TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Saturday, July 02, 2005

All-Star Time

So, just in case you were holding your breath waiting for my All-Star ballot...

American League

C. Jason Varitek, Red Sox. The Nation's Cybervotes and JV's excellent year seem to have finally broken the lock in voting Pudge Rodriguez has held for years. Tek has a higher profile now after the World Series victory and after he got the Captain's jersey and the big contract (and not, say, Petey Martinez), but he's risen to the occasion with the best offensive numbers at the position in the league and some feats of legerdemain in keeping the slipshod Boston pitching corps in a position to still lead the division in wins, if no other stat.

1B. Mark Texeira, Rangers. I mean, this shouldn't be close at all. Tino Martinez is hitting .220 for a fourth-place team.

2B. Brian Roberts, Orioles. I give Roberts a bit of an edge over Alfonso Soriano for being a complete package. Soriano is an exciting player, but can be a swinging gate. I'd normally give Soriano a little extra credit for his years of success, compared to Roberts' mere three months of success in the bigs, but if I ask myself the question, 'who do I want to see play?' it comes up Roberts.

SS. Miggy Tejada, Orioles. Is he (gulp) having the best year ever by an Orioles' shortstop? Cal's 1983 is probably more notable, to be sure, for having been done in isolation, but sacriligious as it might be, Tejada may yet stroke his name among the O's immortals. He's at least made the top two.

3B. Alex (Yawn) Rodriguez, Yankees. MVP numbers for a very unexciting team. A-Rod may yet end up with the Curse of the Bondsino -- the best player, by far, of an era and no rings to show for it.

OF1. Johnny Damon, Red Sox. Long-time readers will recall I was agitating for much of September of last year to make Damon the AL MVP, and I still think he was the most valuable player on the World's Championship team. Despite the fact I'm a sucker for defense (see the next two choices) and Johnny is very much middle of the road at his position, something is always happening around Damon. And as the world knows by now, great hair.

OF2. Vladdy Guerrero, that Angels team. Still a monstah, and I love seeing great defenders in the All-Star team.

OF3. Ichiro, Mariners. With all due deference to Manny Ramirez, who may be the best overall hitter in the AL over the last ten years and deserves some credit on the basis of inertia, even slacking off I'd rather pay to see Ichiro play for one game. Manny is steady, relentless, and reliable at the bat, and shocking in the field. Ichiro is a throwback and I like that about him.

DH. Well, duh, David Ortiz. I'm still not sure why the AL, with only 14 teams to the NL's 16, nevertheless gets to elect an extra player while the NL does not.

National League

C. Ramon Hernandez, Padres. It's a weak field this year, and of course Mike Piazza is leading the balloting because fans can't think of another decent catcher in the league, off-hand, despite the fact that Piazza isn't a decent catcher and is no longer the offensive force he once was. I give the nod to Hernandez on overall contributions, and his offensive numbers are all the better for playing in a pitcher's park and having had injuries to fight through this year. Currently fourth in the balloting, though.

1B. Albert Pujols, Cardinals. With all due respect to Derek Lee -- and I do mean respect -- Pujols has been the gold standard in the league for five years now, and a fantastic first half by Lee does not trump that. Lee's a pretty good defender, but Pujols is also a pretty good defender.

2B. Jeff Kent, Dodgers. Another yawn. Kent continues to put up great numbers year after year, and his impact on the Astros in leaving them -- and to a lesser degree, on the Dodgers in joining that club -- seems manifest. But for some reason I've never been able to get real excited about seeing Kent play. Second is a bit of a bore in the NL these days.

3B. Aramis Ramirez, Cubs. Scotty Rolen is the complete package, too, but he's missed enough time in the first half that I can't in good conscience give him the nod merely due to the Pujols-theorem of having been the best for a number of years. Ramirez has earned his stripes the last three years, is playing excellent defense, and has the best offensive numbers at the position thus far this year.

SS. Felipe Lopez, Reds. On his way to an All-Star snub, I suspect. 13 HR, 46 RBI, a .320 batting average are making the Reds' fans say "Barry who, again?" Nowhere to be found in the fan voting, alas, which is inexplicably being split between mediocrities David Eckstein and Cesar Izturis. Lopez was probably hurt by the fact that he didn't have a lock on the job in April - and thus didn't appear on the ballot!

OF1. Bobby Abreu, Phils. It's a pity that the Phillies continue to find new ways to stink, since they have the most exciting player in the league in Abreu. He's the pacakge now that Barry Bonds once was.

OF2. Carlos Lee, Brewers. Whacking the heck out of the ball this year, and the Brewers are significantly better for it. I'm dumbfounded how the White Sox have improved with his departure, but that's another story altogether. Distant in the voting, I hope he's named to the back-up ballot, but that depends on the "player balloting" which is a suspect mechanism considering most of the NL players still don't know who this guy is.

OF3. Andruw Jones, the Atlanta club. Why he's not up higher in the voting is a bit mysterious: he's been a high-profile player for a while, and dominates the Web Gems on Baseball Tonight. Maybe it's fan boredom with his "soon to be a superstar" label. He's having the breakout year at age 28 everybody suspeced he would have, and it's not like he's been a slouch in previous years. At this writing, with 26 HR he's nearly matched last year's total, and that's been carrying the Braves. OK, so a good number of these were hit in a streaky tear in the last month. So what?

Honorable mention in the NL to my old pal, Cliff Floyd, speaking of players with "superstar potential" hung around their necks. Cliff is still a bit of an adventure in the outfield, but he's worked on his game a lot, and offensively he's having a 'second' career year at the ripe old age of 33. What kills me is that Carlos Beltran, a fine, fine player having a rather off first-half, not only leads Cliff in the balloting, he's in the top three as I type this! Beltran isn't even the second-best Met outfielder this year -- that honor goes to Mike Cameron, despite missing a month on the DL.

Pitchers

I'm not going to do a complete list of pitchers or subs, since that would be jumping the gun a bit and require far too much thought today, but I'll go ahead and name a "five-man rotation" and a closer fore each league.

AL: Mark Buehrle, White Sox; Jon Garland, White Sox; Roy Halladay, Toronto; Johan Santana, Twins; Matt Clement, Red Sox. Closer: Bob Wickman, Cleveland (why not?)

NL: Roger Clemens, Astros; Dontrelle Willis, Marlins; Roy Oswalt, Astros (how can the Astros have two All-Star pitchers and be so bad?); Pedro Martinez, Mets; Chris Carpenter, Cardinals. Closer: Chad Cordero, Nats.

posted by The Crank 4:16 PM