All-Star rosters selected

The All-Star lineups have officially been selected on Selection Sunday.  There are head scratchers, there are blatant misses, and then there’s stupidity by the general public.  But at least most of the players who make the team are actually deserving.  All of the Cardinals who made the roster were deserving as well.

The Cardinals went from having four possible starters to having one starter in the All-Star game when Yadier Molina dropped out of first, Matt Kemp made a late run to put Matt Holliday in fourth, and Albert Pujols being disqualified due to injury.  That’s right, Lance Berkman is the lone starting All-Star Cardinal.  This just further reminds us of what a bargain his $8 million salary is.  Here’s the rest of the NL Squad.

C Brian McCann
1B Prince Fielder
2B Rickie Weeks
3B Placido Polanco
SS Jose Reyes
OF Ryan Braun
OF Lance Berkman
OF Matt Kemp

As much as it pains me to say it, McCann has had a better year that Molina.  McCann has hit .311/.386/.511 while Molina has hit .283/.332/.406.  So McCann has a better average, way better on base percentage, and hits for way more power.  Molina is elite at defending and McCann is average to below average, but I don’t think the gap in defense is enough to overcome the gap in offense.

On another note, Prince Fielder deserved to start over Albert Pujols anyway so it’s weird how that turned out.  Fielder has a .288/.416/.588 line while Pujols has a much worse .279/.355/.500 line.  Joey Votto had a good argument to go over Fielder with a higher average and a higher on base percentage, but considerably less power.  Their seasons have effectively been a wash and the tiebreaker goes to Fielder since his team is better.

Braun, Kemp, and Berkman are all horrible outfielders defensively so I hope a ball doesn’t go yard.  Andrew McCutcheon should have been one of the three starters with his .289/.390/.493 with good defense in centerfield, but he didn’t he make the roster.

The middle infield is really good and also deserving with Rickie Weeks and Jose Reyes.  They are both clearly at the top of their positions and nobody will question their selections.

Third base was pretty weak and David Freese could have taken it over if he had anything close to his line right now.  Placido Polanco is hitting below average with good defense.  Usually I’d say that’s undeserving, but he’s close enough to the top and there’s no one obviously better missing.

Here’s the AL All-Stars:

C Alex Avila
1B Adrian Gonzalez
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
SS Derek Jeter
OF Jose Bautista
OF Curtis Granderson
OF Josh Hamilton
DH David Ortiz

Right off the bat, Jose Bautista, Curtis Granderson, Adrian Gonzalez, and Robinson Cano are obviously leaders at their positions without even looking at the stats mostly because I remember their names all over the leaderboards at Busch.  (And really anybody who hasn’t seen Bautista’s stats has been living in a cave.

Surprisingly, the AL got it right with Alex Avila at catcher and David Ortiz at DH as both are clearly better the rest as well.  However they massively failed with Derek Jeter (surprise…) and Josh Hamilton (Expect people clamoring for him to get to the HOF using his story and All-Star appearances).

I’d probably give it to Jacoby Ellsbury (.300/.361/.453)  or Alex Gordon (.301/.368/.491), both of which play excellent defense although Ellsbury plays center so he might get the edge in this competition.

At shortstop pick Asdrubal Cabera (.294/.344/.502) or Jhonny Peralta (.311/.359/.538), both of which are considerably better than Jeter (.260/.324/.324).    The NL Pitchers below:

SP Roy Halladay
SP Clayton Kershaw
SP Cole Hamels
SP Tim Lincecum
SP Jair Jurrjens
SP Matt Cain
SP Cliff Lee
SP Ryan Vogelsong
RP Jonny Venters
RP Joel Hanrahan
RP Heath Bell
RP Tyler Clippard
RP Brian Wilson

The Phillies triumvirate are maybe the best three pitchers in the NL.  Clayton Kershaw ain’t that far behind them.  Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain certainly give the Phillies a run for the money.  It’s a little disheartening Jair Jurrijens made it over Jaime Garcia because he has an 11-3 record, because there ERAs aren’t even close and we all know that Garcia has put his team in a position to win in basically every game but one that he’s pitched (Colorado)

The bigger gripe is probably Ryan Vogelsong making the roster, probably purely because of Bruce Bochy being the NL Manager.  He has a nice ERA at 2.09, but he’s pitched 77 innings meaning that he’s probably not going to keep that ERA and also that he’s pitched about half of the innings that the All-Stars have.  In his place should go Daniel Hudson of the Diamonbacks, who has been a workhorse for the

terrible

(Note: Honestly, I haven’t paid attention to them and assumed they were just as bad as mLB the Show.  My mistake) DBacks.  He has 92 strikeouts and 26 walks in 116 innings with a 3.49 ERA making him extremely valuable.

On the reliever side, Johnny Venters has been one of the best relievers in the league.  I’m surprised they picked him even though he hasn’t gotten many saves.  Good for them for once.  I can’t really complain about Heath Bell although he’s gotten lucky allowing zero homers which isn’t sustainable and he pitches in Petco Park, the biggest supressor of homers in the league.  Hanrahan is another pitcher I have no gripes about, though McCutcheon should have represented the Giants not him.   Brian Wilson is only in the game because of his shtick.  I have no idea how they thought Wilson (3.03 ERA, 36 Ks, 22 BBs in 38.2 IP) was better than Craig Kimbrel (2.57 ERA, 67 Ks, 18 BBs, 42 IP).  What Kimbrel has done is incredible and he isn’t being rewarded for it.

AL pitchers now:

SP Josh Beckett

SP Gio Gonzalez

SP Felix Hernandez

SP David Price

SP James Shields

SP Justin Verlander

SP Jered Weaver

SP C.J. Wilson

RP Aaron Crow

RP Brandon League

RP Chris Perez

RP Mariano Rivera

RP Jose Valverde

Price, Verlander, Hernandez, and Shields in summary are good no matter how you grade them and deserved to be included in the All-Star game.  Beckett, Wilson and Weaver are both deserving by many gradings as well.  Gio Gonzalez has a 2.00 ERA so far this season so I’m not going to complain about his selection either.  Well I guess that’s all the starting pitchers.  Surprisingly, Sabathia probably got snubbed on this one but not enough for me to go on a rant about.

Old reliable Mariano Rivera is defying physics so far not even breaking a sweat in his 40-year-old self.  Chris Perez isn’t a bad selection, but there’s better out there.  He is barely striking out more than he’s walking leading me to believe his 2.37 ERA isn’t going to stay.  Plus it’s relievers.  We shouldn’t grade by ERA but by K/BB in my opinion which is a greater indicator of talent.

Aaron Crow – Mizzou grad (where I’m going) – has a 1.36 ERA and a solid K/BB ratio which means I’m happy with the selection.  Brandon League is another one who is doing good although his minuscule walk rate is more to blame than his modest K rate.  Jose Valverde’s selection is bogus.  He has a 3.09 ERA and a lot of saves which seem to be the only requirement.  Sergio Santos has a 2.93 ERA and strikes out over a batter per inning.  Plus he’s on my fantasy team which is like double the points (I intended to sound stupid here don’t worry)

I will get into the reserves later for I am short of time but here is your starting lineups and pitchers of the All-Star game.  Are you happy?  (Oh yeah, Molina and Holliday made it and Garcia got snubbed)