The Most Underrated Players of MLB's Steroid Era 

Mike Cameron apologized to me for not signing my hat when I was a kid. Dude had to go do fielding drills when I was next in line. That "Sorry bro, I gotta run!" while pointing at me as if to say "I got you" (all while jogging backwards) is, oddly, one of my favorite baseball memories.

Omar vizquel won 11 gold gloves from 1993-2001, 2005-06, 3x all star with 2800+ hits. Most underrated player I ever saw. Defensive enforcer

Jim Edmonds hit almost 400 home runs with a .280 average, won a handful of Gold Gloves and made perhaps the finest catch ever recorded in baseball.

Paul Konerko didn't make it out of the first voting and he has 440 home runs. Hall of the very good.

Don’t forget Aramis Ramírez who hit 380 homers and 2300 hits in his career

He was pre-steroid era but...Dale Murphy, man. 398 career homers, back-to-back MVPs, one of the best defensive outfielders of his era. But by the time he got on the ballot in '99, 398 homers all of a sudden seemed like chump change. He and Roger Maris are the only non-cheaters with multiple MVP awards not in the Hall.

Genuinely appreciate content like this. There’s so many guys I look back on or “forgot about” that could make up a legendary roster themselves. As soon as I saw Troy Glaus, I knew I needed to sit down and watch.

Beckett was one of the finest postseason pitchers ever, and that should really count for something.

I think the most overlooked is Johnny Damon to be honest. Dude has a ton of hits and played on two World Series champs, all while doing a lot of great seasons in all else Kansas City. As for Lankford I think he was on the juice too, his teammates all were.....

carlos zambrano destroying things with a bat was always fun

Griffey had 99.3% vote for HOF. I just want to know who the .7% were that didnt vote for him

Jason Kendall also deserves a mention. He had 9 seasons of 10+ stolen bases as a catcher and leads the position in career stolen bases with 189, is 5th all-time on the hit-by-pitch leaderboard, is one of only 8 catchers with 2,000+ hits (and is behind only Ivan Rodriguez for the most hits at the position), was great defensively having put up nearly 14 dWAR, and made 3 All-Star appearances, but he never won a major award, not even a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger since he was overshadowed at the position in the NL by Mike Piazza for hitting and Charles Johnson for fielding in the late 90s-early 2000s (in fact the only time he recieved votes was when he finished 3rd in 1995 NL ROTY voting), and he only received two votes on the 2016 ballot.

dude this is crazy but i’m in the photo of mike cameron signing autographs. i’ve never seen that photo before but the second it popped up i recognized myself and my childhood best friend. WILD

Rafael furcal has to be one of my favorite players of all time. His arm was INSANE!. Bullets to 1st base. Probably could have been a pitcher. Problem was injuries. Solid video here!

I am legitimately shocked Becket got ao little respect, his 6 year peak run from 05 with the Marlins through 2011 with Boston, he was 99-55, with over 1000 ks, and 5-1 in the playoffs. He also carried the sox in 07, going 20-7, although he lost the CYA to Sabathia.

Alphonso Soriano. 7x all-star, 4x silver-slugger, 40-40 club, 412 homers.

Not sure if you mentioned him in a different video, but Jermaine Dye probably deserves a shout out as well: Averaged 27 homers and 91 RBIs for a solid decade on .280/.345/.506 splits, bashed 30+ homers on 4 different occasions and even logged a Top 5 MVP season in ‘06. Dude was legit.

I feel Carlos Delgado doesn't get enough love. He at least got some votes though.

Props for The Strokes in the background. Also for shedding some light on my guy Reggie Sanders. He was a lone bright spot on an awful Pirates club. Glad to see him and these other guys from my childhood get some recognition. Great video

Jake Peavy won a pitching Triple Crown and he didn’t receive a Hall of Fame vote!

Wow, this vid is such a nostalgia hit. So cool to see these players again. Also, pretty hilarious that several of these guys were on the Padres. I wonder if Steve Finley qualifies for a vid, like this.

Looking back at the 2001 Diamondbacks team is crazy that they were the underdogs to win it all. That team was stacked by this kind of players. Look into it

Funny how you had Giles in this video as I am going thru my card collection and have 3 different mint 9 and one 10 rookie cards of him. He was like a copy of my all time favorite player Howard Johnson and a mention to another player Ron Gant. I really enjoyed this and thx for the memories. Have a great holiday season.

As a Braves fan, I appreciate the love for a lot of Braves from the era I first remember watching (I was born in 1995 so my earliest memories were of the early-to-mid-2000's teams). Also, as a Braves fan, I can't ignore the fact that, even though he was too injury-prone and inconsistent to be eligible, that Brian Giles's brother Marcus was always one of my favorites as a kid and it's good to see that he's turned out better in the long run.

Great pull with Lankford. I watched him play as a kid and loved the guy. Big lefty wearing my favorite number. Glad he made the StL HOF and we get to see him with a red jacket every year. Awesome that you gave him mention because he was definitely a fan favorite!

Mike Cameron's 4 homerun game for Seattle was amazing. Dude went back-to-back with Bret Boone TWICE in the SAME INNING.

thanks for the trip down memory lane, as a kid who religiously watched the braves and baseball in general from 95- 2006 all these guys were something to see (even Brian Giles) on the diamond. Furcal had an amazing arm Andres Galarraga 1st base (Nicknamed Big Cat) had a plastic protector installed in his glove to handle the heat from furcal. Ryan Klesko had always flown under the radar. I dont remember much about Beckett. Glaus rookie card surged when it came out and was a very solid 3rd /1st baseman. I hated when the braves played Ray Durham that guy was a tough out. JD drew had all the clout and talent but he was just always hurt and wasnt willing to play hurt. I think at one point he turned down signing with the phillies and they threw batteries at him on the field when he visited with the cardinals.

Ron Gant and Doug Drabek were both from my hometown and should have gotten at least a single vote....Gant played for 16 years with Atl and StL, hit over 300 HRs and went to multiple WS. Drabek, a Pirate, won a Cy Young and had a 22 win season. Both had a career WAR above 30.0

I always liked Cameron, he was a great player for the Mets. That collision he had in the outfield with Beltran was tough to watch, glad they were both able to recover and continue their respective careers.

As a cardinals fan I love the representation of 2 solid but under loved redbirds both those guys were so fundamental to many playoff runs I hope furcal is enjoying his travel days!

Love this video. I remember all these players growing up in the late 90s and early 00s

Great video. Well thought out and you showed your work. I’m gonna subscribe

Klesko definitely took me by surprise because I just thought he was perfect on the Braves and unable to replicate

What a great player selection. Fun video.

Awesome video! Ray Lankford was the star for the cards in the early 90s when I was growing up!! I always had the number 16 on my jersey!! I was at the game in 1991 when he hit for the cycle!! Plus Brett Hull was the number 16!!

Awesome video! Definitely had multiple "oh shit I remember that guy, he was pretty good" moments. I'm a Sox fan and remember Josh Beckett's time with the team. I think his attitude in Boston sank him and ruined his relationship with the media. The "chicken and beer" flop down the stretch in 2011 was all anyone was talking about here that year. And he was CONSTANTLY ridiculed by the local media for his perceived lack of work ethic. His matter-of-fact, apathetic attitude he took with them didn't help either. He gained a reputation for being lazy and a bad clubhouse guy here, I wonder if that followed him into retirement and ultimately onto the HOF ballot.

I literally clicked on the video hoping Mike Cameron would be here. Then I screamed ‘that’s my boy!” When you brought him up.

Josh Beckett in playoffs... 93ING, 3.07ERA, excellent4.7K/W... in '03 Shut Out Cubs with Marlins down 3-1 in elimination game, THEN threw 4 ING of relief in game 7, THEN won World Series MVP with Game 6 legendary performance at Yankee Stadium... in Game 6 Beckett opens with 2 inside fastballs to dead fastball hitter Derek Jeter even though Jeter nailed the first pitch just foul down the 3rd base line, i'm not sure how many MLB have the balls to throw a 2nd fastball inside knowing Jeter probably is not expecting it but could hit a HR if things go wrong... in '05 i sat behind home plate and it looked like Beckett's curveball went Shoulders-to-Shins when he wasn't throwing 98mph fastballs at 6 foot 5 inches... fax!!!

6:31 this man is beloved in Anaheim an absolute legend to Angels fans The 2002 World Series MVP and probably the greatest hit in franchise history with his double in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series to complete the greatest comeback in World Series history being down 0-5 to 6-5 winning the Game 6 forcing Game 7

I started watching baseball in 2003 and playing All-Star Baseball and MVP baseball around 2004 and this vid just took me back to my childhood lol. Miss guys like Ryan Klesko and Troy Glaus.

Ray Lankford for some reason is a guy I always remember from that era lol Reggie sanders too,I love this list ,that era was def my favorite era of baseball steroids or not it was pure theater from bonds ,Sosa,Maguire to Yankees vs Red Sox in the playoffs there was always something

Furcal was one of the first guys to catch my eye as a kid. I was a fan when he was a Brave, happy for him when he won the world series, and even saw him play in Miami.

Props for The Strokes in the background. Cool video as always too!

Great video as always

It's Troy Glaus isn't it?

That marlins ws winning play call was so bland lol dude sounded like he lost a bet

Really great video. Love it

Love the use of strokes songs on the background especially considering their first album came out around the peak of the steroid era

WAR makes you take too big of a logical leap to take seriuosly.

The only era of baseball I liked. Mark, Sammy and Griffey Jr in the home run race of 98 was crazy. I think Griffey hit high 30’s, low 40’s in home runs that year which is sad cause he was clean and was clearly the best of the 3.

Great video sir! Yeah Ray Lankford is severely underrated man... St. Louis folks remember him but not many else... It's funny that you had Mike Cameron on the list as he was slept on also but the guy he rated just below (#37) was Willie Wilson who had an even weirder career arc and also slept on.. both player until they were 38 but Willie had 2 more years on Mike but numbers very similar.. just opposite type of players that played the same position.. Willie was super speedy (like 600+ s), more average (won a batting title) and defense..

You've one-upped me (and probably everybody else) highlighting good players from the steroid era with zero HOF votes. But I think there are still several other underrated guys from that period who are pretty much forgotten now who also deserve some mention as well (although they may have received a HOF vote or two). Guys like Bobby Abreu, Travis Hafner, Derek Lee, Carlos Lee, Elis Burks, Javy Lopez, and Brian Jordan (almost near identical to former teammate Ray Lankford who you've listed) just off the top of my head. Anyhow, great list.

Glad to see guys like Furcal and Cameron mentioned enjoyed watching them play a lot. I’m actually not familiar with Durham or sanders so it’s cool to learn about someone new.

If Paul Konerko played for LA, NY, Bos, etc...He would be in the Hall for sure

When I think of players that are underrated from the steroid era, I think of John Olerud and Will Clark. These two were penalized for NOT taking steroids, and were both better baseball players (and hitters) than every single player in this video. They're the biggest victims of the juice era to me.

I feel like you did a very good job unpacking this topic. If there were a catcher in this video, this lineup of guys would have made a dominant team! Bits of why these folks are underrated and unloved: Giles... you mentioned it, an awful human putting up good numbers on awful teams. Zambrano ... would probably be a Hall of Famer if he'd wanted to keep caring about baseball, but he didn't. Lankford ... the only other solid bat in that Cards lineup other than Big Mac and passaround Reggie when he was there. And the toughest end of the stick on this list has to be Mike Cameron ... The dude gets traded for Konerko, then Junior, then has his biggest breakout season in '01 when Ichiro showed up and broke baseball. He still put up good offensive numbers in spite of playing home games in Cinergy, Safeco, Shea, and Petco, finally putting up home run numbers compatible with his actual power when he played at Miller Park towards the tail end of his career ... and gosh, he just looked like he was having fun playing baseball and that was worth idolizing. p.s.: If I never have to watch Ryan Klesko's stupid batflip or godawful defense ever again, I'll be happy.

I'm the 39th best Stark Raving Sports viewer

SRS on top!

Thank you for standing up/speaking out against cowards that beat & abuse women. Too much of that goes on, and seems to be ignored. Great list of players, such as LANKFORD, & SANDERS, two of my favorite players, & criminally underrated. Awesome video, my friend, thanks for sharing!!

Ryan Klesko was my childhood! I freaking never missed a Braves TBS game from like 1989-2005. Ray Lankford has a sweet swing.

I feel Juan Pierre was very underated. Juan Pierre had no power, but was super consistent throughout career with his career batting average at .295 and over 600 career stolen bases. Not to mention a decent glove in the outfield.

I've been following the Hall of Fame vote for about 25 years now, and once thing I've noticed is that the number of players to go without a vote seem to increase in the past 15 years or so. In the 2000s it seems that a few writers were likely to throw candidates they like a vote. I looked at the vote dating back to 1999, and from 1999-2010 there were never more than four players that failed to get a vote. However, beginning in 2011 there was an eruption of players that failed to get a vote. In fact, there were more players that failed to get a vote in the five years from 2011-2015 than there were from 1999-2010! 1999 - 2010: 34 2011 - 2015: 36 2016 - 2019: 35 The 0-vote problem seem to be dying down as there were only 21 of those in the four ballots since 2020. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a distinct rise in the number of players to receive 0 votes. There are probably a lot of factors behind that. The steroid controversy is probably one issue, as writers have shown they generally don't want to vote for anybody with any connections to steroids, but that probably isn't the only factor or even the biggest one. The year of the big leap in number of players to get 0 votes is 2011. It just so happens that the year before, there were four players that debuted on the ballot that are now in the Hall of Fame (Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff), the same number as those that failed to get a vote (including Ray Lankford). The thing is none of them got in on their first try, which meant they carried over to the 2011 ballot. Then the 2011 ballot added Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker, both of whom are in, but neither of them got in on their first try. Even though Alomar was elected in 2011 and Larkin in 2012, you had a backlog of Hall worthy players that grew exponentially with the Great Ballotgeddon of 2013, when guys like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa got 5% but none of them were elected. This backlog only continued over the next several years that finally died down after the BBWAA elected an unprecedented 20 players in six years from 2014-2019. Consequently, it probably isn't surprising to see the courtesy vote fall to the wayside. Throw on top of that the increasing transparency, and you might expect voters to be find it easier to withhold a vote for a guy like Brian Giles than try to explain why they are voting for a wife-beater like him. Anyways, for the tl;dr, there are a lot more players that didn't get a vote if they debuted between 2011-2019 and it was probably because the ballot was full of Hall worthy candidates.

Good job man

Nice video! I always maintain that anybody who appears on the HOF ballot at least belongs in the Hall of Very Good automatically. You had to have something to last 10 years!

We live in an era where EVERY hitter is hitting 20+ HR's but the HR leaders usually finish with 45ish 30 years ago it was the opposite. If you hit 20+ HR's you were seen as having decent power and the HR kings were hitting 50+

Maaaan listen how do WE know Griffey aint take roids? His HR's jumped exponentially!

Wow, this video brings back memories!

I love all the stroke songs in the back ground 🔥🔥🔥

Dont forget about Ron Gant

This is the thing. Nowadays you can play with the statistics to make anyone look good. It's the Hall Of FAME. It's more about how famous they were.

I need someone who is like 35 years old making these videos that actually remembers watching baseball during the steroid era

I like this video a lot, as a 80’s baby I remember and loved watching all of these guys play

WAR isn't perfect but usually use 50 as my cutoff for HOF cases. They are a little earlier than this, but just under 50, Brett Butler and just over, Tony Phillips are two guys I always think of who I watched as a kid. I love perusing Notinhalloffame. I liked Dwight Evans too. Kenny Lofton, David Cone, Mattingly doesn't make the cut by WAR because his back went out, but he was one of the best. His defense was amazing, and for his short prime he was an amazing offensive force. I think the fact that the Yankees sucked most of his tenure there and then the steroid guys came along and changed our perception of what a hitter should do. (Edit, those aren't 0 vote guys, just guys who dropped off the ballot.)

Hall of fame, is not the hall of very good. Do not drop the bar.

Beckett is a perfect fit for a list like this. Gun to my head, not a lot of guys I would rather give the ball to in a do or die game. I'm pretty biased as a Sox fan, but absolutely loved watching him.

Love the strokes in the background

Great video! Couple other players that came to mind: Michael Young Garrett Anderson Ben Sheets Bobby Abreu Mike Sweeney Derrick Lee

Been a die hard Phillies fan for 41 yrs now, so I hated the Braves my entire life, and I especially hated the Braves as a teenager in the mid-‘90s. But growing up I was very fortunate to be in a position to meet many players (mostly on the East Coast) thanks to so many being clients of my old man’s company. Ironically, one client that I got to meet was Tom Glavine, and he was generous enough to give us tickets to that nights game. That night I’m not ashamed to say I became a huge Ryan Klesko fan. Klesko went 2-4 with 2 monster HR’s, a walk, and 3 RBI’s. He was an absolute beast! And even tho my two younger brothers still give me crap for liking a Braves player, I feel no guilt, dude was so much fun to watch…

Great intro !!!

Man I love the early 2000s Giants (Bonds and Kent feud aside), Durham was such a reliable guy for us.

Great stuff so many good ones with solid numbers. Players like Rodríguez, Ramírez just to mention a few should never be on a list of so many good players. Andrew Jones if I recall was also a user.

Tino martinez, bernie williams, paul O' neil, jorge posada..basically the entire middle of the yankee lineup in the late 90's.

Another crazy thing about Carlos Zambrano is that he prefers football (or Soccer in the US), he even had some great anecdotes with Real Madrid players.

I was at the Start of the Steroid era and the MLB. In California in the early 80s. I knew everyone who was working with bodybuilders and who knew the places where they worked out.

Thank you for the klesko mention. Dude was a beast

I do agree that some of these guys are better than guys in the HOF already. And I really liked the way you built the list. Fun video overall. I wouldn't have had a vote to spare for any of these guys though. On every ballot they were on, there was at least 15+ guys I'd personally vote for to get into the HOF. So no room left for them. And the guys that typically throw out random or pity votes for guys that won't ever get in are big hall guys that I just don't think could've found room on their ballot either. If the BBWAA could've found some agreement on the steroid guys (either vote them in like they should've or just completely drop them off to avoid clogging the ballot), then these guys might've gotten a few votes.

I remember watching Josh Beckett's No-hitter against the Phillies from Citizen's Bank Park. Was neat to see a no-hitter live even if it was against my team.

Great video about the Hall of Good.

I watched that becket game and he threw a masterpiece. Walked into yankee stadium like he owned then. He was a big game pitcher for Boston also.

Richie Sexton was on the same team that had Brian Giles and platooned.. the 97's Indian team was absolutely loaded. Too bad they had to ditch some players like both Sexton and Giles. Another player they had around that time was Russell Braynan who swang for the fences and hit the most prodigious home runs..

Ray Ray was my guy as a kid! He was so smooth in the outdield and at the plate for the cardinals in the 90s, and amchored the first all black outfield i can remember, wjtb Ron Gant and Brian Jordan; easily the most athletic trio in the field.

While she didn't know him super well, my mom was classmates with Mike Cameron at LaGrange HS (LaGrange,GA). The only thing that subdued just how great of a player he was then was playing baseball at a school with a historically great football program. They won state and then a national title in 1991.

“Wins Above Replacement is a good stat” Ok i’ve seen enough of this video. Moving on.

Great great list

I don't understand how Josh Beckett isn't in the HOF. The fact that he hasn't received a single vote is mind-blowing. What he did in 2003 was nothing short of remarkable.

I LOVED watching Furcal play. I wa a huge sheffield fan and that 2003 season was thr most fun i had watching baseball ever. Furcal had an absolute cannon too.i loved his push bunt hits. He would draw in the fielder and push the bunt hard in the air over the fielders head. Miss furcal

Got to see Ray Lankford play all the way back to Single A a million years ago. It's funny they use his card from that team for his Wikipedia photo. He's in the Cardinals hall of fame at least, very deservedly. Fond memories of Reggie Sanders too.

I was born in 94 so a lot of these guys I remember being so good when I was young. Most of them I have in the hall of very good and not hof though. But I think the hall should be more exclusive then it is and has guys that shouldn't be in. It also hurts that numbers in that era are inflated and the writers pick and choose who they like and don't.

This video is like a graveyard of names I remember from MVP Baseball 2005

I appreciate this