My All-Stars
I wasn’t planning on putting up my picks for the All-Star Game this year, but I’ve found myself with a little unexpected free time, and what better way to spend it than by writing about 68 players who will spend between 5 and 60 minutes playing in an exhibition game next week?
As you will see, I lean a bit more towards 2010 performance than true talent level as I believe guys who are having big first halves should be rewarded, however, both are factors. Oh, and if you’re wondering who got bumped so that I could make the game more entertaining by putting Strasburg on the roster, the last guy cut was Matt Belisle. Raise your hand if you’d rather watch him pitch than Strasburg? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my picks for the game.
American League
Starters
C – Joe Mauer, Minnesota
1B – Justin Morneau, Minnesota
2B – Robinson Cano, New York
SS – Elvis Andrus, Texas
3B – Adrian Beltre, Boston
LF – Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay
CF – Alex Rios, Chicago
RF – Josh Hamilton, Texas
DH – Vladimir Guerrero, Texas
SP – Cliff Lee, Seattle
Reserves:
C – Kurt Suzuki, Oakland; Carlos Santana, Cleveland
1B – Miguel Cabrera, Detroit; Kevin Youkilis, Boston
2B – Ben Zobrist, Tampa Bay
SS – Derek Jeter, New York; Alex Gonzalez, Toronto
3B – Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay; Michael Young, Texas
OF – Franklin Gutierrez, Seattle; Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle; David DeJesus, Kansas City; Nick Markakis, Baltimore
SP – Francisco Liriano, Minnesota; Jered Weaver, Anaheim; Jon Lester, Boston; Felix Hernandez, Seattle; Justin Verlander, Detroit; Phil Hughes, New York; Clay Buchholz, Boston; David Price, Tampa Bay
RP: Matt Thornton, Chicago; Mariano Rivera, New York; Darren Oliver, Texas
National League
Starters
C – Miguel Olivo, Colorado
1B – Joey Votto, Cincinnati
2B – Martin Prado, Atlanta
SS – Hanley Ramirez, Florida
3B – David Wright, New York
LF – Matt Holliday, St. Louis
CF – Andres Torres, San Francisco
RF – Jayson Werth, Philadelphia
DH – Albert Pujols, St. Louis
SP – Roy Halladay, Philadelphia
Reserves
C – Brian McCann; Atlanta; Geovany Soto, Chicago
1B – Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
2B – Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati; Dan Uggla, Florida; Kelly Johnson, Arizona
SS – Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles
3B – Ryan Zimmerman, Washington; Scott Rolen, Cincinnati
OF – Josh Willingham, Washington; Marlon Byrd, Chicago; Colby Rasmus, St. Louis
SP – Josh Johnson, Florida; Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado; Yovanni Gallarado, Milwaukee; Adam Wainwright, St. Louis; Roy Oswalt, Houston; Jaime Garcia, St. Louis; Stephen Strasburg, Washington
RP: Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles; Luke Gregerson, San Diego; Brian Wilson, San Francisco; Evan Meek, Pittsburgh
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Love your NL OF. Starters and reserves. Good deserving choices.
Torres in CF? He’s hitting .275 with 3 HRs. Andrew McCutchen is hitting .299 with 7 HRs. They also have about the same BABIP. Torres has better defense, but it isn’t THAT much better.
McCutchen is one of the game’s best young players, and has done nothing but hit since being called up last year. If we are looking specifically at CF, there is no one better in the NL than McCutchen.
How convenient that you mention the two statistical categories that McCutchen is superior in and not the other, more significant, ones that he is, such as OBP and OPS. I love McCutchen as a player and if I were starting a team, I was gladly choose him over Torres as my everyday centerfielder. But let’s not punish Torres for being a career journeyman minor leaguer and rather reward him for his fine first half in which he had to force his way into the lineup. Also, according to UZR, Torres is blowing McCutchen away on defense. It’s not as close as you make it out to be.
Don’t know if this is a problem at my end or not, but I’m seeing Phil Hughes listed as a Boston pitcher instead of a new York pitcher.
Yeah, it’s definitely on your end. You must have one of those computers that changes the words New York into Boston.
That was a typo – thanks for catching it.
No Lincecum and no Pujols? I think Lincecum deserves to be there more than Strasburg.
Wow, disregard the Pujols portion of that comment.
Pujols is the DH.
I left Lincecum off because its probably in everyones best interest that he doesn’t pitch in the game. This is a guy with a legendarily high workload whose been steadily losing velocity and now is having problems throwing strikes. He could use a break. If I’m the Giants, I might DL him for two weeks even if he isn’t hurt, just to give his arm some rest.
In terms of deserving, sure, he’s earned it more than Strasburg. But, just like I left off all the other guys who couldn’t play in the game, I skipped him too, because he probably shouldn’t be wasting pitches in an exhibition game right now.
By that logic you shouldn’t have Hughes on there anyways. The Yankees want to give him rest since he’s on innings limits. I’d like to see both Hughes and Lincecum make it and just not pitch.
If the Yankees say “Hughes isn’t pitching”, then they can just send Pettitte instead. I don’t see any point wasting a roster spot on a guy who can’t participate.
Quick question: as far as “wasted spots go” I thought it was like the Pro Bowl where guys make it and just don’t go and the manager just selects another guy? Am I wrong?
That’s true, but I just didn’t bother including those guys in the first place. The roster above is only healthy guys who can play. I just made a roster with all the substitutions already included.
I do believe Mr. Choo has just gone on the DL as well with a thumb injury.
Yep, you’re right. I’ll make a change. Thanks.
Love the addition of Santana as a replacement for Choo. As far as Indians go, he’s the most deserving. Do you think it could actually happen? I’m worried it’s going to be Carmona…
I don’t think Roy halladay’s ability to pitch an inordinate number of innings should merit him an all star start. What makes an all star game starter is up to opinion though, I suppose
How about his ability to be the best pitcher alive?
Pedro Martinez hasn’t died yet.
neither has nolan ryan
Neither Pedro Martinez nor Nolan Ryan are better than Roy Halladay right now. Stop being silly.
He said best living pitcher so I decided to be a smartass about it. I’m sorry, I can’t help my smartass genetics. It’s a burden!
you sure about nolan ryan not being better right now than halladay, im not so sure
@pirate – Nolan Ryan wasn’t that good.
No Andy Pettitte, no Ricky Romero, no Mat Latos, no Troy Tulowitzki? I’d love to see Adam Dunn in the HR derby.
Pettitte was one of the last SP cut. He’s a bubble guy. I don’t see him having a better year than any of the ones I selected. Romero pitched himself off the team today. Latos is having a good year, but not any better than the non-Strasburg starters I picked, and I laid out my reasons for him being on the team already. Tulowitzki is hurt.
I forgot Tulowtizki was hurt, he is on my fantasy team…I can’t believe I missed that…good list though.
I understand your subbing in of Strasburg over Belisle, but if anyone were to replace Belisle, I would have to argue it’d be Latos. 9th in FIP, 8th in xFIP, 1st in WHIP, 7th in K/BB… the list goes on and on.
I get why you amended Stras onto the roster, but I strongly disagree with it. At 22 years of age, Latos has quietly been one of the most dominant pitchers in the NL for almost the entire season, and absolutely deserves to go to the All-Star Game.
Granted, Hoyer and co. probably would not let him pitch, per his inning limits.
@Harbinger
BELISLE?
My bad, didn’t realize Belisle was mentioned in the article. I’m as big of a Belsile fanboy as there is, but many other pitchers deserve to be in the ASG over him
I’d also put Gardner, Swisher, Crawford, Wells, and Drew over Ichiro! too.
I have Crawford starting over Ichiro. It’s basically impossible to justify any of the other four over Ichiro unless you ignore defense, which you shouldn’t.
I didn’t look at the advanced defensive metrics as it’s way too early to look at UZR in a sample size this small…I was under the impression that they all had reputations as plus defenders. But it is Ichiro! he’s almost impossible to keep off the All Star team.
If Alex Gonzalez had an AL-leading 14 HR and 42 RBI for any other team other than the Blue Jays he’d be hailed as a lock for the All-Star Game, and would start if it wasn’t a popularity contest for Derek Jeter.
As well, the versatile Jose Bautista deserves serious consideration. He’s leading MLB in HRs at the moment and despite a negative UZR he plays a very good RF and has an incredible arm. His ability to play 7 positions really helps you round out the roster.
I’d put either Gonzalez or Jeter as the starter ahead of Andrus, though all three are all-starts. The thing is, Jeter will likely be in every ASG from now until he retires by virtue of his career accomplishments. We’ve seen this before with Cal, Griffy and plenty of other players. I’ll give you it would be nice to start Gonzalez since he’ll probably never sniff the starter’s position again.
I’d put Jose Bautista on the AL roster as well. I don’t care what his BA is – that .887 OPS gets him on my roster.
Also, I’ve got no personal stake in Josh Johnson but I don’t see how he can be denied as the NL starter.
I understand Franklin Gutierrez is a wonder defensively, but his bat keeps him from deserving this spot. Now, now.
Valverde and his 2 earned runs says hi. Also missing is Brennan Boesch.
Dave,
You suck.
P.S. I hate you.
Paul,
Go away.
P.S. You’re not funny.
If Brennan Boesch was a ballyhooed prospect, he’d be on this team. But because people didn’t expect a lot, he’s not on the team – the stat heads would rather sit back and root for the regression (duh) if not the collapse.
It’s like college football – your pre-season reputation matters, even though it really shouldn’t.
i’ve gotta go with the full season dominance of mat latos over the few weeks of strasburgmania. oh and you spelt yovani’s first…and last (gallardo) name wrong. i agree with the choice there though.
It boils down to this – Latos doesn’t make it because he didn’t have the advanced billing that Strasburg did. And yeah, that’s silly.
I guess Dave forgot his own argument. Who would you rather see… The exciting slugger Brennan Boesch or the excellent fielder Franklin Gutierrez?
You have to be kidding if you’re not going to start Jimenez in the NL….Halladay’s been good….but give the kid the nod on this one…
Ubaldo Jimenez? xFIP of 3.74… having a perfectly ordinary year here. Should he even make the team? Hard to say. Remember, we’re talking about REAL pitching performance here, not how often the cherries came up when he pulled the slot machine lever.
I hope that felt amazing to type out
http://i30.tinypic.com/2rfzlhl.jpg
As a Nats fan, I’d love to see Zimmerman, Willingham and Strasburg make it but I sadly don’t think it’s going to happen.
What is the logic in Andrus (.329 wOBA/1.8 WAR) over Jeter (.339 wOBA/2.0 WAR)?
I don’t disagree that much, but Jeter has been better, no?
Possibly defense?
If Andrus had been more valuable because of defense, yeah. But he hasn’t. Even with superior def. he’s been less valuable. Not sure what Dave’s logic is with this particular selection.
Better question is what’s the logic in Andrus over Gonzalez. Especially when Dave argues that he’s favouring 2010 production over true talent levels. Funny as it sounds, Gonzalez has been the best SS in the AL and he does deserve to start. Even over Jeter.
Did Pagan not make it because he’s slightly banged, or because he’s not as big of a name as Rasmus and Werth?
Thank you for including Ichiro (and Guti)! I know it’s not just because you’re a Seattle guy! I’ve noticed that when other people make their All-star lists (Fox Sports, SI, ESPN) they leave Ichiro out, so thanks for at least doing reserves! Also, I would probably include Pettitte over Hughes.
By all means include on the AL roster defense only guys, because that’s worked out so well for Seattle… as usual contradicts your argument for fans’ interest, especially with regard to Andrus and Gutierrez. Absurd.
And Santana, really? Less than 100 plate appearances and an All Star? Reminds me of the BP projection of an historic MVP season for Weiters last year. FG is better than this.
I agree (and apologize for downvoting — misclicked the “reply” link) to a large degree. I don’t understand how you take both Ichiro and Gutierrez over both Magglio and Boesch; and then take Werth and Rasmus over Pagan.
Don’t get me wrong. I think Ichiro is a no-brainer. And I think all the picks Dave makes are independently justifiable. But I can’t see how you take Guti and not Pagan.
Thornton may be deserving but how many set up men have gone to the All Star game?
If Ludwick weren’t hurt, would he have made the cut? And if so, who would he replace?
Where is Jose Reyes?
It’s July, so probably on the DL.
ZING!
I only have one issue with both rosters, and I’m not sure who should be left off for him because I think every choice is deserving, but Matt Latos couldn’t be any better or more deserving of a spot.
Not one Braves pitcher on the NL staff? Hudson and Wagner absolutely deserve a spot. As unsustainable as Huddy’s numbers may be, he HAS posted those numbers thus far. He also outdueled a young man named Strasburg, and it wasn’t even close! Wagner has just been lights out all year.
This is the ‘could’ve been’ sabremetric all star team where what should have happened replaces what actually did happen.
The results are the results, whether they are not sustainable or pure ‘luck’ they still occurred. People continue to use forward looking stats and models to replace actual performance. FIP and xFIP are PREDICTIVE stats. Similarly you have to be careful using WAR for position player as it can get completely dominated by UZR fluctuations in a 1/2 season sample size.
“People continue to use forward looking stats and models to replace actual performance. FIP and xFIP are PREDICTIVE stats.”
Couldn’t disagree more. xFIP is a great – much better than ERA – way of describing how well the pitcher has PITCHED (as well as a predictor moving forward). Are you telling me that Livan Hernandez has pitched better than anyone in the National League, because, well, look at his numbers? You are on this site and you would still say such a thing? It sounds like it.
Tim Hudson with his 4.29 xFIP has been the 28th best starting pitcher in the NL this year. He deserves to go to the AS game when the team grows to about a hundred players. (Which should be in about 2015 at the current rate.)
I can see one gloring omission. Where is Brennan Boesch? He may only be a rookie, but he is having one hell of a year!!
Andres Torres ftw!
if only the Giants would play him more in center, sighhhh
Andres Torres? Please stop it.
Torres over McCutchen? welllllllllhmmmmmmmmmnotsomuch
How does Santana who has been in the majors for 1 month make it over Posada?
Really? Andres Torres in the OF an no Andrew Mccutchen? Also, Santana and Strasburg get nods? I ask you this, what is the point of the All-star game in your mind Mr. Cameron? A display or a reward or something else entirely?
LOL Carlos Santana. If we put people in the All Star game after 67 ABs then Chris Davis deserves an All Star nod.
Or better yet, name Mike Stanton to the game since a lot of these selections are based on blind hype rather then actual statistical worth.
LOL Torres over McCutchen.
LOL Soto over anyone
LOL Albert Pujols at DH
LOL Ben Zobrist
LOL You.
Seriously. Could you make a more useless and obviously uninformed post?
Torres has been better than Cutch this year, when taking his outstanding defense into account. It hasn’t really been close.
Soto has been an OBP machine in a year where the ‘normal’ catching choices are having down years. Mostly Y. Molina.
Votto ‘has’ had a slightly better year than Albert to date. If the NL needs to have a DH, one of the two of them should be it. No real beef with that call.
What’s wrong with the Ben Zobrist selection? What second baseman could you possibly justify taking instead of him except ‘maybe’ Ty Wiggington as the Orioles lone rep?
Come on now, if you’re going to mindlessly spam ‘LOL’ like a 4chan reject, at least make reasonable points.
Santana makes it at catcher simply because Cleveland needs a representative, and Choo is hurt.
I agree with (most) of the choices, though I’d give a spot to Latos over Strasburg. Count me in the boat that would rather see a deserving pitcher get a spot over a hyped prospect without a ton of success to his name at the MLB level.
Josh Johnson should be the starting NL pitcher.
I agree that Torres is an All-Star this season, but I’d still start Colby in Center if I was constructing the lineup. UZR hasn’t treated Rasmus well this year, but if you look at the (inflated?) UZR’s of Holliday and Ludwick, you could argue for shading bias of some sort.
As for the American League, I think you’re deluding yourself by including Guti as an All-Star, this year, at least. Is it close? Yes. But I’d still take Vernon Wells of Maggilo Ordonez over him. Probably Ordonez.
WILLINGHAM over HOLLIDAY:
2010 performance: .409 wOBA, 8th in the entire league vs. Holliday’s .383.
True talent: .90 BB/K (2nd best overall BB%) vs. .69, .233 ISO vs. .197, 5.4 SPD vs. 4.6.
Willingham has a better batting eye, hits the ball harder, and runs the bases faster.
But is WAR all that matters? Well, Holliday only leads because of fielding, and since true talent matters here, we should call for a three year avg. UZR/150 divided by two (since we’re at the halfway mark in the season). This gives Willingham a 30.8 WAR vs. 28.9.
But fans want to see Holliday over Willingham
RYAN VON WILLINGZIMDUNHAMM
I was using Dave’s criteria in the article.
“Come on now, if you’re going to mindlessly spam ‘LOL’ like a 4chan reject, at least make reasonable points.”
Here’s a reasonable point: Andres Torres deserves to be an All-Star based on a half-year UZR sample? LOL. Congrats on (arguably) outperforming McCutchen over the span of 12 weeks, can you imagine how laughable that selection would look 10 years from now?
Hello Voxx, you mentioned in rebutting the guy who made the comment that McCutchen should be in over Torres that Torres has been better and it hasn’t even been close. I respectfully disagree. After an 0-4 game yesterday, McCutchen still has a triple slash of .299/.379/.450 to Torres’ .274/.374/.445. That clearly gives a slight edge with the bat to McCutchen. On stealing bases, I’d take Torres’ 15 steals and 3 caughts over McCutchen’s 20 steals and 6 caughts, and the part of the WAR formula for baserunning bears it out, giving an extremely slight edge of .1 WAR to Torres Fielding wise, the edge goes to Voxx obviously. In WAR they are a measly.2 apart overall, though I’d potentially argue that it should be a .3 or .4 edge in WAR for Torres because McCutchen has gained a .1 WAR advantage for playing all games in Center and Torres has played every outfield position and therefore lost .1 due to WARs positional scarcity component. In conclusion, I agree that it seems that Torres should be in over McCutchen based on stats, but I wouldn’t say it isn’t even close, I’d say it is very close. If the LOL dude was a bit smarter, he would have chose his target better, and said Byrd over McCutchen, LOL, because you can probably argue that case a little better and maybe even have a slight edge in argument due to McCutchen’s decent edge in OBP and comparative fielding skills by metrics. but then if he was smart even to pick the right target he probably would have talked more intelligently on other things.
Just saying who would you pick over Zobrist isn’t an intellectual thing to say, the thing to say is something similar to “Pedroia is hurt and the next guy in line after him is Zobrist in WAR. Then since the guy seems not to be that intellectual you don’t have to worry about him making an intelligent argument for Kinsler, a guy you could make a reasonable if not great argument deserves to make it over Zobrist. Zobrist has only played 20 games this year at 2nd, and he is BARELY ahead of Kinsler in WAR (by .1), due to Kinsler’s obviously superior offensive numbers with a triple slash of .299/.402/.412 to Zobrist’s .288/.374/.404. Completely ignoring people like Kinsler is not something an “informed” baseball person would do.
The other two things the guy said, about Soto and Votto, I won’t go into detail at all, because I completely agree that they are having good seasons, but you should have used data at least to support yourself, this is Fangraphs for Pete’s sake.
The guy who did the LOLs had an uninformed post, but you as well by not stating data had a post devoid of good Fangraphs material as well.
You’re right of course, and normally I ‘would’ have been a bit more detailed in some of my reasoning – I was simply replying a bit in kind, which I really shouldn’t have stooped to, and I apologize.
I like the Zobrist selection largely on his positional flexibility and outstanding defense, when compared to Kinsler. You’re right, I shouldn’t have outright ignored him, but I do like the Zobrist selection there, even if I’d have no real complaint with Kinsler being selected, removing park bias.
The way I worded the Torres argument wasn’t perhaps the best – I hadn’t realized Cutch’s defensive metrics were as high as they were, I was under the impression that Torres was closer to a full win higher rather than a partial win. I’d still rather take Torres, and everyone bashing that selection simply would rather look at more data than half a season.
I respect that, of course – but I weight current season performance slightly higher than long term for this exhibition. Consistently great players get their spots – guys that have been outstanding for partial seasons get their due this way.
To be fair, his defensive value IS around a full win higher this year, (1,1 to be exact) but for some reason WAR rates McCutchen’s offensive game to be about half a win higher than Torres, despite how close the OPS and SLG are for both. I’m sorry if I made it seem like Cutch was very close in fielding, I meant there overall WAR from everything was within .2 before the positional adjustment, not their fielding. As I said, I’m just saying that I don’t think that Torres over McCutchen is a topic not even worth examining some of the finer points of the debate.
Whoops, that’s what I get when I use baseball-reference instead of Fangraphs for my WAR stats, sorry about that, Torres actually is a full win over McCutchen overall at this point of the season overall. Owning up to my mistake, sorry for the bad info, carry on.
Anyone who says Strasburg deserves a spot in the All-Star game has no business writing articles. What has he done his 1st four weeks that’s better than everyone else’s last 4 weeks? He even failed to meet his projected first 4 week total. To say Strasburg deserves a spot over guys like Kershaw means your putting him in because your obsessed with the flavor of the month. He’s 2-2 and had yet to go a single game without giving up at least 1 earned run. Only a guy like Strasburg can fail to meet his high 1st four week expectations while playing more weak teams than good teams and people think the player is deserving to be in the All-Star game. Wait until good teams face him a second time around before acting like he’s deserving of an All-Star spot.
Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
Really, using wins to judge how good a player has played and downgrade him and stating that his last 4 weeks aren’t as good as other pitchers last 4 weeks. You really are on Fangraphs? Apparently a 5.3 K/BB rate, with a 13 K/9 rate, a 1.77 FIP and a xFIP of 1.88 is not better than anyone else when looked at together. Apparently the White Sox and the Royals are weak teams and easy to strike out. Wait, they the 1st and 2nd LEAST amount of K’s in the entire league according to the numbers? The Royals have the highest BA in the league? So what, there record’s are not good so these so called numbers are completely useless, a record tells you how good a team is at the plate after all, and pitching and defense don’t determine games. I might not agree with people who say that Strasburg shouldn’t be in the all-star game because he hasn’t paid his dues, but at least that is a better defense of why he shouldn’t be in the game than the he hasn’t done amazing excuse. To say otherwise is to make oneself look like a fool.
Matt, I think the point is that the fans would like it. The All-Star game is supposed to be for the fans, which is why we get to vote on the starters. I don’t think you can deny that Strasburg has very quickly become one of the most popular players in the game, and if given the chance, the fans would vote him in. And, everybody knows he’s good, just look at his pitches. Those are two of the main criteria for selecting all-stars.
That being said, I agree that he should not be in this game. I too have become one of his bigger fans, and I hope he goes on to have a HOF-worth career. But another criteria for selecting all-stars, and perhaps the most important one, is 2010 season. Strasburg has been good, but other guys have been good over the whole season. Joey Votto, Mat Latos and Jaime Garcia come to mind. These guys have been good enough to make the all-star team, and so they should be on the team. If in future years, if Strasburg performs at his current level or higher over the entire first half, he should make the team. For now though, he should not be on the team.
“He’s 2-2”
Does anyone know what this “2-2” refers to? Strasburg is 2 feet 2 inches tall maybe? He knows how to Texas Two-Step perhaps? I know that on other sites that might refer to an archaic, hilarious anachronism from the 1890s wherein a team’s victories and defeats were lumped entirely on the pitcher’s shoulders – despite the fact that the starting pitcher contributes a minor fraction of the variance toward the team winning or losing.
But that couldn’t be the case on fangraphs, where readers are actually dwelling in the 21st century and have zillions of better ways of describing how a pitcher has performed. So, does anyone know what “Strasburg is 2-2” might mean?
Andres Torres does not deserve to be on the team let alone starting. If you want an Andre…how bout Andre Ethier?
Haha I’d love to see people vote Beltre in before Longo
Wait, are you being sarcastic? Cuz you’re acting like it’s not even close. Either side can be argued effectively.
Me too, because Beltre is having a better season. The only things Longoria is doing better than Beltre thus far are his baserunning, his walks and his errors.
Beltre is getting on base more, slugging higher, getting more hits, has the same home runs and is fielding better. Longoria’s getting more RBI, but he’s also generally been batting higher in the order. Beltre is, definitively, having a better year than Longoria. Both of them deserve to be there, by all means, but Beltre is statistically more deserving from just about every angle.
seriously though, no Valverde?
How is Gardner not mentioned?
Nick Markakis a reserve? Really?
Markakis is a .823 OPS player with and would have been decent representative for the O’s. He’s had a pretty decent track record too, with 4 straight seasons of .800 OPS and has unremarkable advanced fielding metrics for his career, (UZR has him at 3 for his career in RF, his most common position). Good hitter, not bad fielder, 4 for his career in his speed score, seems to be a good if not all-star caliber player. Add that to the fact that he plays for Baltimore, who’s representative ended up being Ty Wiggington, and I don’t think it’s worth complaining about this guys lineup having Markakis on it.
they should start Brian Roberts’ herniated disc
or perhaps Garrett Atkins
Dear Everyone –
Saying something like “NAME – Really?” is not conducive to conversation. WHY do you disagree. WHO do you think is more deserving? Use some form of logic besides simply saying a name and questioning it as though the author of this article has some incentive to defend themselves with you, especially since most likely you are the one that is wrong.
~Everyone Else
Sorry I forgot text was hard to convey tones, my “Really?” would probably better have been typed as “Really!” – as in an expression of surprise, as I would have considered Markakis as slightly underwhelming (at least underwhelming compared to what some expectations of him were).
Didn’t mean to come off as standoffish/critical – merely surprised
I like the Andres Torres pick… he’s absolutely unheralded.
However, what’s the justification for starting him over Marlon Byrd?
Seems to me that Byrd has overwhelmed him offensively while playing stellar defense, and has amounted more WAR.
While we’re at it on the WAR front, why not Aubrey Huff as an outfielder?
Huff has accumulated more WAR than Jayson Werth or Colby Rasmus, and I can personally attest that he’s earned the surprisingly favorable defense metrics he’s been awarded thus far this season.
I commend you for not giving Tim Lincecum the easy vote. I’d love, though, to see Mat Latos in the game — he’s one of the major reasons San Diego is where they are, and I’d say he’s been more valuable to his team by a long shot than, say, Brian Wilson.
My editorial is this: I wish we didn’t treat DH as a position. It’s not; it’s a ninth batter. And I’d rather see Miguel Cabrera and Justin Morneau both starting in that AL line-up than Vladimir Guerrero.
Actually, Torres is slightly above Byrd on the WAR front at 3.2 a piece this year with Torres providing 31.6 RAR and Byrd providing 31. If you are going to use the WAR argument though and argue for Huff over Rasmus and Werth, you should also not forget Angel, Ludwick, Soriano, and Chris Young, as they are both above those two as well. I know you might not be advocating those players to go, but if you are going to use one stat as an indicator for your player to go over another, you need to see what else just using that one stat would do overall. Just my 2 cents.
where is ryan braun? Even you mentioned you factor in overall ability. Braun has proven to have the best bat in the NL OF. Sure his slug is down in the first half, but you can’t be serious?
No David Ortiz? Since April 1 he has a 1033 OPS with 16 HR and 172 AB. That’s a bat I want off the bench.
Darren Oliver -a good 36 IP against some pretty weak opponents for the most part does not make him all start material. Think of it, if UZR is SSS at this point, what is 36 IP for a pitcher.
And you want 3 SS with the terrible options offensively available? And pass on Kinslers 404 OBP at 2B (going with 0 backups)
Your reserve OF’ers are all defensive specialists with no power. This is Mariner and NL thinking. You need power to win these games, which is why the AL has dominated in the past 10 years or. Bautista needs to be in there somehow.
And Markakis and his 4 HR over JD Drew or Nick Swisher? Understood that the Orioles need a representative, so pick Berken over Oliver (neither of whom should pitch).
And Santana with his 70 AB and Suziki and his 308 OBP get the nod over Napoli? Really?
Weak as it is, I like Girardis team better.
Why did you leave Jimmy Gobble off the list?
Morgan Ensberg would like a word
Having guys like Carlos Santana and Strasburg is just ridiculous. They’ve been in the league for ONE MONTH. I understand people really liking these guys, but take a fucking break already will ya? They’ve been playing for…ready?…i’ll say it again…ONE MONTH! If they’re all-stars, then you’re entirely batshit crazy. I don’t care HOW good they are.
Maybe this was already pointed out, but I’m not going to commit to reading 100 posts to find it. But you made your job a ton easier by not taking the fans selections to start the game. If you’re going to do that, why don’t you just skip the whole one team represented rule while you’re at it, because truly no Pirates or Astros player deserves to go.
Still… Manuel and Girardi took a slightly harder job than you had, and made it look like they had an algebra test on their hands (not even going to give them credit for Trig or Calc). This process, which gains players lots of value in salary, bonuses and career merit… and MLB gains value in the game itself, is becoming more and more of a joke every year.
It’s just not that hard. You look who has the best numbers over three months and you pick them. Some guys get left off, but as long as you don’t pick Omar Infante you can just shrug your shoulders, and say you did the best job you could.
A question… who’s your DH after Pujols leaves? Uggla? or do you just let Pujols take 5 hacks?
Anybody else notice that in all this Matt Thornton love, he’s on the team even though he’s got 6 meltdowns? No, thanks. I’ll take Rafael Soriano, who is leading the AL in WPA amongst relievers and only 1 meltdown. I’m just sayin’. It’s your guys’ own stat.
Gutierrez and DeJesus over Hunter? Why?
Everything looks good except Infante is snubbed from the NL team. That’s a pretty big mistake.
My god. Until just now, I didn’t realize that Andres Torres was the same Andres Torres that was ridicubad for the Tigers like seven years ago, fighting Ben Petrick for PAs. Crazy game.
Nice list, By the way.
Charlie Manuel lost his mind! The all-star Results were insulting!!!!!!!!! Uggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
And I just counted again because something looked wrong… but you know you shorted the NL team by one player, right?
How close was Carlos Gonzalez to making it on your squad?
Has Franklin Gutierrez done a thing since this was written? Oh I forgot, Cameron is a Seattle fan who worships at the alter of defense. I thought making outs and slugging under .400 was a bad thing.
Pretty sharp post. Never thinking that it was this simple after all. I had passed a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this case clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up