Often during this time of year in baseball, you hear about the same few guys and their postseason disappointments.  OK, fine, you hear about A-Rod.  A whole lot.  Although he has had much success in pre-Yankee years, there is no doubt that he struggled in the playoffs last year - and so far this year (with three Ks yesterday).  You also used to hear about Barry Bonds before he hit four homers with a .700 OB% in the World Series.  Believe it or not, there were some other big-named guys who struggled in their postseasons — they were just lucky enough to play before every single at-bat was scrutinized by nine trillion different media outlets.  Here are seven of them:

7. Ty Cobb
A .366 career hitter, but just .262 in the postseason, although he did manage to defecate on just as many opposing players.

6. Derek Jeter
Just kidding!  But did you know that A-Rod’s career postseason on-base percentage before this year was 14 points higher than Jeter’s?  Or that his SLG% was 71 points higher?  Or that Jeter has hit .250 or lower in 8 of his 23 career playoff series?  I am not saying that Jeter isn’t amazing or that I dislike the guy--it’s not his fault that he is the recipient of perhaps the biggest media man crush in sports—but if you give most great players nearly 500 postseason at-bats, they are going to have some big hits, and they are going to have some poor series too, and depending on the reputation, you may never hear much about one or the other.

5. Dave Winfield
Winfield hit .208 in 101 postseason at-bats, with two homers, neither of them coming in his years with the Yankees.  No player in history made a bat look smaller when he was batting either.  It looked like he was holding a rolled-up poster.

4. Willie Mays
Mays hit .247 with one homer in 89 postseason at-bats.  Eh.

3. Mark McGwire
In the A’s days, he hit .188 in three World Series, with his only homer winning Game 3 in 1988.  Question—how did we not suspect that McGwire was juicing in 1998?  Have you seen highlights of those games since then?  The guy is bursting out of his uniform and can barely move around the bases.  He still has a highway in St. Louis named after him though, even if it is a small portion of a highway without a single exit containing a Quik Trip, Wendy’s, or Popeye’s, so it’s not too important.

2. Ted Williams
Let me be clear about something—in no way am I trying to downgrade the accomplishments of these players.  I think, if anything, it further proves how much of a crapshoot the playoffs are and why certain guys shouldn’t be labeled “chokers” because of several at-bats.  For example, can anyone honestly say that Ted Williams wasn’t clutch or wasn’t a big-time player because he was 5 for 25 with no extra base hits in his only postseason appearance?

1. Joe Morgan
“I used to play for the Big Red Machine.”  “Tony Perez was awesome.”  “There aren’t as many good teams or players these days.”  “I had a career postseason average of .182.”  One of these four is something that you don’t hear old Joe mention too often.

The Top Seven List is written by Jason Major.
His playoff performance is stellar - if watching, eating Doritos, and becoming a nervous wreck is the game.
Email him @ jason@joesportsfan.com