Bubby Brister and Tim Worley were the next saviors for Steelers fans.......well
who is the most overrated Pittsburgh athlete ever?
- Thread starter BradlyPitt
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I put them on the list because each one was/is extremely overrated...if you disagree please explain why?
Whoever wrote John Rienstra had a good call. Obscure, but in the day, he was being hyped as a can't-miss, best - ever, just induct him into Canton immediately, kind of lineman.
No, it's pretty clear that you don't understand what the word means. You think that Kendall was overrated because he was never the centerpiece of a championship team. It's like the concept that Kendall could be a good player who played with crappy teammates never enters your mind. It's a team sport. One guy, no matter how good, can't turn a crappy team into a contender. Not when Jason Kendall played for the Pirates and not for any other player ever in history. Dan Marino may very well be the best quarterback in NFL history and even he wasn't good enough to lead mediocre teams to a championship. In most years they didn't even really get all that close. Because one guy, no matter how good, can't do it all by himself.
It's funny that you use the line "context is your friend" when you seem to have no concept of context what so ever. Through the age of 26 (which Polanco hasn't gotten to yet) Kendall was a much better player than either Polanco or Marte has been. MUCH better. But we know that in 2001 Jason Kendall broke a bone in his hand and played with it most of the season, and we know that Jason Kendall was never the same kind of hitter after that season. You keep calling Kendall a singles hitter, and yet we know that before 2001 he put up slugging percentages of .473, .511 and .470 in three consecutive seasons, and we also know that in the combined eight major league seasons of Marte and Polanco (not counting this year yet, although neither of them is there at this early stage this season either) that neither one of them has ever had a season with a slugging percentage as high as .470. If all we knew about those three guys was what they had done by the time they had their age 26 seasons in the major leagues then the correct choice is to take Jason Kendall. In fact because Kendall plays the much more important defensive position it isn't even close.
Anyone who would take either Marte or Polanco based on their careers through age 26 over Kendall is an idiot. A complete, utter idiot. But of course because of the context we know what happened to Kendall next. He got hurt. He was never the same player again. So of course you would take either Marte or Polanco over Kendall right now, because we know what happened to Kendall and we don't know what's going to happen with the other two. But you aren't taking Marte or Polanco because they have been better players than Kendall was at similar points of their careers, because that is obviously not the case. Or at least it's obvious to anyone who actually does understand context.
You really can't read or just want people to know you spent time googling stats. He wasn't a super star player. He was hailed as a super star player locally even after his injury (to suggest otherwise is disingenuous at best) thus overrated, which is the entire point of the thread and the basis of my comments. Everything else is irrelevant.
And his injury absolutely is relevant to him being overrated. The Pirates made him the 2nd highest paid catcher in baseball AFTER he dislocated his ankle. With that contract came expectations. Shame on the Pirates for making a stupid deal with damaged goods, but when you get paid as the 2nd best in the game at your position and you don't come close to living up to that, I think the term overrated fits regardless of the reasons why.
The topic of the thread is overrated, not if he was pretty good on a crappy team. He was - no sh*t one player can win all by himself. You keep arguing something I agree with you on, but you're the smart one, right?[
Brister came close to the AFC title game during the 1989 season. Noll failed to surround him with enough weapons. His best skill players that season was a fullback and a wideout with bad hamstrings. A last-minute change by Noll from Lorenzo White to Aaron Jones in 1988 hurt and altered the 1989 draft that yielded another bust in Worley.
Then Tom Moore was pushed out and Joe Walton's offense was a terrible fit for all involved.
Then Tom Moore was pushed out and Joe Walton's offense was a terrible fit for all involved.
If you think that anyone thought that Kendall was a super star player, especially after the injury, then you live in some sort of alternate world that the rest of us can only read about. No one thought that about him. Everyone in this town blamed his contract for part of the reason why the Pirates couldn't put a competitive team on the field. If people thought he was a super star then why would they complain about him getting paid like one?
Again, we seem to fail to acknowledge that "overrated" does not mean "suck". Or like some on here listing some HS athletes, "never was's".
Joe, are you Jason Kendall's dad perchance?
If I recall......Justin King was good enough to get drafted. I dont rememebr what round...was it the second round?
I have a hard time accepting King as over rated if he managed to have a solid career and make it to the league.
Lamont Wade is really a silly pick......c'mon.......give the kid a chance to support your claim that he is over rated.....
Foster........couldnt seem to get out of the training room to show his talent, an injury prone career is far different than being over rated in my view......
Here is a name: Andrew Johnson;
from his bio at Miami:
HIGH SCHOOL: North Hills (Pa.)...Widely regarded as one of the nation's top running back prospects......Rated the nation's No. 82 prospect in the Rivals.com National Top 100...Rated the nation's No. 9 running back by Rivals.com...Rated the No. 17 prospect on the Rivals.com Midwest Major 50...Rated the No. 14 prospect on the Rivals.com Atlantic East Amazing 80...selected to the 2003 Associated Press All-State team.....Chose Miami over Pittsburgh, Florida, Ohio State and UCLA.
Andrew Johnson didnt sniff the field at Miami....left the U...and played at Akron.
Just because people liked the way the guy played doesn't mean PGH thought he deserved to be in the HOF.
I won't be shocked if Andrew McCutchen ends up on these lists in a few years. From MVP to too-bad-to-trade in just a couple years. If he doesn't bounce back this year, things look bleak.
A somewhat overrated Steeler was Alan Faneca. He was a road grader and reliable for sure, but was very mediocre at pass protection. He moaned about his contract heading into the 2007 campaign, then the Jets paid him handsomely in 2008 and the Steelers went on to win a Super Bowl without him.
I think that is the reason he doesn't belong on this list. He never got the chance to prove that he was or wasn't overrated.
im not sure where I fall on the Kendall thing. an interesting name for sure. He was revered here in Pittsburgh amongst the bucco fanbase, a gritty, tough as nails kind of guy. Dude hit for average and was an exciting player. lacked any power but he had many seasons where he hit over .300, was a 3 time all star, his on base percentage was fantastic, was very durable (up until the vomit inducing injury) and not to be overlooked, was bad-ass enough to lean into inside pitches and take a free base..
I think a big reason why we thought so highly of him is because how poor our talent was in late 90's and early 00's. He was our "star" when on a good team, he'd be a good player. so maybe not over rated as more over valued because we had no other value..
Tell you what, I'd LOVE to have him on some of these more recent rosters. I like Cervelli but he is much better than him..
I think a big reason why we thought so highly of him is because how poor our talent was in late 90's and early 00's. He was our "star" when on a good team, he'd be a good player. so maybe not over rated as more over valued because we had no other value..
Tell you what, I'd LOVE to have him on some of these more recent rosters. I like Cervelli but he is much better than him..
Here are some names and thoughts.
Kordell Stewart.
Leonard Timmons
Jason Gildon
Alex Kovalev
Gary Roberts
Jason Bay
Johnny Ray
Garrit Cole
Mark Melancon
Kordell Stewart.
Leonard Timmons
Jason Gildon
Alex Kovalev
Gary Roberts
Jason Bay
Johnny Ray
Garrit Cole
Mark Melancon
LOL, good list. I was actually thinking JayBay too but didn't mention him.. Regarding Johnny Ray, as a little kid, I LOVED him, thought he was the best ever.. Looked up his career stats not too long ago, lets just say he was not the best second basemen in history..
I liked kovalev until we brought him back the second time, tarnished my image of him. reason #1 why I hate the "rent-a-player for the playoff run" strategy so popular in hockey and baseball.
Gary Roberts had a nice playoff run and went out on top, I respect that.. Who is Leonard Timmons?
Kendall was a above average major league catcher. He was a borderline all star but got picked for 3 because the team around him sucked so bad that he was the best choice and every team needed a invite. He was vastly overrated by most pirate fans because he was all they had. So he could make the list because most pirate fans looked at him as a borderline HOF type when he was just a good major league catcher. Cutch is similar only he is a little better player but not a HOF like many pirate fans thought until last year.
Cutch had us excited because for 3 - 4 years, he was putting up ALl star, MVP like numbers. avg was well into the .310s, he was hitting high 20's HRs while playing incredible center field..
Even as late as '15, he had really good numbers; .292avg, 23hrs, 96rbis.. just don't know what happened. Dude looks thin, too thin. he doesn't have that power that we saw. usually guys like him lose avg and get bigger, that's the normal evolution.. maybe the cutback on PEDs changed that, I don't know but it's very discouraging.
Throw in the fact that he is about as high of a class act as there is in professional baseball and he was an easy guy to really root for..
I blame his inability to hit an open WR to save his life.. he was not an NFL QB. he was given too many opportunities and proven time and again, his accuracy was beyond poor..I blame unimaginative coaches for Kordell Stewart. Similar to Greg Cross.
Frustrating too because some of those teams were sick and with even an avg QB, we'd have had more shots at a superbowl. that 97 team, with even an average qb, walks into the superbowl. 2001, same thing..
Can not believe it took over 125 entries to finally get to Kordell Stewart.
JayBay always had good numbers. But he was the master of the 3 run homer when the team was down or up by 6 runs. He was so unclutch.
Gary Roberts became a legend, and somewhat a Chuck Norris like punchline, but really he was a 3rd/4th line winger. I loved Kovy. His skill set was surpassed by few. But....but....it just never really translated into big numbers and productivity. That is why I mentioned him. Again, "overrated" does not mean "suck", "bad", "horrible" etc....it just means that they had more notoriety than probably warranted.
Lawrence Timmons. See...he was so overrated I forgot his first name.
any chance you guys can stop listing HOFers as being over-rated?
what did you want him to do, run the option? Sometimes a forward pass is needed in the NFL..
Ralph Kiner?....Ralph Kiner?.... Why? Was it his average of 42 hrs a year in Pittsburgh or was it that he only averaged around 110 rbis during that span?
I literally have heard no Steeler fan anywhere at any time make that claim (Bubby-wise)...
he also crushed Liz Taylor in her prime.. that is impressive..
yeah, but who didn't? Good for him that he played (if you know what I mean) post WW2 when advancements in antibiotics were of great assistance to lucky fellas that got around....
I just looked up his stats, he had 2 years with the buccos where he hit over 50 HRs and had a .300+ batting average. his stats are sick. ironically enough, once he left Pittsburgh, his stats fell dramatically. he did come back here for a year and did poorly then left again..
Bruno Samartino. It has recently come to my attention that a fairly substantial portion of his many titles may have had less to to with his actual athletic prowess and may have, to some degree, been staged and possibly pre-determined. .
Lol, post of this whole thread. Well done.
Just when you think this board couldn't sink lower. This post made me miss the stadium threads.
