It’s the beginning of July. You know what that means: the MLB All-Star rosters have been announced, and fans everywhere are livid about undeserving players getting put on the team and justified candidates getting three days off next week. We did our own voting here at the Outside Corner last week, and let me take a look at some of the players that got votes from us that didn’t make the final cut. In this piece, we’re going to take a look at the American League. The National League will be up later today.
Ben Zobrist, Rays. Zobrist was the starter at second for the OC team, and he didn’t make the cut at all. He leads all second basemen in baseball in fWAR at 4.0, mostly due to his stellar defense. Fear not fans: Zobrist is in the AL’s final five voting, and the Rays, a very internet savvy team, could encourage their fans to flood the ballot boxes in order for him to get a slot on the team. Sabermetric minded fans will also likely flock to Zobrist as well.
Jhonny Peralta, Tigers and Alexei Ramirez, White Sox. This one is on the fans. The undeserving Derek Jeter was voted in to start, and with his current injury situation, he might not even play in the game. That could be a good thing for Peralta or Ramirez, as the AL only has one other shortstop on the roster in Asdrubal Cabrera of the Indians (voted by our staff to start). Peralta is actually having a better offensive season than Cabrera, who started strongly, but has tailed off as of late. Ramirez is hot on the heels of that duo in value at short as well, and would be a worthy choice. Jeter should be nowhere near Phoenix on July 12th.
Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox. Youkilis’ offensive season is a hair below Rodriguez’s, but his overall value falls below Adrian Beltre’s when you figure defense into the equation. Alex Rodriguez is very quietly having a great year, and deserved to start the game. Shocking, but hey….the Yankee faithful got it right for once.
Brett Gardner, Yankees and Alex Gordon, Royals. Gardner wasn’t going to make the team, as it was already loaded with Yankees, and a majority of his value comes from defense, which is often overlooked in situations like this. He’s really just not a great offensive player in a game centered around offense. As for Gordon, he’s finally having a year that people have claimed he’s been capable of for his entire career. But since it’s coming in left field instead of at third base, it gets a little bit lost in the shuffle. Most fans figured he’d be the Royals lone All-Star, but reliever Aaron Crow was chosen instead.
When you look at it….there wasn’t a lot of crime with the AL position players. The only real glaring mistake that the fans made was was Jeter. Cano is a questionable choice, but remember…defense is underrated by fans. It would take a hell of an effort for the ballot box to get stuffed for Zobrist when the main strength of his game is his stellar defense. Josh Hamilton is a questionable call in the outfield, as no one on the OC’s staff voted for him to make the game. But he IS the reigning AL MVP, and there wasn’t a slam dunk, superstar candidate after Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson, who were absolute shoo-ins.
Looking at the players’ votes and managerial selections, there were some questionable calls. At catcher, the AL is pretty weak, and Ron Washington felt obligated to bring two catchers along. His choices were Matt Wieters, the second best catcher in the league this year, and Russell Martin, whose season is propped up by a solid April and bad months of May and June. There were two better options than Martin: Victor Martinez of the Tigers (who has caught 192 innings at catcher this year) and Carlos Santana of the Indians (who is hitting .230, though that is better than Martin’s .223 average). Martinez got a raw deal, as he wasn’t voted in by the players at DH, and that screwed him out of a slot. As for Santana….I’m not sure what the logic in not bringing him to Phoenix was. He’s on the final five ballot for the AL. The Indians have been the surprise team of the first half, and it would be a good story to bring another one of their young players to the ASG. I guess Washington felt differently.
In the outfield, there was a huge logjam of candidates. The four players that were chosen as backups were Michael Cuddyer, Carlos Quentin, Matt Joyce, and Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury was a 100% slam dunk option, as he’s been one of the best outfielders in the AL this year, and nearly overtook Hamilton for that final starting slot. Cuddyer is the lone Twins representative in a year where the team’s two superstars, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, have been sacked with injuries. The Twins really aren’t playing good baseball, and Cuddyer is their best player, so…he’s the pick. Denard Span was another option, but like Gardner, is an offensively challenged player making waves with his defense and speed. That won’t get you noticed in this day and age unless you’ve got some power behind those numbers. Joyce is having a delightful year for the Rays, who are still keeping their heads above water in the AL East. He’s proving this year that he’s more than just a platoon player, and actually received votes to start the game from our staff. Quentin is the lone member of the White Sox on the team and he’s having himself a solid year. I have no problems with his selection. The only possible snub in the outfield that hasn’t already been mentioned is Brennan Boesch of the Tigers, who’s putting up a season similar to Joyce’s, albeit with less power.
The pitching situation in every All-Star game is where feathers will get ruffled. This is where single team representatives usually get loaded up on. There were only two single team reps for the AL this year: Aaron Crow of the Royals, and Gio Gonzalez of the A’s. Crow is an odd selection, as he’s not closing for the team, striking out less than a batter per inning, and walking nearly four per nine. But…he’s got a 1.36 ERA, and that shines in the eyes of the people. There are better relievers who didn’t get selected (David Robertson, Sergio Santos, etc), and even a better rep from his own team (the aforementioned Gordon), but I guess he just slotted into the team perfectly. When it comes to Gonzalez, the A’s are a bad team. They have no good possible selection. Thus, you go with the guy with the shiniest stats…it was between Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill, and since Gonzalez has the ERA that’s lower by a run, he gets the nod.
The most glaring AL snub is CC Sabathia of the Yankees, who leads the league in wins, is second in FIP, and second in WAR this season. Sabathia should definitely be in the game, and may get there, since he’s on the final five ballot. But who got selected to the team instead of Sabathia that shouldn’t have been there? Josh Beckett is second in the league in ERA and has a solid FIP despite a lack of innings. He’s in. Felix Hernandez is the reigning Cy Young winner, and despite a slightly high ERA, has great peripherals and is eating a ton of innings. He’s in. James Shields has been one of the best pitchers in the league this year, bar none. He’s in. Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver are the two guys likely battling to start the game. They’re in. Finally, there’s CJ Wilson, who’s having a sneaky good season that is very much under the radar. He’s in. So…what do you do? All of the starting pitchers selected to the game deserve to be there. It’s just that Sabathia deserves to be there more. He was the player most adversely affected by Gonzalez’s necessary selection, as if the A’s had a worthy hitter or reliever to bring along, they could have done that and sent Sabathia in place of Gonzalez.
The AL relievers are an interesting crew. We already discussed Crow, who was the lone Royals representative. Brandon League of the Mariners was chosen because he leads the league in saves. League has a god awful strikeout rate, and a middling ERA. I’m not really sure why he made the team aside from that saves lead, because he’s most definitely not one of the best relievers in the game, and he’s not the lone representative of the Mariners, thanks to the selection of Felix Hernandez. Chris Perez of the Indians is another interesting selection. He’s got a nice sub-2.50 ERA and 19 saves, but has nearly walked as many batters as he’s struck out. He’s barely one of the top 35 relievers in the AL, let alone one of the five best. I’m not really sure why he’s on the team, aside from the fancy conventional stats that everyone loves to point to. Jose Valverde of the Tigers is another bizarre choice, chosen for his save total and reputation more than anything else. He’s walking a ton of batters, and isn’t striking out nearly as many batters as he did in his heyday with the Diamondbacks. But because he’s a proven veteran closer…he gets the nod? I don’t get it. The other AL reliever is Mariano Rivera, who is a lead pipe lock and is continuing what he’s done over his entire career.
But who can you take to Arizona to replace the three struggling closers? It’s not that hard to come up with three guys. One guy I mentioned already when talking about Crow was Sergio Santos of the White Sox, who is fourth among AL relievers in strikeout rate, has a sexy total of 18 saves, and his ERA, FIP and xFIP are all under 3.00. The former shortstop has been a complete revelation this year for the ChiSox, who looked lost early in the season after the struggles of Matt Thornton. I hate to give love to the evil axis in the northeast, but despite a hideous 3.69 ERA, Jonathan Papelbon has been totally lights out for the Red Sox. He’s got a near 7:1 strikeout to walk ratio. That’s absurd, and a good sign of future success. But he’s only got 16 saves! Please, don’t make me roll my eyes. Finally, what about some love for Jordan Walden of the Angels? He’s got 18 saves, he’s striking out over a batter per inning, and he’s got a solid ERA of 3.03. Either of these three would be better choices than either of the three non-Rivera closers chosen by the American League.
Most of the final five voting nominiees in the AL have already been mentioned as possible snubs. To recap, they are CC Sabathia, Victor Martinez, Alex Gordon, Paul Konerko, and Adam Jones. Sabathia is the easy choice here, though you could make a case for Konerko due to his fantastic offensive number, Gordon due to his nice breakout season and the relative dearth of solid outfield options in the AL, or Martinez due to the way he got snubbed from the team. I don’t think Jones has much of a shot, mostly because of his market, but his middling play doesn’t make him look very sexy either
Overall thoughts on the AL? Good job with the position players, good job with the starting pitchers, awful job with the relievers. It’s pretty bad when I’d replace four out of the five relievers on the team, but can only replace three due to the stupid “one per team” rule. Don’t worry though, compared to the National League, the AL did a good job. Article on the NL All-Star team is coming up in a couple of hours, so keep your eyes out for that one.
