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Raul Ibanez
Edgar Martinez
Jamie Moyer
Willie Bloomquist (yes, really)
Mark McLemore
Chris Bosio
Joey Cora
Omar Vizquel
Dan Wilson
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Musta been twenty years ago, more maybe, when Bob Costas stopped me short with a great line. "Michael Jordan is what you get when --- > you combine (1) a supreme talent with (2) an overachiever."
A strict dictionary definition of that is simply "one who has much more success than normal, especially at a young age." I like dictionaries, but that's one of the worst definitions I've ever heard. Overachievers are like Russell Wilson or Kyle Seager or Pete Carroll: people who exceeded their potential and ceilings, primarily because of attitude.
It's a little hard to understand why Russell Wilson isn't more beloved in Seattle than he is. Just for starters here: Seattle fans have always craved a star quarterback. Anyway, RW3 is another subject. Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Go Hawks :- )
Opposite the Russell Wilson template is the Colin Kaepernick type, the Johnny Manziel, the RGIII sweeping into his stadium as a rookie with a 50-person entourage, etc. Opposite Russell Wilson is "entitlement." I worry a little bit about Taijuan... you could put the 25 Mariners on a continuum from left to right.
Russell Wilson is, for me, inspirational. In the sense that most of us, certainly I, could accomplish a lot more than I actually do, if my thinking patterns were more like Russell Wilson's. That kind of role model is a great thing, period.
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From Sully's Fangraphs chat Friday:
Jeff Sullivan: Theo Epstein has built a wonderful organization from top to bottom. That much is true. The Cubs have also strongly benefited from circumstances that weren’t totally under their own control. That much is also true. This is kind of like your typical 7 or 8-WAR season — awesome player, who also over-achieved
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Taking the minor issue first: is that true, that a given 7-WAR season was overacheiving? Well ...
- Robinson Cano has done 6-7 on four different occasions
- Ichiro posted a good steady 5.0 WAR for ten consecutive seasons (perhaps establishing the reasonable limit)
- Andrew McCutchen (heh) consecutively did 6.8, 8.4, 6.8, 5.8 before last year
In fact you might call that an interesting definition of Hall of Famer, a player who in his prime is not overachieving to hit 7 WAR. Personally would stipulate Sully's point as basically valid, that a "typical" 7-8 WAR season is a terrific player overachieving.
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Kyle Seager had 5.5 WAR per Fangraphs last year, 6.9 per baseball-reference. Is there anything that he did that will not be normal for him from now on? Be the answer Yea or Nay, here is a guy who blasted the ceiling that people tried to put on him. And who did it through honor, nobility, and being a better human being than the rest of us.
Kidding,
Dr D