r/baseball • u/WayAcrossTheWorld • 6d ago

Players Only [highlight] Junior Caminero- “Let the Yankees fans talk now. Let them watch the whole thing. Talk Now. What ya gonna say? Daaaaa Yankees lose”

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u/agb2022 New York Yankees 6d ago

Definitely as a commentator. Look, Big Papi was a great player, but there’ve been hundreds of great players. Papi is probably not one of the 100 greatest players ever (ranked 259th in bWAR).

But as a commentator, this man is a generational hater. As much as he tortured Yankee fans as a player with clutch performances, his hate will live on for decades - haunting generations of Yankee fans for decades to come. Even Yankee fans born after Big Papi’s career ended must now suffer this nightmare he hath brought upon us.

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u/no_one_canoe Detroit Tigers • Boston Hunters 6d ago

Definitely as a commentator. Look, Big Papi was a great player, but there’ve been hundreds of great players. Papi is probably not one of the 100 greatest players ever (ranked 259th in bWAR).

But thanks to playing when and where he did (and being absurdly clutch), he's literally the all-time leader in postseason WPA. Mostly not against the Yankees, to be fair (not that every Sox win didn't hurt you guys a little), but he did pretty much single-handedly win the 2004 ALCS.

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u/Elitist_Daily 6d ago

Just because I was curious after seeing your comment, 0.46 of his 3.2 total postseason WPA came from the single grand slam vs detroit in 2013 lmfao

1/7th from a single hit is insane given that he's also the postseason WPA leader

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u/TKenney3 6d ago

That hit gives me chills everytime. Could watch it on loop and never get bored. That’s gotta be one of the clutches hits in playoff history. It turned the whole series around. Without that hit the Sox’s are down 0-2 going back to Detroit

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u/Elitist_Daily 6d ago

tory hunter flipping over the wall in the same frame as the cop cheering with both fists raised is as hilarious as it is iconic

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u/BL_RogueExplorer Boston Red Sox 6d ago

One of the many images burned into my brain.

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u/danbrochill17 Boston Red Sox 6d ago

*one fist raised

(But both hands raised, lol)

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u/TKenney3 6d ago

Pure cinema, couldn’t have written it better myself 🙌

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u/nyyforever2018 New York Yankees 5d ago

Also the 2013 World Series.

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u/agb2022 New York Yankees 6d ago

You make great points and it’s why I say he’s probably not a top 100 player even with a bWAR outside of the top 250. He was so clutch that I think there’s a strong argument he is a top 100 player (though I think he ultimately falls somewhere just outside it).

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u/pancreaticlemons1 5d ago

career WAR rankings aside, do you really think Papi isn’t top 100 all time?

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u/SilentRanger42 Boston Red Sox 6d ago

  Papi is probably not one of the 100 greatest players ever

This dude carried 3 different teams to World Series titles including breaking the curse. I’m sorry but the stats can go fuck right off. Papi is a top 5 player of his generation and better than every player the Yankees have had since he joined Boston. Full stop. He’s absolutely a top 100 player in baseball history.

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u/Froggyevening 6d ago

Look, Big Papi was a great player, but there’ve been hundreds of great players. Papi is probably not one of the 100 greatest players ever (ranked 259th in bWAR).

Also a juicer. That should have some bearing on his standing.

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u/Electrical-Sense-156 6d ago

Uhm no. I don’t care what a talking head says. I only care about the Yankees winning the WS. Ortiz can’t hurt us anymore