re: What makes Rod Carew so nondescript compared with other baseball greats?

That was a decently regarded team, in 1977, they had a winning record and some notable players in Carew, SP Dave Goltz, C Butch Wynegar, SS Roy Smally, 3B Mike Cubbage, OF Lyman Bostock (who was killed a couple years later), Larry Hisle, with a couple good relievers, too.

To be fair, I had almost all these guys baseball cards off the bottom of my Hostess Twinkies and King Dons' boxes.