Results tagged ‘ All-Star game ’
All-Star Voting: National League
I’ll turn my attention now to the National League in my heart-stopping double-header of June All-Star blogs.
This side of the ballot was always going to be the more controversial set of votes due to the
public’s keeness to see a steroid-user who sat out the first half of the season take part in the mid-season classic. I’m being a little harsh there, despite his flaws Manny is obviously a terrific ballplayer and someone that fans understandably love to see play the game. Common sense does seem to have prevailed though and Ramirez has now slipped out of the voting for the top three outfield positions.
Anyway, here’s how the teams would look, using the batting average/VORP splits I used in my American League voting round-up.
Public lose interest in baseball, taking fleetingest of glances at boxscore, still vote
Your solely BA-based 2009 National League All-Stars:
C. Brian McCann (ATL) .303
1B. Albert Pujols (STL) .344
2B. Orland Hudson (LAD) .318
3B. David Wright (NYM) .338
SS. Miguel Tejada (HOU) .350
OF. Juan Pierre (LAD) .367
OF. Carlos Beltran (NYM) .353
OF. Brad Hawpe (COL) .346
Enough power there to make things exciting alongside plenty of speed. Things are never easy with the National League, however. It wasn’t an issue selecting the AL AVG All-Stars but with the NL I was sweating over my decisions as though I was Bud Selig himself. Do Juan Pierre and Brian McCann have enough plate appearences to justify their selection? I think McCann’s a fairly easy choice, despite having missed some playing time this year (besides, the next choice was Ramon Hernandez with his .272) Pierre, on the other hand, has only started playing everyday since Manny’s suspension but has exceeded expectations and actually leads the league in AVG (using baseball-reference.com‘s 3.1PA/g lgavg). Anyway, if I’m filling in my ballot using just batting average I’m probably not too bothered about 50-or so less plate appearences. To sum up, Manny’s not even there but he’s already messed things up by getting suspended and making Juan Pierre’s overachieving bat an issue.
Proof of a Baseballprospectus.com subscription is required before being allowed to submit All-Star ballot
Your 2009 National League All-Stars selected solely on VORP:
C. Yadier Molina (STL) 4.6 VORP
1B. Albert Pujols (STL) 37.9 VORP
2B. Chase Utley (PHI) 26.9 VORP
3B. David Wright (NYM) 23.5 VORP
SS. Hanley Ramirez (FLA) 27.1 VORP
OF. Raul Ibanez (PHI) 32.7 VORP
OF. Carlos Beltran (NYM) 30.3 VORP
OF. Justin Upton (ARI) 22.6 VORP
Clearly more of an All-Star team, this bunch has exactly the same infield and catcher as the actual NL All-Stars would if voting ended today. The only real surprise (aside from the dearth of VORPy NL catchers) is Justin Upton’s inclusion, who doesn’t feature currently in the top 15 in voting for outfielders. Manny is much less of an issue for the VORP All-Stars, his 18.5 VORP only being good enough if he was willing to convert to catcher (which we can’t rule out).
As I wrote in my AL blog, more of a bit of fun than hardcore baseball analysis, but it’s interesting to see how the two teams look using different sort of stats. I think in the case of both the AL and the NL the teams made using VORP are the stronger teams, however, neither really reflect the current voting (although, as pointed out, the NL VORP All-Stars are close, Upton aside). One thing the stats can’t account for is fan sentimentality and how many of these players people actually watch with any regularity. It seems that players like Derek Jeter ultimately have the edge over players like Elvis Andrus and Jason Bartlett due to who he is and the team he plays for.
Thanks again for reading (if, indeed, you have bothered to read both parts) and stay tuned to see what kind of blog I can write from the ideas buzzing around my head in preperation for Tuesday’s Draft Day Special.
All-Star Voting: American League
The All-Star game matters. We’re told this constantly. So it’s pretty much your responsibility if you’re a player voted into the game in St.Louis to play to your best and try and gain World Series home advantage for your league. And the All-Star game is absolutely the best way to decided how the World Series pans out. Why use such dated and anachronistic methods such as best regular season record when it can come down to who is the better pitcher between David Wright and J.D Drew, as nearly happened last year? 
So, the players probably know their responsibility but how do they get there in the first place? Selected by the managers of the NL and AL champions? Nope! Major League Baseball gives each one of us a vote and why have just one vote when you can have TWENTY FIVE? So, how best to use your 25 bites at the All-Star cherry?
Understandably, the All-Star voting is one of the most talked about
topics right now. It’s hard to know what sort of fresh discussion you
can bring to the table so I thought I’d just publish a load of lists,
yeah?
If You Think Adam Dunn is Overrated
AKA, if you are impressed by a high batting average. By far the simplest way to select a team. The 2009 American League All-Stars would look like this if everyone had made their selection using just BA and if the internet died tonight, thus meaning no more votes could be submitted for the rest of the season. A stretch, I know.
C.Victor Martinez (CLE) .351
1B. Kevin Youkilis (BOS) .358
2B. Aaron Hill (TOR) .328
3B. Michael Young (TEX) .333
SS Jason Bartlett (TB) .373
OF Ichiro Suzuki (SEA) .353
OF Adam Jones (BAL) .347
OF Carl Crawford (TB) .319
Not a bad team. a bit of power and lots of speed. Aaron Hill would obviously win the home run derby, earn himself a big money mid-season trade to the Yankees whereby he would be named World Series MVP in October and go on to forge a career as a grittier version of Joe Morgan as a pundit on Sunday Night Baseball.
If You Think David Eckstein is Overrated
AKA, if you’re wowed by some of the more well-thought out stats in baseball you may wish to select your team by their value over a player of ‘replacement level’ (VORP). Put simply, how many wins a player is worth over an average major leaguer playing his position (10 VORP points is roughly 1 win).
C, Joe Mauer (MIN) 36.4 VORP
1B. Justin Morneau (MIN) 31.2 VORP
2B. Ian Kinsler (TEX) 21.0 VORP
3B. Evan Longoria (TB) 29.4 VORP
SS. Jason Bartlett (TB) 31.3 VORP
OF. Adam Jones (BAL) 37.6 VORP
OF. Jason Bay (BOS) 26.0 VORP
OF. Torii Hunter (ANA) 24.7 VORP
A far less balanced team than their BA counterparts relying almost entirely on power but seems to have a bit more of that All-Star sheen about them, In this reality Aaron Hill is lucky to make the bench and grounds into a double play in his only plate appearance in the 14th inning, Bud Selig forces him to quit baseball soon afterwards and live on a ranch with David Wells and Kirk Gibson.
I know, its not exactly hardcore baseball analysis and VORP probably isn’t even the best stat from the sabermetric family to use in this case but it’s pretty fun to see how different the two teams look depending on how you look at baseball. It’s also pretty cool to see Adam Jones actually has a good case for being an All-Star (although he’s currently 10th in the voting). In reality people probably use a mixture of statistics and plain rooting for their favourite guys, hence Junior and Josh Hamilton’s relatively high positions in the voting thus far. Anyway, I hope at least someone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed rooting through stats and writing it. I’ll do the National League in the next couple of days. In the mean time vote early and vote often – Aaron Hill is depending on you.
longballtactic
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