Buckner? Who overrates him? It's not like he's in the HoF. Pretty damn solid hitter, though.

Pretty damn average hitter. OPS+ of 100 is as average as you get. Google 'Buckner underrated' or 'Bucker underappreciated' or go to your Cubs or baseball blog of choice in the last 48 hours. Every single writer has somehow put together a unique 'Bucker was underrated' article....

...which would then seem to imply that he is vastly overrated.

Ernie Banks didn't even get this much coverage.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Anyone who thinks the shift would have affected Gwynn is an idiot. He hit to all fields as well as anyone ever in the game.

I also do not see how Buckner is overrated. Between like 1970 and 1987 the only player in the game who had more hits was Pete Rose.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

The shift is more than just playing to the pull/opposite site. It's positioning all over. With little power they absolutely could exploit it.

You can put fielders anywhere you want on guys like Gwynn and Ted Williams and they are still going to get hits.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

He had an oddly hairy neck.

You will all be surprised to learn that I was cool with the Cubs as a youth and really liked Buckner.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The 1969 Cubs get plenty of coverage, and they are the poster children for being overrated.

Buckner also played over 5000 innings in the outfield before injuries forced to him a full time 1B/DH.

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I think he had an oddly hairy everything.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Williams did.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Actually, Gwynn only put the ball into play to the opposite field 14.6% of the time.

Rizzo, as an example of a LHB that gets shifted consistently to the pull field for his entire career, puts the ball into play to the opposite field 14.7% of the time.

Rizzo's groundball BA is .199. Gwynn's was .260.

There is a wide variety of information that suggests that Gwynn, and all other ballplayers pre-shift, would have had batting averages come down if they had to deal with what today's players deal with.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

where did you get this?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Baseball Reference, career batting splits.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Williams beat the shift without going to the opposite field.

The Cardinals did hinder him with it in the World Series though.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Williams had home run power. Gywnn didn't.

This like spouting the stat that Mark Grace had the most hits in the 90's. And I love Mark Grace.

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I think it depends on what you are spouting it for? If you are saying Grace should be a HOFer then it is beyond stupid.

No one is saying Buckner is a HOFer. But to say he is overrated is just dumb.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Looks like they only have about half his career in there.

4637 balls in play.
887 opposite = 19%
1164 pulled = 25%
2586 up the middle = 55%

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Yeah that sounds way more like it.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Gwynn is the greatest hitter in my lifetime, any defensive shifting would be useless, he'd beat it..he was that great.

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I understand your point. But understand this. Gwynn, during batting practice, would sometimes mark the field with paper and shoot the balls to those markers.

No shift, whether subtle or major, would have any effect on his success.

Oh looky here it the sig guy.

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Elections have consequences.

Buckner with Cubs career ba 300, obp 332, ops 771. Ian Happ 242, 341, 801. Buckner didn't walk or strikeout a lot. Happ did. Happ has better modern era stats, but we all know is a bum. Walks have value, but aren't as valuable as hits. They don't move men over more than 1 base, and generally don't drive in runs. Happ's not 1/2 the player Buckner was. And Buckner played basically with one leg.

Bill Buckner was a very good player and during the early 80's pre 84 team he was really the only reason to watch the Cubs. Fergie was getting a little old and Buck was the only other guy worth watching as I remember.

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Didn’t realize Buckner was Kris Bryant’s first hitting coach as a pro (single A in Boise).

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1st Cub to send me an autographed picture.

What happened to '77 Cubs?

Why did he sign it Ben Bush?

Perfect 1984 mustache!

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

It shows 5965 balls in play that resulted in AB's (removing SH and SF)...where do you see 4,637??

The percentage I gave of 14.6% is correct.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

You didn't subtract the 1473 to "unknown location"

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest