem, Shaq, and the Admiral and often not mentioned in the same conversation.

My issue is he was a terror in college and then turned into a jump shooter and not the inside threat most thought he would be

 

[RuffRuff]

I don't think they were overrated. I think UConn was underrated.

I’d agree with that. They lost one game coming in and still have one of the best if not best KP of all time. Perfect game plan, matched up great and played a great game. To this day I’ll argue that in a best of 10, once calibrated, we’d lose to that Duke team 7-3. In a one game situation, the best team that day won.

 

[superjohn]

Namath is a weak HoF member, but I don't put that on TD/INT ratios. Back in the old AFL, nobody had great TD/INT ratios. The year the Jets won it all, 7 of the 10 teams in the league threw more INTs than TDs. Of the most successful QBs in the '60s AFL, only Dawson and Griese had positive TD/INT #s. Guys like Jack Kemp, John Hadl, Daryle Lamonica, Babe Parilli... all negative ratios.

Namath's thing was basically going Air Coryell well before Air Coryell was a thing. Was the first to 4K yards passing. He went for big chunks. He had two short white guys (Maynard & Sauer) he turned into leading receivers. He was drafted as a dual threat guy - he could run at Alabama - but had to learn how to be a pocket passer in the pros.

He was a better QB and leader than given credit for today. But under today's criteria, he's nowhere near a HoF. He's kinda like Dave Parker - had a brief time on top, but most of his career is mediocre or worse. If he didn't win that SB or get named MVP for it (and for the league in general), he wouldn't be in Canton.

Dave Parker was pretty damn consistent and his all-star appearances cover a lot of years. He was an all-star at 39 years old.

 

[storrsroars]

Dave Parker was pretty damn consistent and his all-star appearances cover a lot of years. He was an all-star at 39 years old.

Parker played 19 seasons. In 13 of those he compiled a bWAR of 1.6 or less. In the other six, he compiled a bWAR of 35.8, for a total of 40.1, which ties him for 548th all-time.

There are only 15 HoFers with less WAR than Parker. Seven of them are Negro Leaguers who would probably be ahead of him if accurate stats were kept. Six are old-timers from dead ball. Then there's Hack Wilson and Bill Mazeroski.

For reference, Cutch is already almost 10 WAR ahead of Parker. Other guys ahead of Parker include Bogaerts, Seager, Heyward, Bregman, Yelich, Stanton and Semien. All good players, no HoFers among them.

 

[superjohn]

Parker played 19 seasons. In 13 of those he compiled a bWAR of 1.6 or less. In the other six, he compiled a bWAR of 35.8, for a total of 40.1, which ties him for 548th all-time.

There are only 15 HoFers with less WAR than Parker. Seven of them are Negro Leaguers who would probably be ahead of him if accurate stats were kept. Six are old-timers from dead ball. Then there's Hack Wilson and Bill Mazeroski.

For reference, Cutch is already almost 10 WAR ahead of Parker. Other guys ahead of Parker include Bogaerts, Seager, Heyward, Bregman, Yelich, Stanton and Semien. All good players, no HoFers among them.

WAR is also an overhyped advanced stat. His WAR was 0.3 in '86 when he finished 5th in MVP voting and had 31 hr's, 116 rbi's. It's not the be all, end all.

 

[storrsroars]

WAR is also an overhyped advanced stat. His WAR was 0.3 in '86 when he finished 5th in MVP voting and had 31 hr's, 116 rbi's. It's not the be all, end all.

He should've gone to the AL and become a D.H by that point. In 1986 he had the worst defensive rating of any qualified RF in MLB. Even worse than Danny Tartabull. Dude had no knees and no range, and even his base running was below average. That's figured into overall WAR.

 

[Scoe]

Eli was clutch when it was time to shine. He put the GOAT twice with better teams and made the plays when they were needed.

I think Big Papi was overrated and used steroids and yet he got a pass. Yes he was very good in the playoffs, but when you stand on the plate it is easy when no one challenges you inside. Nolan Ryan, Gossage, Gibson and others would have hit him and pushed him off the plate one way or another.

This is exactly what people don't get about Eli, Belichick would always take away your your 1st and your 2nd options. It's not just what you had to do beat Brady's Pats but you couldn't do which was throw picks, a very small margin for error. Favre would've thrown a multitude of picks against Belichicks defense.