Most Underrated Ever?

I don't know about the most (not that he isn't), but Aaron Gleeman helps show us just how underrated Frank Thomas was/is:

Because of what has happened to power numbers and power hitters during the past decade or so Thomas is often talked about as just another great slugger from this era, but that misses the boat in a big way. Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball and surely everyone would agree that at 29 years old he's on track to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but look at his numbers compared to Thomas' stats at the same age:

               G       PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     OPS+
Pujols      1312     5696     .334     .426     .628     171
Thomas      1076     4789     .330     .452     .600     182

Pujols has hit .334 with a 1.054 OPS, whereas Thomas hit .330 with a 1.052 OPS through the age of 29. Plus, Thomas' twenties came in a slightly lower-scoring era, which is why his adjusted OPS+ of 182 tops Pujols at 171. Pujols has two MVPs and one batting title while twice leading the league in OPS. Before his 30th birthday Thomas had two MVPs and one batting title while leading the league in OPS four times.

Frank Thomas was Albert Pujols before Albert Pujols. And while it remains to be seen what Pujols does after turning 30, Thomas hit .276/.389/.515 with 264 homers and a 134 OPS+ in 1,246 games. To put that into some context, consider that Jim Rice had a 128 OPS+ for his entire "Hall of Fame career." Add his amazing twenties to his very good thirties and Thomas is a career .301/.419/.555 hitter with 521 homers and a 156 OPS+.

We shouldn't confuse best hitters with best players, but any way you want to slice it Frank Thomas is one of the best hitters that has played this game. Nobody is going to forget the fact that Griffey played a dazzling center field, but when you consider the fact his career high OPS+ is 171, and that Thomas' average OPS+ from his first 8 years is over 10% better you can start to see how underrated Thomas is. All you can hear now is Pujols, Pujols, Pujols, I wonder why back then Thomas didn't garner that respect. Also, as much as people want to believe Pujols' career has been clean (and I'm not saying it hasn't been), the fact is nobody, not one player in the major leagues, can consider themselves absolved of the steroid controversy as much as Frank Thomas can.

If Frank Thomas joined his colleagues and used PEDS, what would his career look like? Take a look at this graph of Thomas' career with wOBA, courtesy of FanGraphs:

What you see is likely a typical career arch. Thomas was clearly an incredible player who had his peak, had a clear decline phase, and had some late career surges sprinkled in where he was able to stay healthy and effective for an entire season. It's impossible to say what affect using steroids would have on Thomas, but I don't think it's out of the question to expect something like Thomas' 2001 and 2004 years to be the norm in his 30s instead of the exception. I mean just compare it to Barry Bonds' graph:

Or Mark McGwire:

Now that is just not normal. I say this because although Thomas shouldn't need any help getting in the hall of fame, the fact is some of his peers did things, let's say a little different than him. From 1990-2009, the only players with a better OPS+ than Thomas are: Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Mark McGwire. That's it. Manny Ramirez is tied with Thomas and he hasn't necessarily faced his decline phase yet. That's a common theme here (lack of decline phases) considering that Bonds, McGwire, and Manny all used certain substances to avoid that dreaded (but necessary) phase. So yea, there is a case Thomas has been if not the best certainly the top 2-3 hitters of his time, and if you compare that with the lack of praise the guy gets, I think I now agree with Gleeman, he's the most underrated hitter of all time.

We also can't just forget that The Big Hurt is one of the best nicknames, ever. I assume you can tie it, but how does one top The Big Hurt? In Thomas' era we had The Crime Dog, The Big Cat. Now the best we have are shortened names like HanRam, ManRam, ARod and Krod, kind of pathetic. The Astros are doing their best to keep up with The Big Puma and El Caballo, but they need some help.