A couple of weeks ago, I was just reading some tweets. Suddenly, a tweet drew my attention. It was a tweet with a photo, indicating that a player was underrated. That player is Magglio Ordonez.
After reading the tweet, I began to wonder whether Magglio Ordonez was underrated. While thinking about this question, I went to check on the great Fangraphs website.
Ordonez made his MLB debut in 1997. In his first season, he played 21 games for the White Sox, hitting .319/.338/.580 with 4 home runs and 11 RBI. In total, he spent 15 years in the majors, slashing .309/.369/.502 with 294 home runs and 1236 RBI.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the number of home runs. Ordonez crushed 294 home runs in his career. From 1997 to 2011, Alex Rodriguez and Hall of Famer Jim Thome each blasted 500+ home runs. During this period, there were 37 players who crushed more home runs than Magglio Ordonez did.
In addition, let’s look at the RBI. From 1997 to 2011, Alex Rodriguez collected 1749 RBI and Manny Ramirez had 1500+ RBI. During these 15 years, there were 15 players who collected more RBI than Ordonez did. Interestingly, Ordonez actually collected more RBI than Hall of Famer Scott Rolen did during this period. Scott Rolen played in the majors from 1996 to 2012 and collected 1287 RBI in his career.
Thirdly, let’s look at hits. From 1997 to 2011, Derek Jeter had 2893 hits. In the meantime, Vladimir Guerrero, Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez each collected 2500+ hits during this period. In this period, 22 players had at least 2000 hits. Magglio Ordonez is one of them and he had 2156 hits in his career. From 1997 to 2011, only 12 players collected more hits than Ordonez did. Moreover, Hall of famer Scott Rolen had 1972 hits during this period. In Scott Rolen’s great career, he had 2077 hits. Hence, Magglio Ordonez’s career might not be as long as Scott Rolen’s. However, Ordonez actually collected more hits in his career than Rolen did.
Finally, let’s take a look at batting average. Hall of famer Tony Gwynn spent 20 seasons in the majors. From 1997 to 2001, his batting average was over .340. Furthermore, another Hall of Famer Larry Walker had a batting average over .330 from 1997 to 2005. Additionally, Albert Pujols was the 2001 NL Rookie of the Year award winner and in the AL, Ichiro Suzuki won the Rookie of the Year award. They each owned a batting average over .320 from 2001 to 2011. Magglio Ordonez has a career batting average of .309 in his career over 7000+ plate appearances.
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