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November 11, 2009

On the Beat

Midweek Update

by John Perrotto

All baseball writers like to borrow ideas from time to time, especially after a long season. So, I'll borrow one from Jeff Joyce, one of the talk-show hosts on Sirius/XM's great Home Plate Channel. (I can't remember what life was like before Home Plate, that's how much I enjoy it.) Anyhow, Joyce recently questioned why there is no post-season all-star team in the major leagues. The NFL has the All-Pro team, and pro basketball has the All-NBA team. Even each of baseball's minor leagues picks a post-season all-star team.

The Associated Press actually had a post-season All-Star team for a few years in the 1980s but it got such little response that the world's largest news-gathering agency abandoned the idea. However, it's time to bring the post-season all-star team idea back and what better forum to resurrect it in than BP and right here, On The Beat? So without further ado, because you can never introduce something like this without writing or saying without further ado, here is the On The Beat 2009 MLB All-Star Team:

Catcher: Joe Mauer, Twins. He led the American League with a .342 EqA and 91.0 VORP, and his 9.0 WARP1 was second behind the 9.5 of Kansas City right-hander Zack Greinke. He also won all three slash-stat categories in the AL with a .365/.444/.587 line. Furthermore, his 28 home runs more than doubled his previous career high of 13. Yet, Derek Jeter won the 2009 Hank Aaron Award in the AL through fan voting conducted by MLB. Are you kidding me?

First baseman: Albert Pujols, Cardinals. Who else could it be? El Hombre won the BP metric triple crown with the highest WARP1 (12.1), VORP (98.3), and EqA (.362) in the major leagues. His traditional numbers were great, too, as he hit .327/.443/.658 with 47 homers. He should certainly be the unanimous winner in the National League MVP Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America later this month.

Second baseman: Chase Utley, Phillies. He had another great year with a career-best 8.6 WARP1 while posting a .316 EqA and .282/.397/.508 slash stats with 31 home runs and a perfect 23-for-23 in stolen-base attempts. America finally learned how good he was when he tied the World Series record by hitting five home runs in the Phillies' six-game loss to the Yankees.