It’s a yearly tradition unlike any other — the obligatory fans suck at voting and so do the players and managers so here I am to help everyone out — MLB All-Star Game snubs post. I mean, if we can’t figure out All-Star voting to argue over in early July, over what can we argue?? OK, here’s how I would have done the squads differently … (full rosters of each league)
- 1B: Justin Morneau should be starting over Mark Teixeira
2B: Dustin Pedroia out as starting 2B, Aaron Hill of Toronto in. Ian Kinsler should be the reserve, Pedroia shouldn’t be on the team
SS: Jason Bartlett should be the starter, Derek Jeter should be coming off the bench
OF: Josh Hamilton’s 78 home runs at the Derby last year shouldn’t get him back in the game when Marlon Byrd has more homers than him this year. Torii Hunter should be the starting CF and Jermaine Dye should be added as a reserve
3B: Brandon Inge should be the backup third baseman and Michael Young shouldn’t be on the team
Pitchers: Kevin Millwood and Jered Weaver should be on the pitching staff, Brian Fuentes* and Tim Wakefield should be off the staff
Ryan Howard shouldn’t be on the team, Pablo Sandoval should
Pitchers: Yovani Gallardo over Josh Johnson, and Chris Carpenter over Jason Marquis
Final Votes should go to Mark Reynolds and Adam Lind.
I would also have either Dan Haren or Tim Lincecum (depending on who has the better last start) start the game against Zack Greinke.
In total consideration, the fans and players/managers did a pretty good job picking the squad. With the NL, there were hardly any complaints and even those are petty ones.
*the pitcher formerly known as Lou Diamond Phillips
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You should be out and somebody wiser about MLB in. Like my 6 year old.
Trevor Hoffman should have been selected.
Explain why Adam Lind should be on the NL All Star team facing the league he actually plays in?
Mark Reynolds would get the NL final vote, Lind the AL. Please tell me you’re not that dense
There is no way that Hunter Pence should have gotten in over Matt Kemp. No way. Luckily he’ll probably make it as an injury replacement for either Beltran or Ibanez.
I was wrestling with that one but their numbers are pretty even. The tie-breaker for me was defense — I’ve just seen Kemp misplay too many balls in center this year. Sounds freaking weird though — Hunter Pence an All-Star? I guess there just isn’t much competition this year
Kemp misplay balls? He gets some late jumps but almost always catches up. On the day the teams were announced they were both hitting .303 w 10HRs, Kemp had about 10 more RBIs and 10 more SBs.
Plus on the defense side, did you see his cannon of an arm nail Castillo at 3rd on Tuesday.
Yeah, he lets a lot of balls drop in front of him when he’s making charges and I see him drop balls in the right center gap. That Mariners series a couple weekends ago comes to mind. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve to be there, it’s just that his defense kept me from outright saying he should be there over Pence. Put it this way: if Kemp got named to the team, I wouldn’t have said “Pence should be in instead.”
As far as the numbers go, we can thank Joe Torre for keeping Kemp out. Batting him down in the order for so much of the season while keeping Russell and his .250 average and 23 RBIs was batting in the middle of the order prevented Kemp from inflating his stats.
Matt Kemp has the best UZR of any centerfielder in baseball. Your anecdotal “yeah, I’ve seen balls drop in front of him” is garbage.
Ever heard of WAR as a stat? Guess where Kemp stands in comparison to Victorino, Pence, Reynolds, Sandoval, Guzman etc. in terms of wins above replacement.
Terrible.
UZR is a subjective stat, not an objective one such as home runs. How do you think it’s determined? By people who watch games and make judgments on balls. You’re garbage.
Kemp leads all CF in assists, by a large margin, with 9 and second in putouts.
Nothing subjective about that.
Beautiful Willie Mays catch in Milwaukee to finish the game tonight.
He’s a stud in CF, subjective but true.