Top 5 most underrated Reds players of past 25 years

[Wheelhouse]

Deion Sanders

[Topcat]

1 Dan Driessen
2 Terry Crowley
3 Dave Collins
4 Tony Perez (outside of redsland he never got his due in my opinion)
5 Mike Lacoss

[dougflynn23]

My top 5 are

1. Mario Soto - everything that Steel says above is 100% correct
2. Mariano Duncan
3. Jeff Shaw
4. Eddie Taubensee
5. Danny Jackson

[Red Heeler]

Eric Davis and Adam Dunn.

"They could be great hitters if not for all the strikeouts."

[Chip R]

In terms of "underrated," the first guy to come to mind is Dan Driessen. Growing up, I thought of him as a weak offensive first baseman, and a guy with unfulfilled promise (peaked at age 25).

I was thinking the same thing, chili. I think the thing that Reds fans have against Driessen is that he followed Perez and the Reds didn't have the same kind of success as they did when Tony was manning 1st.

[REDREAD]

Not in any particular order, and I'm definitely more biased towards recent history, due to poor memory.

1. Mark Cameron.. the guy was an impact player, but few people at the time realized it.

2. Danny Neagle. Another guy who's stay was brief, but had a big impact. I still say that Bowden was totally robbed by the Yanks, even though Pena developed better than many suspected. A pitcher like Neagle should've fetched much more.

3. Tom Browning. The guy was a legit ace for 5-6 years. Check his numbers.
Too bad that knee injury (and later broken arm) ruined his career.

4. Scott Sullivan, as others have pointed out.

5. Rob Dibble. He's remembered as a blowhard and a jerk (deservedly so), but he was easily the most dominating reliever ever, IMO (and if you don't consider longevity).

[Puffy]

Not in any particular order, and I'm definitely more biased towards recent history, due to poor memory.

1. Mark Cameron.. the guy was an impact player, but few people at the time realized it.

2. Danny Neagle. Another guy who's stay was brief, but had a big impact. I still say that Bowden was totally robbed by the Yanks, even though Pena developed better than many suspected. A pitcher like Neagle should've fetched much more.

3. Tom Browning. The guy was a legit ace for 5-6 years. Check his numbers.
Too bad that knee injury (and later broken arm) ruined his career.

4. Scott Sullivan, as others have pointed out.

5. Rob Dibble. He's remembered as a blowhard and a jerk (deservedly so), but he was easily the most dominating reliever ever, IMO (and if you don't consider longevity).

Both Cameron and Neagle were so underrated that Redread doesn't even know their actual names!!

PS - its Mike and Denny.

[westofyou]

Tom Browning. The guy was a legit ace for 5-6 years. Check his numbers.

I just did, I don't see it at all, in fact I'll venture that he was not even the best Reds starter when he was a Red.

That said when you get to elected to the Reds HOF with his record it's mostly because you are popular.

[westofyou]

I simply can't think of a Reds player who was more underrated in the context of overall baseball than was Mario Soto. If that guy had been on a good team who knew how to handle him, we might have seen a Hall of Fame career.

Mario fact, the Reds as team have only had 6 seasons since 1951 (when they moved the fences in at Crosley) that a pitcher had the most Win Shares on the whole team. Only four of them were by starters and Sota had three of them from 82-84. Rijo had the other (93) and Abernathy (67) and Shaw(97) had the other three.

[M2]

I just did, I don't see it at all, in fact I'll venture that he was not even the best Reds starter when he was a Red.

That said when you get to elected to the Reds HOF with his record it's mostly because you are popular.

Yeah, Tom was a horse, not an ace. Mind you, a guy who can throw innings like that would be a huge boon to a smaller market team today. Generally speaking, the Reds were left short-staffed in the seasons where Browning became the de facto ace ('89 and '91 for instance).

His status as the last good starting pitcher the Reds developed has kept him from being underrated.

Great points being made about Soto. Dibble and Collins are both good picks too.

[MrCinatit]

i would have to agree with Mario Soto. whenever we went to a game in the early/mid '80s, we tried to schedule our games to see Soto, because we knew he would make it a game.

[MattyHo4Life]

Hmmmm...here is my list

1) Mario Soto
2) Danny Jackson
3) Rob Dibble
4) Mariano Duncan
5) Billy Hatcher

[TRF]

Jason LaRue
Reggie Sanders
Mario Soto
Kal Daniels (three fantastic years at the plate for the Reds)
Bip Roberts

[MattyHo4Life]

Jason LaRue
Reggie Sanders
Mario Soto
Kal Daniels (three fantastic years at the plate for the Reds)
Bip Roberts

I never thought of Kal Daniels as underrated, but he was my favorite player growing up.

[ochre]

should Greg Vaughn be considered for his '99 performance? I don't think many give him as much credit as he deserved for leading that team.