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July 5, 2009

On the Beat

All-Stars!

by John Perrotto

Major League Baseball will announce its All-Star teams this afternoon, and there will be the usual debate about who deserved to be picked for the July 14 game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis but got snubbed. As you wait for the real squads to be announced you can debate who got snubbed on the official On The Beat All-Star team.

Just like in the big leagues, we have 33-man rosters for each league, no designated hitter since the game is in a National League Park this season and a representative from all 30 major-league teams. However, the bent here is we look more at the advanced metrics than traditional stats in making the picks. Thus, a lot of picks are based on WARP3, VORP, EqA, SNLVAR, and WXRL rather than batting average, RBI, wins, or saves.

So without ado, not that we really had any ado to begin with, here are the teams:

American League

P Zack Greinke, Royals: He has cooled after his phenomenal start, but has still been the best pitcher in the majors this season.
C Joe Mauer, Twins: The demands of the position will prevent him from hitting .400, but it will be fun to watch him try.
1B Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox: He is still the ultimate Moneyball player.
2B Ben Zobrist, Rays: He will certainly regress to the mean in the second half, but it’s been quite an ascent away from the mean so far.
3B Scott Rolen, Blue Jays: Just when it seemed he had fallen off the face of the earth, he is having a strong season.
SS Jason Bartlett, Rays: Already a slick fielder, his hitting has matched his glove work this season.
LF Adam Lind, Blue Jays: He has long had the ability to hit; manager Cito Gaston has finally given him the opportunity to utilize it.
CF Torii Hunter, Angels: That five-year, $90 million contract doesn’t look so absurd now for a supposedly defense-first player.
RF Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners: The mysterious hitting savant has been playing like a man with something to prove.

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24 comments have been left for this article.

BP Comment Quick Links

code of conduct

kcellis224

(30379)

Casey Blake over Pablo Sandoval? Huh?

Jul 05, 2009 11:23 AM

rating: 1

DiscoInferno

(48798)

The idea that Blake has been more important to his team or better than Sandoval is nuts.

Jul 05, 2009 23:23 PM

rating: 1

Ira

(1386)

on the other side of the 3b bag (in the AL) I would drop Rolen (who's been subpar defensively) to start Evan (who's been all that and a bag of chips), possibly the best fan selection this year. (Pedroia is the second biggest joke of the ballot). Backing up Evan would be (sadly) Chone Figgins.

Jul 05, 2009 12:13 PM

rating: 0

TheBunk

(45937)

Scott Rolen has been sub par defensively? Really? He's been absolutely incredible from my vantage point.

Jul 05, 2009 18:17 PM

rating: 0

Evan

(47)

He's been above average by UZR, but he's having his weakest defensive season ever.

Jul 06, 2009 09:13 AM

rating: 0

krissbeth

(40802)

Only a joke if you're going exclusively by the first half. If you take the "greater body of work" approach, then the reigning MVP becomes a tad more understandable as a selection.

Jul 06, 2009 03:45 AM

rating: 0

alasky

(5329)

Are we ready to say A-Rod's streak of 13 20-homer seasons are over or that it's no longer active just because he hasn't hit 20 yet? He's 6 away from 14 straight years...

Jul 05, 2009 12:18 PM

rating: 2

birkem3

(21752)

Manny's 13 HR short of 15 straight years.

Jul 05, 2009 13:20 PM

rating: 0

jamin67038

(30764)

Scutaro over Jeter? Jeter leads him in VORP, if you're caring about advanced metrics...

Jul 05, 2009 13:16 PM

rating: -1

Aaron/YYZ

(34268)

I'm guessing the defensive adjustment swings it back in Scutaro's favor.

Jul 05, 2009 14:51 PM

rating: 1

mreed7777

(27067)

Papelbon over Mariano, I hope you're kidding and I have to agree with Longoria over Rolen and Jeter over Scutaro, don't think the dense make the difference.

Jul 05, 2009 15:14 PM

rating: 0

cfoley

(29543)

does anyone watch the indians? why hasnt anyone noticed that victor martinez has only played half of his games at catcher?

Jul 05, 2009 15:19 PM

rating: 0

siegeljs

(7023)

Johnny Damon: "Just when it looked like he was over the hill."

Perroto jumps into the "WayBack" machine and dials that baby back to the 1st half of 2007.

Damon compiled a .294 EQA last season. But, hey, why spoil a cheap shot? Wheeeeee!

Jul 05, 2009 18:03 PM

rating: 2

Drew Miller

(22526)

True. However, I would like to see Pitch/FX data for Damon (and every Yankees hitter) this year. Specifically, I want to know know how many of Damon's HR just dropped over the fence. Seems to me like there's been a lot of those this year. If they're just dropping over the fence, they'd have been warning-track outs last year.

Jul 06, 2009 09:13 AM

rating: 0

sandriola

(31950)

2 of Damon's 12 home runs at home this year were classified as "Just Enough" by hittrackeronline.com. The definition of a "Just Enough" home run straight from their glossary: "Means the ball cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet, OR that it landed less than one fence height past the fence. These are the ones that barely made it over the fence."

Jul 06, 2009 18:07 PM

rating: 0

tercet

(45940)

For the Blue Jays vs Tampa Rays Game 1 The Jays are starting Marc Rzep......., not Brad Mills.

Jul 06, 2009 00:08 AM

rating: 0

amazin_mess

(9525)

Lannan, Soriano, Lilly and Vazquez over Johan...ridiculous. Might as well throw Joe Blanton in there too.

Jul 06, 2009 05:00 AM

rating: 0

hambone1818

(28400)

Consider this quote, from the article: "In the anonymity of playing in front of all those empty seats in Miami, he's emerging as a true ace..."

And then look at the name. Is that not fitting?

Jul 06, 2009 06:59 AM

rating: 0

drballgame42

(17580)

Josh Johnson, not Jason...

Jul 06, 2009 07:41 AM

rating: 0

Drew Miller

(22526)

It should be reiterated that this article is going by first-half of 2009 stats only. Obviously, certain other players have had better careers than some of the guys listed here.

Jul 06, 2009 09:15 AM

rating: 0

Yatchisin

(487)

"GM Ruben Amaro Jr. is having the last laugh over that much-criticized three-year, $31.5 million contract he gave the 37-year-old free agent last winter."

It's just 4 months into that 3-year contract, so at best it's a first laugh, no?

Jul 06, 2009 11:46 AM

rating: 0

Tank

(989)

I was going to say the same thing. There's a whooole lot of potential laughing-time left on that contract.

Jul 06, 2009 13:04 PM

rating: 0

awayish

(20768)

pitchers are notoriously streaky, especially relievers. rewarding them for short seasons while discounting guys who put up stable performances every year (like mariano) is a bit of a rushed judgment.

Jul 06, 2009 15:57 PM

rating: 0

sunpar

(38553)

What does Jair Jurrjens have to do to get some respect?

Jul 08, 2009 08:40 AM

rating: 0

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<< Previous Article

Prospectus Q&A: Brian ... (07/05)

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On the Beat: Run-hunti... (07/01)

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On the Beat: Midweek U... (07/08)

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Transaction Analysis: ... (07/05)

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