Most underrated pitchers in MLB?

Question

I say Scott Kazmir: The guy plays for a terrible team in the toughest hitting division in baseball and still puts up pretty decent numbers. Once he gets out of there, he will be a superstar.

Who are some others?

Answer 1

Roy Oswalt. He's almost as good as Maddux in his early days.

Answer 2

I totally agree with dryankee.
Chien-Ming Wang is way underrated. 19 wins in two consecutive years (his 2nd and 3rd years in MLB.) Nobody, I mean NOBODY else has done that in the past two years. He earned a combined total of 38 wins in 2006 and 2007. (Don't forget he started 2007 season one month late...) At age 27, he's become an unquestionable Ace in this class A New York Yankees team. Some people ignore his performance simply because he doesn't speak much (in either English or Mandarin.)
As a MLB fan, all I care is how well can he perform, not how good can he speak. If I want to watch someone talk, I'd turn on TV and watch David Letterman or Jay Leno.
Baseball is baseball. Chien-Ming Wang is good at what he's doing. That's it.

Answer 3

Definatly Chien Ming Wang. The guy is so overlooked in all the Yankee hype. And everyone also forgets that he is only 27 and throws like hes 35. He has great control, with just 143 walks in 533.2 career innings with 227 Ks. He has a career record of 46-18 which is monsterous in 2 1/2 seasons. The past 2 full season his records were 19-6 and 19-7. Most people throw average sinkers in the high 80s. Wang throws a nasty 95 mph sinker with tons of movement, which gets him all the ground balls. Ive also seen his fastball reach 98. Everyone forgets about him but I think he is deffinatly top 3 in the AL

Answer 4

Kazmir is a good choice as an underrated pitcher only because he gets hurt a lot in his young career, but the Mets sure do want him back now (remember, Kazmir was the top prospect for the Mets when he was traded to the Rays for Victor Zambrano). Here are some other that I think are underrated (2007 stats)..

- Adam Wainwright, St. Louis (14-12, 3.70 ERA)
Making the transition from closer to starting pitcher isn't easy (Jonathan Papelbon almost did it) but Wainwright handle it well, considering that he was the best pitcher/closer for St. Louis on their last World Series run back in 2006. He put up decent numbers in his first full season as a starter, when everybody else struggle (or in Chris Carpenter's case, injured for the whole season) in the rotation. If the offense clicks again, look for Wainwright to increase his win total.

- Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell, Pittsburgh (14-10, 3.88 ERA and 9-12, 3.76, 177K)
Gorzelanny is not an overpowering pitcher like Snell, but is still one of the best quality pitcher that's not being recognized. He put up similar numbers as Wainwright, yet pitching for a bad Pirates team that's going nowhere. Along with ace Ian Snell, they combine to make an underrated 1-2 punch in the rotation that should be recognized soon.

- Chad Billingsley, L.A. Dodgers (12-5, 3.31 in Starts/Relief)
His demotion to the bullpen to start 2007 help this former top prospect to excel in his control, which lead to his breakout season as a Dodger. Of course, they needed his pitching considering that Derek Lowe struggle and Schmidt was gone for the season and look for win to increase his win total next season.

- Rich Hill, Chicago Cubs (11-8, 3.92 ERA, 183 K)
The guy is a strikeout machine, but he's been overshadow by the Cubs curse, Carlos Zambrano, and other things that's going wrong with the Cubs. Kerry Wood and Mark Prior were suppose to carry this team but it has been Zambrano and Hill that's carrying this rotation along with Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis. The rotation is loaded to say, but Hill might be the only effective Cub that could put numbers on every start.

-Oliver Perez, N.Y. Mets (15-10, 3.56 ERA, 174 K)
He dissapear from the spotlight for a while but he might have found his groove back. After posting a 239 K season back in 2004, Perez has been a punching beanbag for batters and his value seem to dimish prior to 2007. Let's hope Perez can keep this up with his new found success.

Answer 5

3 pitchers, 2 from the Cards. Adam Wainright: 14-10 not bad for his first year as a starter. Joel Pinerio: 6-4 since being with the Cards, and 2 of those losses came by 1 run, so not bad. The 3rd is Dan Haren: 13-8 i think, def. a great future starter

Answer 6

The most underrated pitcher today is Roy Oswalt no doubt about that...since 2001 he has 112 wins and over 1300 K's all with an ERA of 3.07. He would have more K's but he changed his style of pitching and pitches more to contact to allow for defensive help, instead of tyring to blow the ball by the hitters, then that gets up your pitch count and you end up pitching less innings.... Kazmir is a great pitcher and needs to get out of TB, it won't be long until he leaves there, and it would be nice to see him come home to Houston. Kazmir does put up great numbers considering the strenght of schedule that the Rays play...but Roy O has the most wins since 2000 and still get little national credit.

Answer 7

i could not be prouder of Jered Weaver! he's ultimate MLB in strikeouts with a whopping 142. With Lackey long gone we knew that Jered had to step up and he did as properly. For him to take that spot with out any self doubt became very courageous of him! i could not be happier for him. All megastar worth certainly! He has an extremely very surprising destiny forward with much greater All megastar appearances :D properly he does get attractiveness right here and there. perhaps because of the fact he does play west coast and not all and sundry gets to be certain him pitch.

Answer 8

I agree with a couple people here.

Scott Kazmir is definitely over looked because he plays for such a bad team.

Tim Wakefield had 17 wins this past season. Hey not to mention Sox are going after Johan Santana who had just 15.

Answer 9

Tim Lincecum of the SF Giants. He has so much potential, if only the Giants would give him a little bit more playing time, then he'd be awesome. He can pitch wicked fastballs and his slider is one of the best of any other young pitcher out there.

Answer 10

Dan Haren quietly put together a great season this past year as he finally lived up to his potential and became the ace people expected 3 years ago in StLouis. His nice season was lost in the shadows of CC Sabathia and Josh Beckett. Even Fausto Carmona got more recognition than Haren, and Haren lead the AL in ERA for a while.

Answer 11

Chris Young
Scott Kazmir
Jamie Moyer
Oliver Perez
Tim Wakefield