The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History

by Jayson Stark

Jayson Stark discusses what he considers to be the most overrated and underrated players of all time at each position.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[David Bray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "underrated" chapters were more fun than the "overrated" ones.

[Eric Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, especially when one reads the "overrated" section of every chapter. Stark reminds us, over and over, that "overrated" does not mean "would have been better off parking cars at the fitness expo." No, it simply means that we give a greater value to players than they probably have deserved. Take, for example, Nolan Ryan. Nope, never had to hit against him. I will admit some idol worship here--loved the guy...but...314 wins with nearly 300 losses. Never won a Cy Young. Never much above .500. Yes, a dominating pitcher on the one-on-one matchups, but not quite the world's greatest (as pretty much reflected in the HOF vote). Hall of famer? YES! Emphatically. Best pitcher ever? Not so much.

Some of the overrated players are quite obvious. People remember them as more than they were for different reasons (Steve Garvey, Steve Sax, Dave Winfield); others, are harder to defend (see Ryan above, add in Sandy Koufax). Sometimes the "rating" is tied to their contract (see: Brown, Kevin and Drew, JD). Other times, it is from a single wonderful year (like Benito Santiago's rookie season).

The underrated players are interesting as well. I had never thought of Frank Robinson as underrated, but when reading the reasons why...yeah, too many people never recognize how good he actually was. Stan Musial was likely one of the greatest hitters ever, but never recognized as such.

Well worth the read for a baseball fan, even if you disagree with Stark's conclusions. Heck, you may even toss the book across the room!

[Brandon Kopceuch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I like Jayson Stark, I really do. And there were a lot of good arguments and stats in this book. But boy did he try too hard to be funny. And the constant mentions of “this book,” “the overrated/underrated committee,” and his “don’t kill the messenger” rhetoric was just obnoxious after the third or fourth time, let alone the 100th. It was an interesting, yet annoying read, for sure.

[Thomas Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baseball is life...

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun ride through baseball stats and history, this book is one of those argument-starters that make baseball such a great game to play, watch, listen to (the only sport that may be better on radio than on TV), and read about.

Stark takes a strictly personal approach to the debate, not laying out any rules for inclusion or exclusion as he goes position by position (and by franchise in a short appendix that would make a great follow-up book all by itself) listing the top five overrated and underrated players. His extensive explanations and defenses of his (sometimes controversial) top choices are the meat of the book, and constitute a primer in how to watch baseball games and accurately value individual players' contributions to team success.

There is something here to delight and offend every fan--I know I was mightily and not happily surprised to see Manny Sanguillen from my beloved 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates listed as one of the top overrated catchers. Sure, he didn't take walks, but he also played second fiddle only to Johnny Bench, the best catcher ever, during his career. Besides his ability to handle the pitching staff, his intangibles as the spirit of the team have to be taken into consideration.

But that's the point of the book, and Stark makes good points to defend his side of the arguments.

[Josh Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough book for me to rank because I love the subject matter (baseball) and enjoy any discussions comparing players, eras and statistics (which is what this book does), but it just isn't that well written. It's filled with unfunny jokes and unnecessary repetition. As far as the content itself, it's fine--Stark makes some good arguments and interesting points. It's just that the useful parts of the book could have been condensed into a pamphlet instead of a book. If you enjoy baseball arguments I'm sure you'd enjoy the book....it just isn't a great book.

One gripe as far as the rankings go: Lou Whitaker should have been included as an underrated second baseman.

Full disclosure: I may have spitefully dropped a star off of the book's ranking after it gave me a massive paper cut.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. But almost all of the "overrated" players were low-OBP guys who the uninformed public fell in love with. I agree with the fact that those players are overrated, but it's not exactly earth-shattering analysis. I did enjoy the section on Nolan Ryan being overrated though. And the analysis of who is "underrated" was much better.

Just realize that if the "underrated" team and the "overrated" team played 162 games, the underrated team would win about 130 of them.

[Pistol Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. Jayson Stark's writing is evidently like a trip to the candy store. In small doses, it's just fine. But for a 200-page book? Ugh. His cornball approach is wince-inducing and if he makes one more reference to an All-Century team that evidently HE put a lot of stock in ... Ugh. Yep, that's three "Ugh's" which sums up this book as a whole. Thank heavens it was only 200 pages so the misery ended quickly. Ugh.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koufax and Drysdale both overrated ! NO WAY. But then I realized the whole idea of the book: to present personal observations, backed with cherry picked statistics, to engage the reader in discussions / arguments / complaints. In that respect, the book is great. I spent my reading time doing so much more than reading the book. I looked up baseball history and statistics, and revisited my memories. It was a great use of time.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and easy read. (I read it yesterday during the Syracuse/Villanova game.) The writing was a bit repetitive in the way he kept explaining what ‘overrated’ meant and the formula he was using to compare stats. An interesting book overall though.

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes position-by-position about the players that the humble author believes was overrated and underrated. Some of the names will be surprises and others not so much. I recommend this book to any baseball fan!

[Dan Hardin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covered a lot of players from the 50's-80's, and since I didn't ever see them play or read about them during their careers, I didn't really care if they were under- or overrated

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book for baseball nuts. Jayson Stark paints a pretty convincing picture about who the true stars of the current and past generations were.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Charles Kim. It sill sits in the most important room in the house.

[Kenneth]

It what it was, a good read if you like sports. As boring as the phone book if you don't. : )

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. It taught me a lot about different baseball players.

[Christian Lindke]

Baseball

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only do I love Jayson Stark, but I love anything about underdogs, which is basically what half of this book ends up being. Awesome.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good, not great, book. Jayson Stark did a thorough job with his analysis. I do agree with his assessment of Lou Brock as overrated, even though I am a Cardinal's fan.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This baseball book written by one of my favorite ESPN baseball writers is totally underrated.

[Gail Kenney]

A perfect ending to the series. Afterward, I watched the movie and it was true to the story so that was a bonus.

[J.f. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick read. A great book to stir up conversation.