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Keith Law breaks down the snubs.....
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I never watch the All-Star Game. I don't really care that much who goes and who doesn't; the biggest real-world impact is that players who are selected nearly all get All-Star bonuses of $25,000 or more, which is a nice extra paycheck to a player making the minimum salary. The World Series home-field advantage bit is silly, and it hasn't made any difference in the past three Fall Classics, anyway. So all of this is a bit of overanalysis of two rosters that always are going to be constructed at least a little bit wrongly. With that in mind, here are the worst snubs and inclusions, as well as a look at the token players selected to fill the rule that each team must have at least one representative in the game.
Rowand over Rollins
There are so many things wrong here that I don't know where to begin.
The NL's shortstop crop right now is tremendous. Jose Reyes is a star and a deserving starter. J.J. Hardy is emerging as a star and has every reason to be on this team. Edgar Renteria is having his second straight superb year for Atlanta. Hanley Ramirez is having a monster year -- we'll come back to him in a moment -- after winning the Rookie of the Year award last year. But other than Reyes, there's probably not an NL shortstop with a better combination of current-year performance, track record and defensive prowess than Jimmy Rollins. The fact that only two shortstops are on the NL roster is ridiculous, and the exclusion of Rollins only makes it more so.
But the fact that Rollins was snubbed while Aaron Rowand was added makes it worse. Rowand has reached 500 at-bats just once in his career. He's a part-time player who just happens to be hitting 30 points over his career average and who gets on "SportsCenter" because he runs into walls. Players like Rowand do not belong on an All-Star Game roster unless it's to fill the requirement that each team get one representative -- and the Phillies already had Chase Utley on the team. He probably never will make another All-Star team because he's not an All-Star-caliber player.
And just to put it in some perspective, manager Tony La Russa chose the scrappy outfielder having an out-of-character fluke year while omitting the star shortstop having his typical year -- and then MLB added insult to injury by leaving that star shortstop off the fan ballot for the final spot.
Young over Cabrera
We're not lacking for Angels on the AL All-Star team, but Orlando Cabrera has reason to be miffed today. Cabrera's on-base percentage and slugging, while playing in a good pitchers' park, are .375 and .457, respectively. Michael Young has brought his OBP/SLG up to .343/.400, but Cabrera is a substantially better defensive player -- always has been -- and Young is here because of the quota rule and because he's been here before. Cabrera's not likely to hit .337 the rest of the year, but he's a good player (great with the glove) having a great offensive year. That's worth including over a good player having a down year. And even though the one legitimate All-Star candidate on Texas, Mark Teixeira, is out through the break, that spot could have been filled by Kenny Lofton, a seven-time All-Star having his third excellent offensive season in a row.
Incidentally, Sammy Sosa wasn't snubbed. The home runs are nice, but on balance, he's been terrible. If you have a .309 OBP, you're not an All-Star in 2007.
Fuentes over Snell; Sanchez over Ramirez
These two snubs go together. Freddy Sanchez was added as the token Pirate because … I don't know, because he led the league in batting average last year? So what? He has a .331 OBP this year and is 10th among NL second basemen in slugging percentage. He's a Punch-and-Judy hitter who hit a few extra singles last year and led the league in a relatively unimportant statistical category. Let's get some perspective here: Hanley Ramirez was only the NL Rookie of the Year last season and is having an even better season at the plate in 2007, ranking 20th among all NL hitters in both OBP and slugging percentage. So we're taking the bad-field, empty-batting-average second baseman over the bad-field, average-walks-power-and-steals shortstop who has some real hardware in his cabinet?
Ian Snell's exclusion really boggles the mind; it's not as if La Russa hasn't seen him because Snell beat the Cardinals twice in a week's time in April. Snell has become one of the best starters in the National League and has an argument to be included over everyone on the roster except Brad Penny and Jake Peavy. But Brian Fuentes, who lost his closer's job (at least for the moment) on the day he made the All-Star team, has no place on this team at all. He has one-third the inning total of Snell but has an ERA nearly a run higher. And Fuentes wasn't needed on the team to fill a quota because the deserving Matt Holliday was named as a reserve. Snell isn't the only NL starter with a beef -- read on for more about that -- but the way he was squeezed out and Sanchez was added was just bad roster management.
Fuentes, Valverde or Hoffman over Maine
The All-Star Game's fascination with closers seems to have increased in recent years, with four on the AL roster and a whopping six on the NL roster. To put that in perspective, there are only fourteen NL pitchers with at least 10 saves right now, and nearly half of them are on the All-Star roster. Leave it to the guy who brought us the four-reliever inning to go a little overboard in his recognition of good relievers.
Any number of NL starters would have been better selections than Fuentes or Jose Valverde, with Snell, teammate Tom Gorzelanny, Tim Hudson and Jeff Francis all deserving nods over these guys. But the biggest snub among NL pitchers has to be that of John Maine, who has made huge strides this year in becoming one of the league's best starters. Maine was always susceptible to the gopher ball because of his reliance on a very straight four-seam fastball, but by mixing in a sharp two-seamer, he has been able to keep the ball in the park, leading him to the fourth-best ERA in the NL in 102 innings -- or more than the workloads of Valverde, Fuentes, and Lifetime Achievement All-Star Trevor Hoffman (working in the best pitchers' park in baseball) combined.
The other tokens
Aside from Young and Sanchez, there are seven other players among those tabbed by the managers who are their team's sole representatives in the game:
• Carl Crawford, Devil Rays: B.J. Upton was the obvious choice among hitters, but he's still on the DL and won't be back at all until at least the middle of this week. Carlos Pena is having a great year, but has a lousy track record and lacks the star appeal of Crawford. James Shields would also have been a better choice, as outlined above, but he's not clearly better than any of the starting pitchers named to the roster.
• Alex Rios, Blue Jays: He's the best choice. Shaun Marcum has some argument, but again isn't clearly better than any starting pitcher on the roster.
• Gil Meche, Royals: If you see another All-Star on that roster, let me know. Meche has had a fine season and isn't a stretch for inclusion on his own merits.
• Bobby Jenks, White Sox: I would have gone for Mark Buehrle or Jon Garland, favoring starters over relievers and the longer track records of those two pitchers. Jenks is a middle-of-the-road closer in the AL and, quotas aside, doesn't belong on any team that excludes Joe Nathan.
• Brian Roberts, Orioles: He was my pick to start at second base for the AL. If the season ended today, teammate Jeremy Guthrie would deserve the Rookie of the Year award -- he's been one of the four or five best starters in the AL all year -- but it's hard to argue for his inclusion when he has made just 11 starts, has fewer innings than every starter on the All-Star staff and has zero track record to boost his candidacy.
• Albert Pujols, Cardinals: Belongs here even in an off year.
• Dmitri Young, Nationals: It's a fluke, but he's the only reasonable candidate on Washington's roster.
And finally …
The players voted in Carlos Lee, who isn't even the best outfielder on his own team; leading Rookie of the Year candidate Hunter Pence is having a better season, although Lee has history in his favor. But both take a backseat to snubbed Roy Oswalt, a perennial star and Cy Young contender who stays home so La Russa (who added three relievers among his four discretionary selections) can be prepared to play matchup baseball in the sixth inning. |
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