Meet the Most Underrated Pitcher in History 

This is not Dave Stieb

Man, so much for him being a go-to in immaculate grid lol

I remember Cashman trading for him twice five years apart, him falling to shit both times, before rebounding the following year for a different team.

How about a video about Andy Benes? He was the first overall pick in the 1988 draft and arguably the best pitcher to be drafted first overall before David Price, Stephen Strasburg, and Gerrit Cole. Over 14 seasons he put up 31.5 bWAR, 155 wins, exactly 2,000 strikeouts, a top-five finish in 1989 RoY voting, an All-Star appearance in 1993, top-ten Cy Young finishes in 1991 and 1996, and MVP votes in 1994 where he led the NL in strikeouts (although he also led the NL in losses, granted the Padres were dead last in the league that year), but he was left off the 2008 ballot when he first would've been eligible.

Playing for the Expos meant that you would be under appreciated. Andre Dawson was the only Expo to receive a ROY (Moises Alou was robbed of a ROY when they gave it to Eric Karros in 1992). Also, Dawson didn't get much support for MVP while he played in Montreal, but received one as a Chicago Cub in 1987 for a season worse than most of those he had in Montreal. Likewise, Pedro Martinez was the only Expo to receive a Cy Young when he won it in 1997, but he didn't get it unanimously despite being the only right hander other than Walter Johnson to have a season with 300+ K's and an ERA below 2.00, and the first pitcher to achieve that since Steve Carlton in 1972.

This was hands down my favorite video you've ever made. I don't think I've ever commented on a video before but I had to for this one. I similarly only vaguely remember him and never realized how good he is. This was so well done

I REMEMBER CESPEDES IN AN A’S UNIFORM

I was at some of those home Expo games in 1999 and 2000. Gosh, darn I’ve gotten old.😅

5:50 As a Marlins fan who lives nearest the Ironpigs, I am happy that a ballpark I enjoy going to is getting some recognition.

This isn’t Dave Stieb?

I was one of those 8000 expos fans. you could go to games for 5 bucks back then or 3 if you got it from a reseller in the metro

in 1999, I was in college. Damn...I'm old.

Looking at his career numbers and he’s pretty much as close to average as you can get. Almost a .500 record, 4.22 era, 105 ERA+.

daaang we eatin good today! Foolish on Sosa | No More Fielders on Ichiro | Stark Raving Sports on Vazquez!!! Javy was one of my faves of his era, drafted him allll the time in fantasy and usually first associate him w/Montreal

Lifelong Marlins fan, and I'll always have fond memories of his 2011 season. I was at that 15th start of the season, too; when he had that turnaround, I'd always joke like "Hey! I did that!"

Being quiet especially if the press can kill a baseball player's career, especially when it comes to Hall of Fame voting. As an Orioles fan I remember Eddie Murray being bashed in the press simply because he didn't talk to them and didn't trust them. If you hadn't gone for 500 and 3,000 he wouldn't have made it to the hall of fame on the first ballot, even as such his vote numbers were kind of low. I wonder if that played a part in his anonymity

The biggest reason he doesn't have much impact is that he has memorable failures with the Yankees in '04 (game 7 ALCS grand slam to Damon), not starting over AJ in the 2010 playoffs (which says a lot). Underrated for sure, but he didn't do any favors in terms of flashing his stuff when it mattered least.

I saw a lot of Javy at the Big O back in the day. Tough seeing you talk about Randy and Pedro at the beginning. What the Expos could have been.

As a 2000s fantasy baseball player, I loved Vazquez. I definitely think of him as an Expo

OMG! Not even on the HOF ballot? How does that happen? He'd played enough years and pitched well enough to possibly get even 5%. But like you said, he just didn't have the personality and fiery demeanor that gets noticed. I honestly did not remember him and I'm a huge Red Sox fan and watched the 2004 ALCS's every minute. He didn't do it for the fame, but just the love of the game. Went out on top with a brilliant last month. Thank you for making this video of a guy who probably has no other vieos devoted to him.

I'm from near Montreal and I'm 48. We LOVED Vasquez down here.

If he had a decent postseason displayed (maybe making a WS appearance) or had a season where he either won 20 or more games or won a Cy Young we’d all view Javier Vazquez differently. Definitely durable for 14 seasons, at best he’s a number 2 in a rotation. I’ll best remember him with the Expos.

Shoutout to Zack Greinke, my favorite pitcher ever. And I (as a Royals fan) definitely remember him mostly for his time on the Royals. I remember being so mad when they traded him to the Brewers.

Great video. I remeber him pitching really well in Atlanta. That said, I don't buy that because he struggled early, he was never looked at as a top end, HOF pitcher. Immediately coming to mind are Maddux and Glavine. Maddux's first year with the Cubs he was 6-14 with a 5.61. Glavine, over his 1st 200 career innings, he was 9-21 with a 5+ ERA, and didn't have an ERA+ over 100 until his 5th (4th full) season.

In 2000 during a vacation to visit my brother in Atlanta we went to an Expos-Braves game in which my fellow 🇵🇷 Puerto Rican Javier Vázquez beat the Braves, pitching a 4-0 shutout. It has been my only MLB game in the U.S. to date, so you can imagine how happy I was that day. It really pissed me off to find he wasn't on the ballot when he became eligible for the HOF. ⚾

Vasquez was criminally underrated I saw in low A ball at our local affiliate when I was a kid and followed him to the big leagues. He was always really consistent and is still one of my favorite players from that era.

Agree with him being underrated. The durability (IP) alone is probably the most eye-popping stat. But he’s underrated as a #3 arm at best in a rotation. Baseball has a problem of turning into the hall of very good instead of the hall of fame. Don’t think he was a snub from the ballet but I may have a differing perspective from the norm there.

What I remember about Javier Vazquez was that he had the highest-scoring Scrabble last name in the MLB.

I remember his August of 2001. Most unhittable stretch I've ever seen short of Hershiser's streak. Ended when he got HBP while batting.

These videos are next level. Can't imagine the time these take to edit.

He was one of those guys back in Puerto Rico who kids tried to be like on the mound. I also remember him mostly as a marlins pitcher

How is this not about Dave Steib? Hell, you could argue guys like Kevin Appier, Mark Langston and Rick Reuschel are more deserving of the “most underrated” title. All of those guys either got shut out on HOF voting entirely or were limited to like 2-3 sympathy votes, and they all had higher peaks and better numbers than Vasquez.

Being from puerto rico he was exelent and always underrated as a pitcher even in PR nice video!!

When I saw the Expos logo in the thumbnail, I thought this would be about Steve Rogers. (Or post-Baltimore Denny Martinez.)

I grew up under the belief that when a pitcher gets 150 wins then they have a reasonably good chance that they'd get on a Hall of Fame ballot. However, it turns out there are five 150-win pitchers that played during my lifetime that missed the Hall of Fame ballot: Vazquez, Andy Benes, Mike Moore, John Burkett, and Jim Slaton. Vazquez doesn't quite have the most wins among those five (John Burkett leads him by one), but in stacking their careers together on Stathead it becomes evident that Vazquez is the best of the bunch. He leads the quintet in bWAR, innings pitched, strikeouts, strikeout percentage, and ERA+. I was pretty shocked when Andy Benes missed the ballot when he first became eligible in 2008, but Javier Vazquez is clearly the bigger snub.

The bottom line is: career ERA was over 4. He's never sniffing the Hall. But i remember watching him and he was pretty solid for some years

When I 1st heard of Javier Vazquez through 2009 Topps Attax he was w/ ATL so that is the team I associate him with

28:06 he really did redesign his logo the second half of that season.

Always has a special place in my heart for giving up that grand slam to Damon in game 7 of the ‘04 ALCS

Cespedes is an A in my mind Ichiro is a Marlin

The problem with Javier Vazquez's Hall of Fame candidacy is his career with the White Sox. When he came to the Sox, he was supposed to be the guy to replace Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez as a younger option with upside. He was....anything but. He struggled immensely once he reached the 5th inning of any start. He was so bad that he got booed by White Sox fans on the second-to-last day of the 2008 season. If any Sox fan remembers, the Sox entered Game 160 just a half-game behind the Twins for the division crown. Vazquez stunk during Game 160, and Ozzie Guillen didn't like him very much, either. Luckily for the Sox, Buehrle pitched great during Game 161. The Sox had to make up a game with the Tigers following Game 161 and won that game thanks to a grand slam from Alexei Ramirez. The Sox then faced off the Twins in a one-game playoff for the division crown at Guaranteed Rate Field, AKA the "Black Out" Game. It was a fabulous performance on the mound by starter John Danks as the Sox beat the Twins 1-0 thanks to a solo shot by Jim Thome. What happened to Vazquez during the 2008 postseason? He absolutely sucked during Game 1 of the ALDS, and the Sox never recovered from his dreadful postseason start. If you look at his basic stats, Vazquez finished with a 4.22 ERA. Pitcher record doesn't matter in terms of job performance, but the fact that he has a 165-160 career record kind of shows you that Vazquez finished as a mediocre pitcher. It's the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Somewhat Consistent. Javier Vazquez is basically persona non grata for any Sox fan.

I remember his frustrating 2008 season with the Sox after that amazing 2007 season on a terrible white Sox club

He is one of my favorite pitchers

One of the last great Expos 🍻🍻

I think of him as a Brave cause I grew up in Georgia and followed the team for years. I think part of why he’s forgotten cause he was never the best pitcher in the league, he was just a great pitcher for years but there was others that got more attention at the same era.

Gange had a 337 ERA+ the year he won the Cy 🤯

He pitched for my team (braves) back in 09, the dude had serious stuff, I wished the braves would had sign him for atleast a 4 yr deal, but nope.

I remember him playing. He wasn’t underrated. He was damn good pitcher.

Yes! Thank you!!

From this video, seems like he played great in low-pressure situations. Kinda like Mike Trout.

I remember him shitting the bed on the Yankees.

He had a good first half of 2041

I think an outfielder with over 2000 hits named Willie something like Davis, Smith, Jones, etc was left off the ballot too. I think that would be the one arguably bigger snub I've heard of.

great video

I remember Javier Vazquez quite well.

I did not expect to hear Pandemic 2 Flash Game music in this video sheesh

Really thought you were going Dave Stieb with this one

What a legend

The dude made $100,000,000 pitching. I think someone noticed how good he was…

Pitchers now a days rarely reach 200 innings pitched.

That’s not Cristopher Sánchez

Dan haren, Brandon Webb were also underrated. Heck, any of those pitchers from the 2000s that went to their only all star game. Btw, have u ever played ninja baseball Batman?

That’s not Dave Stieb

i swear that thumbnail is a picture of the undertaker

Youre outrage over javys s ub earned you my sub

I was thinking Kevin Brown

Jared Koenig disrespect is unfathomable

I think of him on my Brave's

In the early baseball games, I always traded for him.

people remember greinke for winning as a dodger.

I see you are also a fan of Neil Cicierega.

Certainly belongs in the Hall of Very Good

I can't blame him if the reason was family, but athletes leaving at the top of their game always shocks me. If I were so blessed to live my childhood dream of being a professional athlete, I'd do it until my body wouldn't allow me to anymore

Why the hell would we think of Cespedes as a Met? He won those HR Derbies with the A’s and bust onto the scene with them. Can you and all the other Mets fans who have the bigger channels keep it in your pants for one god damn video?!

He could’ve totally shit the bed during his comeback. He chose to leave on a high note and a lot of athletes can’t bring themselves to do that or don’t get the opportunity.

Background music was extra annoying on this one. Good video otherwise.

Olerud in a Ysnkees helmet. It looks so wrong.

This guy was above average at best with some okay counting stats. I'd much rather see guys with a more interesting case for the HOF, like... Darrell Evans. WAR near 60, more than 400 home runs, 2200+ hits, 2x All-Star, World Series champ. Dale Murphy. 398 home runs, 2x MVP, 7 All-Stars, 5 Gold Gloves, 2100+ hits, 4x Silver Slugger Willie McGee. 4x All-Star, 3 Gold Gloves, 2200+ hits, 1 MVP, 2 batting titles, Silver Slugger, 4 World Series w/1 win, 350+ stolen bases All of those carrers are better and more interesting than just being quietly good for a long time- they were quiet guys who made such an impact that they couldn't help but win awards, yet HOF voters couldn't see fit to justify.

I don't remember him.

Pandemic 2 music trigger warning please

He had a good stretch but a career 4.22 ERA is certainly nothing ballot worthy

Zero views in 1 sec you fell off

Vazquez was.... a good pitcher. To think anything more than that is a bit foolish IMO. He had a .500 winning percentage as far as W-L goes. Yeah he had 165 wins... like koufax.... in about 130 more starts than koufax. But you fail to mention his 160 Ls.... compared to Koufax' 87. He had a career 4.22 ERA.... very "meh." In his 14 years... 8 of them he finished with an era above 4.00. 3 years he had a 5+ ERA. IMO from watching him play back in the day his claim to fame was..... he was always healthy. Some might call that reliable. He was reliable.... as far as a middle of the rotation guy can be. He had 9 seasons of 200+ innings. A mark that's seemingly unheard of nowadays in this absolute shit era of MLB we're currently in..... where pitchers can't throw more than 5 innings a game or their arm falls off.... and sometimes it still falls off, and an era where young fans think the .230-.240 average hitter they see is actually a good player and not the bench player if not "quad A" type player he would've been if he played 15 or more years ago. I digress. Vazquez was a solid reliable.... middle of the rotation if not back end of the rotation quality pitcher. You could count on him making 30+ starts every year (a mark he hit in 12 of his 14 seasons). But to pretend he was anything more than just..... a good pitcher is foolish. Now I get you're talking about him just being snubbed by.... not being on the ballot... AT ALL. And I guess I can agree with that. But let's not kid ourselves. He was no hall of famer. You could put him in the "Hall of Incredibly Reliable Pitchers" though if you wanted to. Chris Carpenter retired around the same time. Was a far better pitcher than Vazquez and has a Cy Young award to prove it. He made the ballot his first.... and only year on it as he got..... 2 votes. So if carpenter only can get 2 votes if vazquez was ever on one he'd likely get 0... so what's the point? Johan Santana... TWO Cy Young awards to his name.... 284 career starts, 139-78 record for a .641 W%, 3.20 career era, 2025 IP, 1988 career strike outs.... leading the league in that category 3 years in a row, and including the aforementioned 2 Cy Youngs he did win - he finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting 5 times in his career (again... winning 2 of those). His first time on the ballot..... his only time.... because he only got 10 votes. Kevin Millwood is a great comp for Vazquez and played in the same era. Very similar career stats to vazquez. He did make the ballot his first year of eligibility and.... got 0 votes. So again.... what's the point of this video?

Love me some Javy Vazquez. He was awesome in Chicago, I remember being very upset when we traded him to Atlanta. His ERA never did him justice to how often he shoved.

So, it's not Maddux?

He was a very good pitcher, not a hof’er IMO

I remember him as a DBAck the most but I do remember clear as day him coming to the dirty bronxs and not being able to pitch in New York…. lol let’s go mets !!!

The domestic violence thing was in 19 90-freaking seven ma man. I think its fair toncriticize the teams doing business with him at the time, but someone that has demonstrated reform over a really long period of time doesn't really deserve a "f*** you Jose Canseco" in the 2020's.

career ERA 4.22, ERA+105...hes properly rated, not underrated. He had a solid career and ate a lot of innings but nothing HOF worthy.

You’re hyping this dude up a lot, but his career ERA+ is barely better than average. There’s no way he should be in the Hall of Fame, though I guess he could use more recognition

Vazquez was extremely durable and got a lot of strikeouts, but overall he was fairly mediocre. Usually had around a .500 record, and ERA+ scores that were inconsistent from season to season. Probably had 4 'very good' seasons, and the rest pretty meh. he's the modern day equivalent to guys like Jerry Reuss and Jim Perry.

Please please please. Use adverbs. It is moved differently

I don't get your video here. He was 165-160 with a 4.22 ERA. I think he's rated right where he should be...pretty average.

He must have been an major A Hole No one wanted him in the clubhouse Or…. He was just a quiet Dude and misunderstood

Javier Vasquez?! Johnny Damon's SON? HAHAHAHA 😂😂😂😂

No, Who's on first.

Please WTF 15 year old looking at numbers. Vasquez if you saw him pitcher was mediocre at best!! Great looking stuff but was above trash!

He really wasnt that good. He was a slightly above average pitcher with some high highs, and low lows

Javier Vasquez is a normal ass dude. Here's the problem with that baseball is already a boring sport Hence why MLB is trying so many gimmicks to give the sport some life.Javi didn't bring anything to the table other than "doing his job" yes that's a great treat to have but if people see that you don't really have a backbone that is how people take advantage of you

I am not going to watch this whole thing, but are you really trying to suggest Javier Vasquez belongs in the HOF? Its watered down enough. He was decent, not special.