Robinson was still a good player in 1974, but boy did he drop off quickly in 1975. Earl Weaver must have been in a difficult position, and certainly felt pressure to play Brooks because of his stature. But there is no way Robinson should have gotten 502 plate appearances while the Orioles were in a playoff hunt. Unfortunately, Robinson hung on for two more terrible years as a part-time player before finally retiring in 1977.
Ordonez is probably the most over-rated and over-hyped player of my lifetime. Great defense no doubt, but having Rey batting 8th was like having two pitchers batting back to back. The Mets finished two games behind the Cubs for the Wild Card in 1998. If you go by VORP, the Mets could have employed a shortstop just barely better than a Triple A player and tied the Cubs.
pokerplaya wrote:Ordonez made some good plays, but man he could not hit.
He really had no business playing in the National League. The 8th hitter in the NL is basically supposed to get a free pass because they'd rather go after the pitcher but with Ordonez, you might as well go right after him because he wasn't much better than the pitcher. An AL lineup could try playing NL ball if they really wanted his glove regardless of how useless his bat was but it was awful to watch him "hit."
Actually, being on that list apparently gives you a pretty good shot at getting in the HOF considering that 2/10 are in (I count Rose) and Simmons is pretty close.
Category A: (Rose, Robinson, Simmons, Blair, and Tolan). The once great player has a sharp and sudden drop in productivity and the manager is reluctant to bench the player because of his stature.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by bigh0rt » Fri Feb 01, 2008 11:03 am 
