Three New York Yankees, led by Alex Rodriguez, are the most overrated players in baseball according to a Sports Illustrated poll of major league players. Rodriguez got 18 percent of the vote, followed by Joba Chamberlain with 12 percent and Derek Jeter with seven percent.
Rounding out the top five were Washington outfielder Jayson Werth and Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who each got four percent of the vote. SI said 185 players voted.
The question was also posed on SI's Facebook page, and 45 percent of the fans who voted there said Jeter is the game's most overrated player. Boston's David Ortiz got 17 percent of the fan vote on Facebook, and A-Rod got 15 percent.
The full poll will in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, which will be on newsstands Wednesday.
Is anyone surprised by this? I know I'm not. I guess the 3,000-hit mark Jeter is about to reach doesn't mean much to the players. Same with the 600+ home runs on Rodriguez's resume. As for Chamberlain, who thinks of him as more than a middle reliever/setup guy these days? No one is overrating him, except maybe jealous players tired of the attention paid to the Yankees.