Some baseball players are overrated and some are underrated…and MSF’s own Ari Kaufman named names in the USA Today Baseball Preview Magazine

March 2, 2011 By 5 Comments

On Super Bowl Sunday, we had the highest single-day traffic total that we have ever had here at Midwest Sports Fans. Needless to say, I was excited.

However, my pride in the mammoth visitor numbers we put up during the Big Game cannot compete with the pride I feel in seeing a member of the MSF team featured in one of the preeminent baseball preview magazines hitting newsstands everywhere as we zoom closer to pitchers and catchers reporting.

So, on behalf of the entire MSF team, I’d like to congratulate MSF’s own co-editor Ari Kaufman for earning the well-deserved honor of having his writing featured in the USA Today Baseball Preview Magazine. The article is entitled “Some players are overrated and others are underrated. We name names.” As usual, Ari provides strong opinions…and backs them up with numbers.

And for those of you familiar with Ari’s writing, it will not surprise you which side of the argument Ryan Howard is on.

The article is not available online via USA Today, but we did post it on MSF here. You can find it anywhere they sell sports magazines, from Barnes & Noble and Target to Wal-Mart and your local grocery store or CVS/Walgreens.

Here are high-res images of the article, shrunken down to fit the width of the post area. You should still be able to read it pretty easily.

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Here are the various regional covers:

Covers are regional, and there are eight in all:

1. C.C. Sabathia/David Wright (northeast)

2. Roy Halladay/Ryan Zimmerman (mid-Atlantic)

3. Jason Heyward/Evan Longoria/Hanley Ramirez (southeast)

4. Joey Votto (Ohio/Indiana/Michigan)

5. Paul Konerko/Justin Morneau (Chicago/Miwaukee/Minnesota)

6. Albert Pujols/Josh Hamilton (south central)

7. Andre Ethier/Jered Weaver/Mat Latos (southwest)

8. Tim Lincecum/Felix Hernandez (Bay Area/Rocky Mountains/Northwest)

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Filed Under: MLB Tagged With: Adam Dunn, baseball, bj upton, carlos pena, jeff francouer, mark reynolds, miguel cabrera, MLB, overrated, paul konerko, Ryan Howard, ryan zimmerman, shin choo-cho, underrated, usa today
About Jerod Morris

A proud graduate of Indiana University, Jerod Morris founded Midwest Sports Fans in August of 2008 and has been its Managing Editor every day since. Follow him on Twitter (@JerodMorris) for MSF updates, sports discussion, and a compelling daily assortment of funny and interesting links.
In addition to his work at MSF, Jerod hosts the fast-growing Indiana basketball postgame show The Assembly Call and provides regular music recommendations at IndieChristmas.com. He also helped develop the Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting platform on which MSF and all of his other sites are run.

  • OldDog

    Interesting article – I agree with most of Kaufman's evaluations. Of course there's always room for argument. That's part of what makes sports so much fun.

  • ron friedeman

    good article, but what about Prince Fielder

  • http://twitter.com/ajkauf7 AJ Kaufman

    overrated or underrated? (Fielder)

  • Darby Crash

    CONGRATS Ari. In an era where stats are everything, players ride on their name more than recent production. Jose Reyes overrated.

  • http://twitter.com/ajkauf7 AJ Kaufman

    Exactly. Once your name catches, you're in. Good point re Reyes. Howard is another. He could hit .260 w/ 30HRs and 100 RBIs this year (which is fine but not spectacular, nor elite) and some fools will vote him 3rd for MVP.