I wanted to. I really wanted to. But I did not. While Nava's one dollar contract is a great story, he had one great year with us. To be The Most Underrated in the entire team's history, you can't pick a guy who was with the team a couple of seasons ago. Everyone still remembers him. He is probably valued properly for his on field production. It saddened all of us when he ended up in Anaheim and (ugh) Tampa. That is how baseball works though.

We will always have 2013. What a year it was. I remember Nava working on first base in spring training in 2012, trying to get more at bats in the majors. Long after the regulars had gone home, there was Nava in the ninth inning, next to all the minor leaguers and camp invitees, out there at first. Then there he was the next season, hitting over .300, playing most ever day, getting hit by pitches, and batting in the World Series. What a year. The next year, bWAR had him as very valuable due to a generous defensive grading. His hitting took an admittedly large step back, although he was still a passable starter at the big league level. 2014 was the last time Nava was consistently productive at the big league level. He is still only 33, and I think we all hope he will return to his 2013 levels.

Like I said, I am not here to talk about Daniel Nava. He is not the most underrated player in Sox history. He is probably overrated, even. I am here to talk about Harry Hooper. Hooper was a Hall of Fame outfielder with the Sox during the dead ball era. He played right field next to Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis (another underrated Sox player). I cannot speak to Hooper beyond his stat line. He was a .281/.368/.387 career hitter, good for a 114 OPS+ according to Baseball Reference, and owned an equal 114 OPS+ during his 12 years on the Sox. He also stole 375 bases, although his success rate was not that great.

Like I said this post is not about Daniel Nava. That's why he is a choice in the following poll.