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Favorite player on the Indians, that you felt was under-appreciated

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Derek

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With the success of the other thread, I thought I'd take this in the other direction.

This is a thread for guys you always liked and felt were good despite them being oft-criticized by the fanbase.

I'm starting it off with Cody Allen. Like most relievers, fans notice their missteps far more than their successes. He fell apart in 2018, but his 2013-2017 run was great.

2013-17
344.2 IP
2.59 ERA
11.93 K/9

He pitched in 359 games during that stretch and only relinquished the lead 17 times.


His 2016 postseason run isn't talked about enough either. Andrew Miller gets a lot of rightful press for his heroics, but look at his numbers from the entire run:
13.2 IP
55 BF
8 H
5 BB
24 K
0 R/ER

His ALCS/WS numbers are even more impressive:
10.2 IP
40 BF
4 H
3 BB
19 K
0 R/ER

So, go ahead. Defend some guys that you felt took undeserved heat.
 
Jake Westbrook. I don’t have the stats right now to back me up, but he would almost always give an above average outing. He had a super gutsy performance in Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS before the wheels came off (thanks, Skinner).
 
Jake Westbrook. I don’t have the stats right now to back me up, but he would almost always give an above average outing. He had a super gutsy performance in Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS before the wheels came off (thanks, Skinner).
Westbrook was one of the last of a dying breed as a guy who pitches to contact. He never struck out more than 5.68 per nine innings (only Ivan Nova and Brett Anderson had lower rates out of qualified pitchers this past season).

But he was undoubtedly solid and very consistent. He was even solid for the Cardinals for a short while at the end of his career.
 
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I don’t think Jhonny Peralta was that bad. I think some (including myself) had irrational dislike for the guy. Granted he wasn’t the greatest defensively.
 
I don’t think Jhonny Peralta was that bad. I think some (including myself) had irrational dislike for the guy. Granted he wasn’t the greatest defensively.
I never cared for him or Asdrubal.

Maybe it was a post-Omar thing, but nobody really hesitated to jump on the Lindor train.
 
For starting pitchers, I really liked Westbrook, Millwood, and Ogea--think they were all under-appreciated.

For relievers, I felt like a lot of closers got a bad wrap for not being "lights out." Wickman and Borowski come to mind, even though I would never go to bat to defend either one.
 
Several have already been mentioned.

Peralta suffered from not being Omar. Nobody wants to follow a legend. Jhonny also was very unemotional on the field, unlike Omar. Fans interpreted that as not caring. But he had a long, productive career.

Westbrook was a dependable starter for us. I never understood why fans didnt appreciate what he meant to the team.

Blake was the ultimate Super Utility player. His ability and willingness to play anywhere asked made him much more valuable than his numbers.

I think Choo was under rated, too. Fans often dismissed him as lucky, because his BABIP was supposedly unsustainable. But he just kept hitting the ball consistently hard.

Among pitchers, Plunk and Shaw were really under appreciated by fans. I guess that's the fate of most non closers. But both were very good for a long time in an Indians uniform. We win a lot of games, because of those two.
 
I recall Choo being loved by many, but I guess we all have our own opinion bubbles that we live in.

Agreed on the rest.

I never cared for Jhonny, but I never disliked him as much as I did Asdrubal. I mostly just wanted to get him off SS because he was never better than mediocre there for us. His bat was also maddeningly inconsistent. He was downright awful in '06, '09 and '10 before we traded him to Detroit.
 
I recall Choo being loved by many, but I guess we all have our own opinion bubbles that we live in.

Agreed on the rest.

I never cared for Jhonny, but I never disliked him as much as I did Asdrubal. I mostly just wanted to get him off SS because he was never better than mediocre there for us. His bat was also maddeningly inconsistent. He was downright awful in '06, '09 and '10 before we traded him to Detroit.
I thought Choo was overrated, which is hard to do for a really good hitter. Fans absolutely loved him, partially because it was fun to shout "CHOOOOO!!!"

I remember Jhonny would be like cold for months, then have a hot streak that brought his season numbers up. He was frustrating at the plate, and his poor glove in the field combined to be a player that while I didn't want him gone, I didn't pencil him in as a "Yup, that guy's a strength"
 
Paul Assenmacher - I think he was appreciated, but perhaps not enough... hence still under-appreciated. How often do you see a reliever specialist last for 5 years with one team?

That curve was money.
Agreed. He redefined the role of LOOGY (or defined it for some) and in many ways became the standard against which other LOOGYs are measured/judged.
 
I thought Choo was overrated, which is hard to do for a really good hitter. Fans absolutely loved him, partially because it was fun to shout "CHOOOOO!!!"

I remember Jhonny would be like cold for months, then have a hot streak that brought his season numbers up. He was frustrating at the plate, and his poor glove in the field combined to be a player that while I didn't want him gone, I didn't pencil him in as a "Yup, that guy's a strength"
You’re bringing back memories. Alright, I hate Peralta again.
 
Vic Power and Leon Wagner.

These two each provided, in their own way, good memories for a little kid sitting virtually alone in the concrete
bleachers at Municipal Stadium.

Power had a style of play a kid could love.

From a SABR article:

Power was flashy on the field, making one-handed grabs and often making a sweeping motion with his glove,

which looked to some fans like grandstanding. “They called me a showboat, but it was just the way I did it,” he said. “I told them, ‘The guys who invented the game, if they wanted you to catch with two hands they would have given you two gloves, and I only had one glove.’ ”13 While at the plate, the right-handed hitting Power would swing the bat in his left hand, pendulum-style, awaiting the pitch. It was another trademark of Power’s that caused people to call him a “showboat” or a “hot dog.” Power might be the last MLB player to steal home twice in a game. And he had only 3 steals the entire
season!

I didn't know until many years later that he would have been the first black to play for the NYY but they didn't like
his dating white women.

Leon 'Daddy Wags' played with a joy you felt in the stands. He once was a partner in a clothing store that had the
slogan- 'Buy your rags from Daddy Wags'. He came to the Tribe in one of their few good deals of the era, going away
were Barry Latman and Joe Adcock. Wagner hit 31 HRs and had 100 RBI his first season for Cleveland. He was a
rotten outfielder, something like Manny . When asked to explain his decision to catch fly balls with one hand, he said, “I’ve found that I field better if I catch the ball with only one hand. When you use two hands, the other one just gets in the way.”

He had a beautiful smile and gave me one of my first autographs.

And I loved those sleeveless uniforms.
 
I always liked Tomlin to be honest, but he was a stronger asset in the clubhouse than on the field cause of the injuries.
 

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