Top 10 Most Underrated Hitters

Let's face it: there are ALOT of big bats in Major League baseball, Jose Altuve, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge just to name a few. Unfortunately, in the era of launch angle and exit velocity, the art of hitting-real hitting-is disappearing. Batting titles and on-base percentage is out, and home run crowns are in.

 This is the era of baseball we live in, and it's a bad one. Don't get me wrong, I love home runs. They're exciting, but not at the expense of the most fundamental thing in the game-the base hit. The most puzzling thing about this launch angle era of baseball is the idea that "strikeouts don't matter". Young players are willing to sacrifice average and on-base percentage for strikeouts as long as they're hitting bombs. The fundamental flaw of this theory is that baseball doesn't have a clock. Baseball has outs-27 of them to be exact. A finite, unmoving number. A strikeout takes one of those outs away. If you reach that 27th out and you're trailing, that's it. Base hits extend games, extend innings, extend winning streaks. Strikeouts don't. Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton are exciting for sure. They combined for 150 homers in 2017....but they also combined for 517 strikeouts. That's a lot of outs...more than 19 full games worth in case you were wondering.

      Base hits aren't sexy anymore, but they win games and win championships. The players that still recognize that deserve to be recognized. Some hitters catch our attention, like former MVPs Buster Posey and Joe Mauer, but others don't. So, I've done my research and come up with what I believe are the ten most underrated and underappreciated hitters in all of Major League baseball. The main criteria for getting your name on this list is not having been recognized with awards, so Joey Votto's MVP, Daniel Murphy's NLCS MVP and Joe Mauer's hitting title rule them out. Let's dive in:

 10. Brandon Belt- San Francisco Giants

    Brandon Belt is a 2-time World Series champion with the San Francisco Giants at was a central part in his team's ability to attain the ultimate price in both 2012 and 2014. Belt's raw stats may not blow you away, but the career .270 hitter gets on base a lot. Drawing a lot of walks and posting a career OBP of.361 insures that his is on base for his teammate and 2012 NL Buster Posey to drive him in. One immeasurable stat that Belt possesses is his plate presence. His 6-foot 4, 235-pound frame is tough for any pitcher to overlook. Belt's bat is biggest when it matters most, posting a .308 average in the 2014 World Series. Hitting isn't always flashy and Brandon Belt proves that, but it is always productive.

 9. Scooter Gennett- Cincinnati Reds

Gennett: 4 HRs & 10 RBIs on June 6, 

2017 vs. Cardinals

Gennett broke into the league in 2013 with Milwaukee and has a career average of .289. Only once in his career has Gennett had an on-base percentage (OBP) lower than .300 (and it was .294), and so far in 2018 he is top-5 in the entire MLB in both hits and batting average. But don't think he doesn't have any power. He hit a career-high 27 home runs in 2017, including four in one game. Gennett has proven he knows how to hit in this league.

 8. Nick Castellanos- Detroit Tigers

Castellanos may not be a well-known name in the league, but that may be because he has spent his entire career hitting in the (literal) shadow of one of the MLB's all-time greats, Miguel Cabrera. For the last couple of years though, Cabrera has battled injuries and Castellanos has had to carry a less-than-stellar Detroit Tigers offense alone, and he's done a pretty good job considering that Detroit has been in full rebuild mode since their 2012 World Series appearance. Surprisingly though, the 2018 Tigers find themselves very much in the AL Central division race and Castellanos is a major reason why. He is hitting .307 with 41 RBIs so far. Even though he struggled to find his place in the league when he was called up in 2013, Castellanos has managed to rebound for a career average of .272. He is also on pace for career-highs in batting average, hits, runs scored and doubles in 2018. Castellanos is definitely under-appreciated.

 7. Anthony Rendon- Washington Nationals

Rendon: 6-6, 10 RBIs on May 30,

2017 vs Mets

 Anthony Rendon is on this list for one major reason: the Washington Nationals are stacked on offense. That's definitely a good thing if you're Rendon, but the problem is that no one talks about Rendon's bat with all those others around. Rendon is consistent and dangerous....when he's on the field. 2018 is Rendon's 6th big league season and in the five years prior, he has only played for than 100 games three times (2014, 2016, 2017). So, he's a bit injury prone, but in those three seasons-where he played in 153, 156 and 147 games respectively-Rendon has managed to rack up more than 150 hits, 80 RBIs, 38 doubles and 80 runs in those seasons, and he's projected to do it again in 2018. He even collected Comeback Player of the Year honors in 2016. While Rendon won't put up Bryce Harper's power numbers, he possesses something that many players don't-the clutch gene. He has a reputation for coming up with the big hits when Washington needs them. In a game against the division rival Mets on April 30th, 2017, Rendon delivered in a big way. He went 6 for 6 at the plate, hitting 3 homers and driving in 10 runs! Tell me you wouldn't want that guy on your team.

 6. J.T. Realmuto-Miami Marlins

    Prior to the 2018 season, new owner Derek Jeter blew up the Marlins existing roster, and when the smoke cleared, Realmuto was seemingly all that was left from the 2017 Marlins offense. As the default leader of the now-depleted Marlins club, Realmuto hasn't wavered. He has posted a .300 average with 9 homers and 27 RBIs, which is especially impressive when you consider that he's only played in 53 of Miami's 74 games, since he's a catcher and they don't play every day. Realmuto is young, and won't blow you away with power, but he's consistent and not afraid to take his walks, giving him a career OBP of .327. Given that he shared a lineup card with Giancarlo Stanton up until 2017, getting on base with that guy coming to the plate counted for a lot.

 5. Brandon Nimmo-New York Mets

Nimmo: Drafted 13th overall in 2011

from American Legion ball.

    When crafting my list, I had one pretty hard and fast rule: the players needed to have plenty of big league experience. That meant no rookies or sophomores because it's hard to tell with those guys if they're just that good, or if opposing pitchers just haven't figured them out yet. But after watching him play, I knew I had to make an exception for the Mets' Brandon Nimmo. In his short career, spanning only 161 games, Nimmo has proven himself not only to be a threat in New York's lineup, but as a picture of health on a roster otherwise ravaged with injuries. His constant presence and production for the Mets is a bright spot in a roller coaster season for New York. I know this choice is suspect given his limited service time, but trust me, the kid can play. The most impressive thing about this guy is his story. Growing up in Wyoming, the cold weather meant that his high school didn't have a baseball program, so Nimmo played American Legion ball. Traveling all around the country to play high school baseball, Nimmo was discovered by the Mets and drafted him in 2011. Not having a "home team" in high school tells me one thing: Nimmo is adaptable, which is valuable in any league. He gets on base a ton, posting a career OBP of .385 (.409 in 2018) and he can run, already putting up 26 extra base hits in 2018....including 5 triples, good enough for fourth in the MLB. He may not have the numbers yet, but you're going to have to trust me, he's going to.

 4. Nick Markakis- Atlanta Braves

    This was a difficult choice, not because Nick Markakis doesn't deserve to be on this list, because he definitely does, but because he has a couple of teammates that deserve to be too. Along with my rule about service time, my only other rule for making this list was that I didn't want to have multiple players from the same team. However, it's worth mentioning that both Freddie Freeman and Ender Inciarte could've made this list. Freeman, who in a recent ESPN article was called "criminally underrated" is a career .293 hitter with 635 RBIs in 8 seasons and is arguably the best opposite field hitter in the game today. Inciarte is a on-base machine, posting career marks at a .290 average and a .337 OBP. He's gotten 150 or more hits each of the last three seasons-collecting 201 hits in 2017, good enough for the 3rd highest mark in the MLB-and is on pace to reach that mark again in 2018.  With competition like that on his own team, you know Markakis is good. Only once in his 12-year career has Markakis had less than 170 in a season where he's played at least 145 games, and that was his rookie year. In 2018, at the age of 34 Markakis may be having his best season ever. In the National League, Markakis has the league lead in hits, ranks in the top 5 for batting average and doubles, 6th in OBP, 10th in RBIs, and he's a tough man to set down on strikes, leading all of Major League Baseball in plate appearances per strikeout. The thing that sets Markakis apart from his teammates is this: Markakis is the elder of this list playing 12-big league seasons with Baltimore and Atlanta and amassing 2100 career hits. He's one of the best right fielders in the game, both offensively and defensively and is a poster child for playing every day, playing less than 147 games only once in his career. Despite all of this, Markakis has never been selected to an All-Star Game. That is the definition of underrated. Do the right thing this summer: help get Nick Markakis to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game.

 3. Mookie Betts- Boston Red Sox

Betts: Has two 3-HR games in 2018

    If I was making this list next year, this guy probably wouldn't be on it. When I started this process, the 2018 season hadn't started yet. Mookie Betts is likely going to win the 2018 AL MVP Award, so I guess he's proving me right. Premonitions of future success aren't new to me. At the start of the 2011 season, while he was solid, yet still relatively unknown, I told a friend of mine that Clayton Kershaw would win the NL Cy Young that season, which he did...and two more after that. Markus Lynn "Mookie" Betts is having the best year of his young career, but the 25-year old id no stranger to this level of success. He has a career batting average of .296, the highest of anyone on this list. In his four seasons prior to 2018, he drove in 100 runs twice, played in at least 145 games three times, had at least 165 hits three  times and hit at least .290 three times. In 2018, he is likely going to set career highs in both batting average and home runs, currently hitting .336 with 18 bombs. Again, if I'm making this list in 2019, Mookie's probably not on it since this is about underrated hitters, just like if I had made this list prior to the 2017 season, Charlie Blackmon, Justin Turner, and Daniel Murphy probably would've made appearances. Being underrated only lasts for so long when you're this good.

 2. Christian Yelich- Milwaukee Brewers

    Just like his former teammate J.T. Realmuto, Christian Yelich was overshadowed for years in Miami by Giancarlo Stanton, despite being far and away the best pure HITTER on the team. It wasn't until the last year or so when fans started to notice how good a hitter Yelich actual is, but he did manage to earn a Silver Slugger Award as Stanton's teammate in 2016. In his five years, Yelich has never had an average lower than .282, not even in his rookie season. Yelich has been a good hitter from the jump in this league, collecting 790 hits with a .291 average by his age 26 season. He drives in runs and has good speed, collecting 30 or more doubles in each of his last four seasons. Yelich is finally getting the recognition he deserves, earning an offseason trade to the new-look Milwaukee Brewers, where he, along with All-Star outfielder Lorenzo Cain, has staked claim to the first place spot in the tightly-contested NL Central Division. Yelich is one of the best, most underappreciated hitters on this list and in the league, and he's only 26.

 1. A.J. Pollock- Arizona Diamondbacks

Pollock: Hit over .300 in consecutive 

years (2014, 2015)

    The top spot comes with a grain of salt. A.J. Pollock is truly one of my favorite players in the entire league. He can out-hit anyone...when he's healthy. Yes, that is his Achilles heel and it's a big one. Pollock has missed a ton of time for the Diamondbacks in his career, but when it's in the lineup, his bat is something special.  He has a career batting average of .293 and an OBP of .349. To give you an idea how good Pollock is and how highly Arizona thinks of him, consider this: at the 2015 MLB Winter Meetings the Diamondbacks traded Dansby Swanson to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Shelby Miller. You're probably thinking "What does this have to do with A.J. Pollock?" Pollock was going into his fifth season in Arizona, but he was starting to feel the heat from a second year player breathing down his neck in center field. In order to ease the pressure, the D-Backs traded that second year player to Atlanta, essentially as a throw-in piece in the Dansby Swanson trade. That player's name: Ender Inciarte. You know, the guy I mentioned above who had 201 hits in 2017 and was getting NL MVP considerations? The same guy who, oh by the way, has one two consecutive Gold Gloves in Atlanta and is well on his way to a third, all the while Pollock has missed 233 of Arizona's 397 team games since the trade. The Diamondbacks were confident enough in Pollock to let Inciarte go, and for good reason. As I said, when he's healthy, he's dangerous. While this spot on the list may read more like a scathing retort of the injury-plagued center fielder or a ringing endorsement for his former battery mate, I assure you it isn't. It is a plea for him to get healthy because I believe he is one of the best hitters in this game. Wait and see.

    There you have it: my top 10 most underrated hitters. Let me know what you think of the list. Who are your top 10? Let's debate this. One thing that's not up for debate is that the art of hitting needs to come back in style. Also, let me know what other top 10 lists you'd like to see. See y'all around!