If you've followed the Giants at all over the past few years, you know that Matt Cain is a very good pitcher.
And lots of people around baseball know that Cain's a great pitcher too. However, the casual fan might look at Cain as a second-fiddle type because, well, he's the unluckiest history in major-league history.
Fortunately, the players around baseball apparently recognize this, and recently, in a Sports Illustrated poll, voted Cain the "Most Underrated Pitcher" in MLB.
There's no telling how many players SI actually talked to, but the list is pretty good: Doug Fister, Ricky Romero, Dan Haren and Vance Worley fill out the top five. Although you kind of have to wonder if this list is a curse -- Romero's on the downslope and Worley and Fister are on the DL.
But having Cain No. 1 is a true sign that whoever SI talked to is a smart group of players. No one pitches as well as Cain without getting the credit he receives.
Certainly Cain doesn't care about credit; he just wants wins for his team. (And he's probably not to unhappy with his monster extension either.) Unfortunately, Cain doesn't get those.
Which is probably why he's so underrated. He's a guy who strikes batters out (never less than seven strikeouts per nine innings in a full season), goes deep in games, rarely issues walks (never more than 100 in a season), and is generally a model of consistency.
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Yet, because he doesn't win a lot of games, Cain's never really been rewarded for being a great pitcher. Sure, he's made the All-Star Game twice in his career, but his highest finish in Cy Young voting is eighth (2011) and he's only made the ballot twice.
The dude's consistently above average and would be a highly-celebrated ace if he played for a team that actually produced runs and got him wins. Thankfully, the rest of baseball recognizes that.
