What Are Your Baseball All-Star Selections?

June 19, 2002 | Charlie Henrickson

[Charles Henrickson]

Thirty players on each side, at least one player from each team, starters listed first:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Catcher:
Mike "Deep Dish" Piazza
Damian "The Omen" Miller

First Base:
Todd "Stayin' at the" Helton
Richie Sexson "The City"

Second Base:
Jose "In" Vidro
Luis "They Call Him 'The Streak'" Castillo

Shortstop:
Jimmy Rollins
Jose Hernandez

Third Base:
Mike Lowell
Edgardo Alfonzo

Outfield:
Barry "U.S." Bonds
Sammy Sosa
Jim Edmonds
Vladimir Guerrero
Luis "Gummo" Gonzalez
"The Life of" Brian Giles
Larry "Sky" Walker
Andruw "I Got a Baseball" Jones

Pitcher:
Tom Glavine
Curt "Half" Schilling
Randy Johnson
Matt Morris
Greg Maddux
Roy Oswalt
Byung-Hyun "A Slider" Kim
Eric "Vern" Gagne
Jason Isringhausen
Danny "Unmarked" Graves
Robb Nen
Trevor Hoffman

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Catcher:
"Jorgeous" Jorge Posada
A. J. "That Part Was Easy" Pierzynski

First Base:
Jason Giambi "Hind in My Payments"
Paul Konerko "The Dots"
Mike "Itsy Bitsy Teeny" Sweeney

Second Base:
Alfonso "Say You're" Soriano
Ray "Chicago Bull" Durham

Shortstop:
Alex "A+ Rod" Rodriquez
Nomar "Tears" Garciaparra
Omar "He's a Hitmaker, Too" Vizquel
Derek "Four Shortstops? Yes!" Jeter

Third Base:
Eric Chavez "Ravine"
Tony Batista

Outfield:
Ichiro Suzuki "Method"
Bernie "Down the House" Williams
Torii "Loyalist" Hunter
Johnny "Notre" Damon
"Artist's" Garrett Anderson
Randy "On a Team That Can't" Winn
Rob "Gotta Have a Tiger" Fick

Pitcher:
Derek "His ERA Is" Lowe
Bartolo "Semi" Colon
Mark Buehrle
Pedro "Dry" Martinez
Barry Zito
Freddy Garcia
Roy "Roman" Halladay
Ugueth "Yewz" Urbina
Kaz Sasaki
Eddie Guadardo

[Charles Henrickson]

OK, now, let's hear your choices. Also, I can defend my selections, omissions, etc., if you like. Post your stuff. I'm be going to the Cardinals-Angels game soon, so I'll be able to write some more when I get back.

[Charles Henrickson]

Ping.

[Charles Henrickson]

Baseball ping.

[Slip18]

National League: The whole darned Diamondback team!

Sorry, I'm prejudiced. But aren't we great?

I'm hoping the Angels and the Diamondbacks battle it out in the World Series. There would be some fabulous games, and only six hours driving apart.

[andysandmikesmom]

Well, I dont really follow much baseball, except for our Seattle Mariners...

And you have already named my pick for the outfield, our wonderful 'Ichiro'...a fine outfielder, and hes a great hitter, no doubt about that, and an even greater hitter, with men on base...

I am an avid 'Ichiro' fan, no doubt about it...

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Sorry, I'm prejudiced. But aren't we great?

Wow! You're a Diamondback. What position do you play? /sarcasm

[Willie Green]

Alex "A+ Rod" Rodriquez

I thought JimRob banned A+Rod.

[Slip18]

I play a major league role. I watch the games! LOL!

[Slip18]

No, Willie. That was Bert and Ernie.

[Willie Green]

No, Willie. That was Bert and Ernie.

Well, they must be related, somehow.
"A+" isn't a very common surname... not like "Green" anyhow.
I bet they're cousins.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Here is a list of AL catchers with at least 100 ABs and with better batting avgs than Jorge Posada.

A.J. Pierzynski, .323
Dan Wilson, .300
Sandy Alomar jr., .287
Jason Varitek, .271
Benjie Molina, .271
Tom Wilson, .262
(Ben Davis with 98 ABs is hitting .276)

That is an old fashioned argument for several players being above Posada in the All Star race.

If you look at OPS though he is clearly only behind Pierzynski.

OPS for AL Catchers
A.J. Pierzynski, .872
Posada .845
The next closest is Tom Wilson with a .776 and it drops off pretty rapidly from there, not to mention most other Catchers are not playing nearly as much as Posada and P-ski. They all have caught much fewer games than those two except for Benjie Molina but his OBP is only .289 which is lousy and barely more than his Batting avg.

It's clear that Dan Wilson is having a comeback year this year and Varitek is clearly a very good catcher, but Posada and P-ski are by far the best two catchers in the AL this year and Posada's HR advantage, 10-4 over P-ski, makes him a notch above P-ski in many people's eyes but that is debatable due to the closeness of their OPS values.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

If you have to have a Tiger I go with Jeff Weaver over Fick because Weaver is just victimized by his run support and is a very good pitcher. He's not relying on power and movement alone this year from what I've seen but is actually learning how to pitch.

I think he's hit that magic "Innings Pitched" number where a talented pitcher puts talent to better use through the knowledge he's learned over his first 3-4 years of getting beat up by the league (look at guys like Mac Suzuki of the Royals who has the ability to hit 95 and has a very good splitter for an out pitch but can't even make it as a set-up man because he just hasn't figured out how to use those two pitches effectively).

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I would also take Hinske at 3b instead of Halliday as a pitcher for my Blue Jay selection. Only because there are more pitchers out there deserving in the AL that will get left off the squad than deserving 3rd basemen. It's not really wrong to go either way on that choice and you could even take both but that won't happen because the Blue Jays' record stinks this year.

[socal_parrot]

Anyone but John Burkett.

[Charles Henrickson]

National League: The whole darned Diamondback team!

They're the defending champs, of course, and are playing great again this year. Notice that I have five D-Backs (Johnson, Schilling, Kim, Gonzalez, and Miller) on my All-Star team (tied with the Yanks and Red Sox for the most). I could reasonably have had a sixth D-Back, as well: Junior Spivey at second base.

[Slip18]

There's also the three-time Golden Glove recipient, Steve Finley. He's awsome in center field!

I agree with you on your "Dooner" Junior Spivey choice. He's such a great person and a darned good player.

[Charles Henrickson]

OPS for AL Catchers
A.J. Pierzynski, .872
Posada .845

They're very close, aren't they? But I give the edge to Posada for having the better career.

Of course, we're only looking at offensive value with OPS. I could check the defensive stats to see if there's much difference there. But defensive evaluation is also helped by seeing the guys play, and I have not yet seen Pierzynski in action.

For catchers, defense is so important to their value. I pick Piazza in the NL because of his huge offensive numbers over the years, miles ahead of the other catchers. But his defense pulls him down. Piazza is by far the easiest catcher to run on.

[Charles Henrickson]

If you have to have a Tiger I go with Jeff Weaver over Fick. . . .

I thought about that, but still went with Fick. Weaver is much improved, no doubt, and a workhorse. But his ERA is only OK, not great, and he does have that losing record. But I wouldn't object if Weaver is the Tiger chosen--especially if he throws another shutout or two, like he did the other night.

[Charles Henrickson]

I would also take Hinske at 3b instead of Halliday as a pitcher for my Blue Jay selection.

I hear you, but still would pick Halliday and not Hinske. Halliday legitimately may be among the top seven starters in the league and not just the Blue Jays' "charity choice." As for Hinske, while he is putting up good numbers--as good as Chavez and Batista and Hillenbrand so far--Hinske is a rookie, I believe, and I have hard time putting a guy on the All-Star team when he's only played in the bigs for less than three months. (Notice I didn't pick Kaz Ishii for the NL pitchers.)

[Charles Henrickson]

As always happens in picking All-Star teams, I had to leave off a lot of deserving guys who wouldn't be bad choices:

NATIONAL LEAGUE (15)

Catcher: Benito Santiago, Paul LoDuca, Michael Barrett

First base: Ryan Klesko

Second base: Jeff Kent, Fernando Vina, Junior Spivey

Shortstop: Edgar Renteria

Outfield: Lance Berkman, Shawn Green, Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols, Pat Burrell

Pitcher: Odalis Perez, Mike Williams

AMERICAN LEAGUE (11)

First base: Jim Thome, John Olerud

Third base: Shea Hillenbrand

Outfield: Manny Ramirez (rehab, otherwise on), Jacque Jones, Magglio Ordonez

Pitcher: Mariano Rivera (DL, otherwise on), Roger Clemens, Jamie Moyer, Steve Karsay, Billy Koch