The 10 most under-appreciated players of the 1980s: #1 Dwayne Murphy

Oakland Athletics outfielder Dwayne Murphy tops our countdown of the most under-appreciated players of the 1980s. If you're disappointed, that just proves I'm right :)

Here are five fantastic facts and five fantastic baseball cards to commemorate Murphy's career in the 1980s.

1983 Donruss #161

1. Murphy was a top 10 player from 1980-1982:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	Age	PA	HR	RBI	OPS	Tm
1	Mike Schmidt	24.6	30-32	1717	114	299	1.003	PHI
2	Robin Yount	23.4	24-26	1762	62	250	.861	MIL
3	Rickey Henderson	23.0	21-23	1871	25	139	.813	OAK
4	Andre Dawson	20.8	25-27	1739	64	234	.864	MON
5	George Brett	18.0	27-29	1523	51	243	.953	KCR
6	Gary Carter	17.9	26-28	1689	74	266	.830	MON
7	Cecil Cooper	17.8	30-32	1827	69	303	.888	MIL
8	Buddy Bell	17.7	28-30	1563	40	214	.826	TEX
9	Dwayne Murphy	17.0	25-27	1839	55	222	.768	OAK
10	Willie Wilson	16.6	24-26	1831	7	127	.764	KCR

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/13/2012.

This is the top WAR in MLB over 1980-1982. You'll notice that Murphy has a low OPS for this group. That's in part because Oakland Coliseum was his home stadium, but he also got a huge boost from dWAR, to the tune of 4.3 over this period.

Regarding the 1983 Donruss card above, it's amazingly similar to his 1982 Donruss photo, especially since they clearly were not taken at the same time (he's wearing sleeves in the earlier shot).

1985 Fleer #432

Check out this badass swing with his back knee nearly touching the ground. This is an insanely beautiful card, and from the same set as the Dwight Evans card back at #10 in this series.

2. From 1980 to 1988, Murphy was the best centerfielder in baseball

Rk	Player	Rfield	Pos	Tm
1	Dwayne Murphy	71	*8/D97643	OAK-DET
2	Andre Dawson	67	*98	MON-CHC
3	Gary Pettis	66	*8/D79	CAL-DET
4	Chet Lemon	65	*89/D4	CHW-DET
5	Willie Wilson	65	*87/D	KCR
6	Eddie Milner	39	*8/79	CIN-SFG
7	Kirby Puckett	31	*8/D	MIN
8	Lloyd Moseby	27	*89/7D	TOR
9	Dave Henderson	14	*89/D7	SEA-TOT-OAK
10	Brett Butler	11	*87/9D	ATL-CLE-SFG
11	Garry Maddox	11	*8/7	PHI

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/13/2012.

These are the most fielding runs by a player with at least 500 games in centerfield from 1980-1988. There were 5 really good ones and Murphy was the best.

1980 Topps #461

3. From 1980-1988, Murphy was one of the best defenders in baseball, pure and simple.

Rk	Player	Rfield	Pos	Tm
1	Ozzie Smith	140	*6	SDP-STL
2	Jesse Barfield	122	*9/8D7	TOR
3	Rickey Henderson	92	*78/D	OAK-NYY
4	Keith Hernandez	85	*3/79	STL-TOT-NYM
5	Buddy Bell	80	*5/364	TEX-TOT-CIN
6	Ozzie Guillen	80	*6/D	CHW
7	Bob Boone	73	*2/D	PHI-CAL
8	Gary Carter	73	*2/3975	MON-NYM
9	Tim Wallach	72	*5/937641	MON
10	Frank White	72	*4/D65	KCR
11	Dwayne Murphy	71	*8/D97643	OAK-DET
12	Andre Dawson	67	*98	MON-CHC
13	Gary Pettis	66	*8/D79	CAL-DET
14	Chet Lemon	65	*89/D4	CHW-DET
15	Willie Wilson	65	*87/D	KCR
16	Pete O'Brien	63	*3/79D	TEX
17	Alan Trammell	63	*6/D	DET
18	Wade Boggs	58	*5/3D7	BOS
19	Scott Fletcher	57	*64/5D	CHC-CHW-TEX
20	Gary Gaetti	57	*5/76D43	MIN

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/13/2012.

These are the most fielding runs for any position from 1980 to 1988. Murphy slots right in there. Incidentally, Scott Fletcher was a late cut from this countdown.

The 1980 Topps card above was Murphy's first solo baseball card. Taken from a low angle, the photograph is a beauty with miles of blue sky. Murphy's got some evil thoughts in his eyes. about crushing a baseball.

1981 Fleer #590

And then there's this horrible photo, like so many bad ones from the 1981 Fleer set. As the story goes, Fleer and Donruss had a very short amount of time to put together their card sets due to the timing of the ruling that broke Topps' monopoly on baseball cards. In this case, another A's player right behind Murphy blends in, making his legs look weird and thick. Notice the angle of his bat, indicating a massive uppercut swing.

4. Murphy played at least 73 games in 7 different spots in the batting order

I	Split	G	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	tOPS+
	Batting 1st	73	247	.255	.388	.423	.812	114
	Batting 2nd	607	2672	.252	.360	.407	.768	102
	Batting 3rd	163	638	.255	.359	.432	.790	108
	Batting 4th	58	185	.217	.341	.349	.689	83
	Batting 5th	145	543	.226	.341	.385	.725	92
	Batting 6th	129	479	.231	.329	.405	.734	93
	Batting 7th	73	260	.247	.343	.365	.708	87
	Batting 8th	39	102	.234	.406	.312	.718	92
	Batting 9th	73	116	.240	.354	.365	.719	90

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/13/2012.

1987 Donruss #379

This is one of the best baseball cards I have ever seen. Murphy looks like he's just crushed a homer deep into centerfield. The gold stripes on his jersey match up with the gold stripes on the edges of the card. There is overall fantastic color unity with green, gold, gray, and black. Simply put, this is a perfect card.

5. Murphy could do it all with the bat

He's one of just 4 players who, over 1980-1989, had an OPS+ of at least 110 and also had at least 50 sacrifice hits:

Rk		OPS+	SH
1	Rod Carew	118	52
2	Paul Molitor	124	51
3	Dwayne Murphy	116	70
4	Alan Trammell	117	86

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/13/2012.

Murphy is so rarely talked about, but when I solicited input from John and Raphy for this series, all 3 of us independently came up with him as someone to include. It didn't take long to see that he was great in the 1980s and few people seemed to notice or remember.

I hope you enjoyed our take on the 10 most under-appreciated players of the 1980s. Look for the 1990s next week!