Every new baseball season brings with it a collection of surprise stories, including the rise of an unknown, the sinking of a touted rookie, and the resurgence of a forgotten veteran. Almost two months into the 2008 baseball calendar, these surprise stories start to look less like statistical aberrations and more like lasting trends.

Since these stories are hard to predict, what isn’t a surprise is that their subjects very well might be underrated in video games -- underrated here referring to the numerical value placed on their virtual counterparts. Since these ratings are based on past performance, perhaps underrated isn’t accurate -- these guys might simply be outperforming their numerical rating.

With this in mind, here is a team made of up the underrated (or overachieving, depending on how you look at it) players, as found in MLB 2K8.

Note: This exercise shouldn’t be seen as a complaint about 2K8’s rating system; rather, it’s a showcasing of guys who aren’t represented well thus far by their overall ratings. Who knows, a surprise story of the second half might be the devastating collapse of one of these players.

First a couple of ground rules:

1. To be considered for this team, a player must be rated less than an 80:These are the very underrated. As much as Pat Burrell is outplaying his 82 rating, he was still given an above-average rating. I’m looking for those who earned very little respect from 2K’s rating formula.

2. Selections were based on stats as of May 5th and based on 2K's Opening Day (4/16) roster.

3. The players were chosen as if drafting a team. Therefore I looked for different skills from different positions. There may be statistically better players left out, but I wanted a balanced team that could (possibly) excel in real life.

Now with that cleared up...

Starting Line-Up:

Ryan Theriot CHC SS (76): His 2K8 rating doesn’t put him in the highest echelon of infielders, but his current real life numbers do. His average, on-base percentage, and stolen bases are all among the top 5 shortstops.

Connor Jackson, ARI 1B (78): His .325+ AVG. and .400+ OBP might not come as a surprise to Diamondbacks fans, but should to 2K8’s rating formula.

Xavier Nady PIT RF (74): For some reason he's listed as a first baseman, despite not playing there at all in 2007. His 74 might even be low for last year's stats (.278/20/72), but it’s definitely not reflective of a potential career year (.347/4/30 thus far).

Nate McLouth PIT CF (72): He could easily lead off, but his combination of average (.323) and early power (7 HR) qualify him for the clean-up spot.

Carlos Quentin CWS LF (74): We’re looking for power here, and Quentin fits the bill -- his 8 homers are third amongst all outfielders. His moderately-low average (.271) may make him the least "underrated" player on the team, but he’s still outperforming his 74-rating thus far in the season.

Geovany Soto CHC C (70): Looking at his 70 rating, you might be surprised to learn he leads qualified catchers in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS and is second in homers.

Yuniel Escobar ATL 3B (75): Alright, so I’m cheating a bit here. He hasn’t played 3B this season (but he did man the hot corner 22 times last year). Nonetheless his numbers are too good to leave him on the bench, especially when ranked at a 75. He’s also among the top five 3B in AVG and OBP.

Erick Aybar LAA 2B (69): Again, I’m cheating, but at least Aybar has played a game at second this year. And of all the players on the team, he is probably outplaying his rating the most. His AVG is dancing around .300 which places him 4th among second basemen.

Rotation

Ervin Santana, LAA (78)/Joe Saunders, LAA (72): These two Angels anchor the staff with 6 wins apiece, tied for second most in the majors. Both have a sub-3.00 ERA and a combined WHIP of 0.99.

Cliff Lee, CLE (78): 5-0 with a .096 ERA, 1 CG, 1 SHO. Enough said.

Mark Hendrickson, FLA (70)/Aaron Cook, COL (72): Their 5-1 records make them a solid back end of the rotation.

Edison Volquez, CIN (72): Here’s my spot starter/ long relief. He’s got a ton of strikeouts (42 in only 35 innings pitched) and a .195 BAA.

Situational Players

These guys almost made the starting lineup, but (somewhat subjectively) were placed on the bench: Ryan Doumit C PIT (68), Kosuke Fukudome OF CHC (78), Matt Kemp OF LAD (78), Casey Kotchman 1B LAA (79)

Bullpen: There are numerous relief pitchers at this point with good ERAs, few innings pitched, and a healthy amount of luck. The following pitchers, however, are somewhat game-tested and have real life numbers that outshine their ratings: Joe Beimel LAD (68), Santiago Casilla OAK (73), Matt Capps PIT (78), Brandon Lyon ARI (71), Chad Qualls ARI (75), Joakim Soria KC (79), J.C. Romero PHI (71)


So that's my 25-man roster for the "All-Underrated MLB 2K8" team. If MLB 2K8 had a traditional create-a-team feature, I’d gladly build this team and sim a couple of seasons. However, it doesn’t, and I don’t have all of their cards to make the team. In fact, many of these players don’t even have an MLB 2K8 card.

As always, lists like this are subjective and fun to discuss, so what players might make your "All-Underrated" squad?