OVER- OR UNDER-RATED?(public's appreciation and perception of major league baseball players)

How some major leaguers are evaluated Certain experts say Sammy Sosa get too much hype, Edgardo Alfonzo too little

THEY ARE SOME OF THE GAME'S greatest names. Question is, are they more name than game? A poll of more than 40 major league players, coaches, managers and general managers, along with some of the baseball writers who cover them, revealed that even a two-time Most Valuable Player like Juan Gonzalez can be considered over-rated.

So can some of the game's true icons, most notably, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. By the same token, a player can appear in All-Star Games and still be under-rated, at least in terms of public perception and appreciation.

We're not just talking about a shortage of publicity, either. No matter how many times the media points out that an Edgar Martinez or Vladimir Guerrero warrants much more attention, for prime examples, neither seems to get his full due.

But among the scores of baseball people polled over the course of two months last summer, there was a consensus. Just one:

Alfonzo.

New York Mets second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo was mentioned by virtually everybody as the game's most under-rated player, even if he did play in last year's All-Star Game. No matter how ludicrous it sounds, too, to suggest that anybody could play for a Big Apple team and be under-hyped. "(Mike) Piazza gets all the attention in New York," said one manager, "but Alfonzo's the one who makes the Mets successful."