This year's teams bay be the least objectionable I've seen in years. There's no catchers batting under .250, or absurd personal choices by coaches who want their own guys. Ryan Howard/Ben Zobrist may not be the best players, but one could make arguments for them making the team.
I only have a few players on my list who really don't have any business being in this game:
Jason Marquis - he has 10 wins, he must be having a good year! Which he is, but not All-Star good. Javier Vasquez, Jair Jurrjens, Yovanni Gallardo?
Yadier Molina - One of the most consistently overrated players in baseball. Pablo Sandoval (4th in the NL in hitting)?
Ryan Howard - defensible, but he's still hitting .250, and Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder are already reserves at this position, and both are having much better years.
I don't have any major issues with the AL rosters. It's hard to argue with these choices. Joe Maddon gave another example of why he's such a genius, crafting perhaps the best All-Star roster he could.
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4 comments:
miguel cabrera is single handly keeping the tigers offense going enough to let them lead the al central, imo he is the player who is most valuable to his team in the entire AL ... yet kevin youkilis is going (.301 avg, 14 hr, 47 rbi) instead of miguel (.323 avg,16 hr, 47 rbi) ... youk is a good player but has loads of talent around him ... miguel is an absolute stud and is left home
You make some great points Snow. But Youkilis has both a higher OBP and a higher SLG percentage.
Any disparities in counting stats (Runs/RBI/HR/2B/TB) is mostly due to the fact that Youkilis has played in 12 fewer games.
Youkilis is also a better fielder, at both 1st and 3rd.
Miguel Cabrera's a great player, but no, he doesn't deserve to be in over Youkilis.
i counter with the idea that cabrera is the only reason the tigers offense might make the playoffs ... granderson has sucked and doesnt deserve to be an all star ... inge is a chump and i fully expect him to finish below .250 avg ... youkilis is one of many in a great offense .... cabrera has absolutly no protection... also pena is on the final vote at 1b with over 100 Ks and like a .220? avg
but it's not youkilis's fault that he has other good hitters in his lineup. Why should he be punished for what team he's on?
Pena's OBP is .365, not far behind Cabrera's .383 (18 points isn't small, but ain't large). And they have identical slugging percentages. Any disadvantage he has at the plate is more than made up for with his far superior glove. I hate all the K's, but I'll live with them.
Granderson is on pace for a 30 HR/25 SB season. And his OBP is good, and he's a tremendous fielder, outstanding really.
It's hard to argue against Miguel Cabrera as an All-Star, he's really one of my favorite hitters, but he moves and fields terribly.
While Inge hasn't won the final vote yet (Kinsler is ahead right now), he's definitely worthy of it. Look at his 19 HR's, his 360 on base, and 510 slugging, and he's also an incredible fielder.
And the more I look at it, the more the argument of "Caberea's the only hitter on that team" holds no weight. Inge is on pace for 30-35 HR's, Granderson's pretty good at the plate (his BABIP is also 60 points below his norm, look for some rebound in his average). Outside of those 3, the offense is terrible though. I'll give you that.
And by the way, the idea of "protection" is largely overrated. At best it fluctuates the average about 5 points, and may cause about 20 points in change in slugging. And these types of fluctuations can also be made with anything from the weather to injuries to luck. Most of the effects are in the arbitrary stat of RBI.
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