All-Star Game: Picks and Snubs Part I

The rosters for the All-Star game were announced yesterday evening. The rosters for the game can be found here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar08/news/story?id=3475091
and here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar08/news/story?id=3475090

As usual, the fans were responsible for choosing the starters for the mid-summer classic. It only makes sense then that most of the craziness took place here. I’m not going to argue the merits of having the fans choose the representatives but instead I will take a look at which players were passed over that might have been more deserving than those that were chosen, be they as starters or reserves. I am also writing this article with the caveat that until the 32nd player is chosen to fill out the roster I can't assume any of the players listed below will make the team. There will be two categories that the players will fall into depending on how flagrant their omission was: Definitely Should Have Been There and An Argument Could Be Made.

Definitely Should Have Been There:

Jason Giambi

This selection shouldn’t be misunderstood as my condoning the usage of performance enhancing drugs or that crazy ass mustache he’s sporting. That thing terrifies me. In the end, you simply can’t deny the results that Giambi has achieved this season. He has the most home runs of any first baseman in the A.L and has the highest OPS, by a fairly large margin. Justin Morneau and Kevin Youkilis, the two first basemen selected, have been good, checking in with OPS of .850 and .916 as of this writing but Giambi is up at .929. And Giambi is not just doing it with power either. His .393 OBP is actually higher than Youkilis’ and quite a bit higher than Morneau’s. The only knock against Giambi is his glove but I think his numbers are just so much better that he overcomes his defensive shortcomings.

A.J Pierzynski:

It’s not that A.J is having all that great of a season, but somebody, anybody should replace Jason Varitek here. Varitek’s numbers aren’t just a little bad, they are VERY bad. You know what the weirdest thing about this is? He wasn’t even voted in by the fans. Frankly I’m flabbergasted. I know he’s the Red Sox leader blah blah blah, but the man is not even remotely helping his team this year. Pierzynski on the other hand is at least contributing a tidy, if unimpressive, .776 OPS and 7 homers. That OPS puts him more than 100 points higher than Varitek. 100 POINTS! These two aren’t even close.

Mike Lowell / Evan Longoria:

This one is almost as mind blowing as the Jason Giambi omission. Lowell and Longoria have pretty much identical splits at .297/.356/.517 and .283/.354/.535 respectively. No one is disputing A-Rod’s spot here but our friend Joe Crede is cruising along at .261/.338/.478, which is considerably worse than either Lowell or Longoria’s. Crede came out absolutely gangbusters but has cooled off noticeably since then and is showing no signs of coming out of his current funk. Meanwhile, Longoria is tearing it up as a rookie and Lowell is producing while maintaining his stellar defence. This one’s a no-brainer.

Jermaine Dye:

Jermaine Dye is absolutely tearing the league apart right now with 19 homers and a strong .919 OPS. He stacks up very favourably compared to any American League outfielder and certainly deserves to be ahead of Ichiro at the very least. I know Ichiro plays superb defence and has a cannon of an arm and that he can bunt and hit for average but his .372 slugging percentage is the opposite of good. The common defence of Ichiro is that his OPS is relatively low because he doesn’t hit for power but gets on-base a lot. Surprise! Jermaine Dye’s OBP is pretty much identical to Ichiro’s this year. Ichiro is having a down year and Dye simply deserves it more.

An Argument Could Be Made:

Brian Roberts:

First off, I should mention that Dustin Pedroia starting in place of Ian Kinsler is mindboggling. The splits aren’t even close: .312/.355/.458 and .332/.391/.545. Case closed. Additionally, Brian Roberts might have a case to be there instead of Pedroia. His .295/.373/.493 splits are just a bit better than Pedroia. They both play solid defense and steal bases well. If I had to choose, I might pick Pedroia because he has 9 HRs versus Roberts’ 6 but I can understand how one could go for Roberts instead.

John Danks:

John Danks isn’t going to the All-Star game because he doesn’t have enough wins, plain and simple. He is currently third in the A.L in ERA and his 1.17 WHIP is nothing to sneeze at. His almost 3:1 K/BB ratio is solid as well. If the White Sox had just scored a few more runs he would almost certainly have the 8 or 9 wins that seem to be necessary to make it to the show this year. The starters that made the team this year are all having great seasons but I think Danks is very comparable to Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders. I guess Danks is just going to get honourable mention this year.

John Lackey /Rich Harden:

These two have very similar pitching lines. Lackey is 6-2 with a 1.93 ERA and 0.92 WHIP while Harden is 5-0 with a 2.34 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. Lackey’s numbers, in particular, are dominating but Harden’s no slouch himself. The main knock against these two is that they have pitched less innings due to injury. Harden has pitched 77 innings while Lackey has thrown 74.2. With so many deserving pitchers in the A.L this year, I can see why these two got the shaft. However, if they hadn’t missed time due to injury, there would be no argument as to their worthiness.

I’m sure I missed a couple of guys who deserved to be mentioned here so drop me a line in the comment section if you can think of someone who was omitted. Part II comes Wednesday!

NB