All-Stars.

by Allen Chace on Jun 18, 2007 12:32 AM EDT in Open Thread

I filled out an online ballot tonight, and thought I'd submit my picks for public consumption.

AL: Papi, though if any of you or I wanted to pick a real 1B, cannot go wrong with either Casey Kotchman of the Angels or our own Kevin Youkilis (if he were on the ballot, that is).
NL: Prince Fielder, who is slugging over .600 right now. There are several other good choices here, including Pujols, Howard, and Adrian Gonzalez.

AL: Placido Polanco, Detroit Tigers. I figured, preseason, that this would simply be a race between LAA's Howie Kendrick and Robinson Cano.
NL: Can't go wrong with Dan Uggla of the Marlins or Chase Utley in Philadelphia, but I'm going to go with Kelly Johnson. He's been the leadoff hitter the Braves needed this season, and has more than seamlessly replaced Marcus Giles.

AL: I wish Derek Jeter weren't the right choice, and I also wish that Carlos Guillen's defense was enough of an improvement to justify him having less of an impact on his team's O than Jeter, but my wishes didn't come true. Jeter it is then.
NL: Jose Reyes, though it'd be hard to argue against votes for J.J. Hardy of the Brewers, Hanley Ramirez, or Edgar Renteria.

AL: Wishes again, but A-Rod has been the best at the position, and it's not really close.
NL: Had he not lost time due to injury, this might've been Chipper Jones, but Miguel Cabrera has better counting stats (with both having similar rate stats). There is some absolute crap on the NL 3B ballot, just as an aside. David Wright, Aramis Ramirez, and Ryan Zimmerman probably aren't making this as close as they should be.

AL: Jorge Posada, and again, it's not really close at all. If you can't bring yourself to vote for him, John Buck of the Royals and Victor Martinez of the Indians are both having fine seasons as well.
NL: Russell Martin of the Dodgers, whose competition isn't terribly fierce.

OF (When I fill out my ballot, I like to at least have one CF, don't know that just punching in 3 OFs would make a difference in my final picks anyway, just saying.)

AL: Magglio Ordonez, Vladmir Guerrero, Torii Hunter. The toughest choice was between Hunter and Sizemore, but the AS Game is pretty much designed to reward contract/career years, which Hunter is having. Maggs seems a lot more like the hitter he was in Chicago, while also placing second in the league in wild hair (Manny, of course, leads the league). Gary Sheffield is an interesting case, but he's not really an OF anymore. The Tigers' corner OFs can be adventures in the field sometimes, and he's still only seen 6 games out there.
NL: Matt Holliday, Ken Griffey Jr., Aaron Rowand. The NL choices actually made this easy, as there are a LOT of NL OFers having disappointing seasons. Honorable mentions should (maybe) go to Carlos Lee, Adam Dunn, and Eric Byrnes. Barry Bonds will never receive a vote on an AS ballot filled out by me.

Your picks and your arguments against mine (though ultimately, who cares about those, right?) in the comments.

We'll talk pitching staff when I get back from Atlanta, either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Re: All-Stars.

Why do you say Posada over Martinez is "not even close"? The fantasy rankings in my league have Martinez ahead of Posada.

Posada: .345 AVG 9 HR 43 RBI
Martinez .323 AVG 13 HR 57 RBI

I've never heard praise for Posada's defense, either. Given how well the Tigers are doing I also think Pudge would be a valid choice. But I have voted for Martinez and I think he's the right choice.

(Like you, I also sadly voted for ARod, who is well above his competition. As for Jeter:

.342 AVG 5 HR 33 RBI
vs
.342 AVG 3 HR 38 RBI
or
.302 AVG 7 HR 37 RBI
or
.309 AVG 9 HR 43 RBI

Certainly the first two don't look very different from each other. Jeter's a bit better at drawing walks, but OTOH he gets to hit in the Yankee lineup.

The numbers above are, in order, Jeter, Orlando Cabrera, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen. Given that Jeter's defense tends to be vastly overrated, I have been voting for Cabrera at SS since ARod moved to 3B. I'm not saying Jeter is a bad choice, but he is not head and shoulders above the competition the way ARod is. His numbers are almost exactly the same as Cabrera's after all (they both even have 7 SBs.)

by RickD on Jun 18, 2007 8:22 AM EDT reply actions

Re: All-Stars.

Posada has become a much better catcher under Tony Pena's tutelage. V-Mart should hope he continues hittng well enough to eventually take over at 1B, because he's a pretty poor catcher himself. Also, Posada has 20+ 2B while V-Mart's power is more limited to home runs. I certainly exaggerated with the "not even close" line, but I still think Posada edges Martinez out.

Jeter is quite a bit better at drawing walks, but your other points have gotten me convinced that I didn't think long enough about this one. Maybe we'll split the difference and I'll just vote for Lugo. :)

"Interesting. No wait, the other thing. Tedious." -Bender Bending Rodriguez.

by Allen Chace on Jun 18, 2007 1:27 PM EDT up reply actions