My All-Stars

I'm going with my first non-Yankee post in a while. I just voted for the All-Star game this year and below are my All-Stars.

AL
1B David Ortiz
2B B.J. Upton
SS Derek Jeter
3B Alex Rodriguez
C Jorge Posada
OF Vlad Guerrero, Torri Hunter, Magglio Ordonez
Write in: Kevin Youkilis
Difficult ones not picked: Carl Crawford, Grady Sizemore

NL
1B Prince Fielder
2B Chase Utley
SS JJ Hardy
3B Migel Cabrera
C Russell Martin
OF Matt Holliday, Carlos Lee, Jason Bay
Write in: Todd Helton
Difficult ones not picked: Derek Lee, Edgar Rentaria, Jimmy Rollins, Adam Dunn

I'm an odd one when it comes to the All-Star game. Since the game calls for fans to participate, I like to do so but only vote once each year for players I feel are the All-Stars during the first half of the season. My voting only once is my feeling that voting multiple times is unfair to the entire process, other players, and a bias the results. I don't know any other voting system where you can vote as much as you want by some deadline. Imagine if this country did that in the 2000 presidential race, I'm serial...that's for another blog.

Of course, I don't even watch the All-Star game because honestly I don't give a damn. And I don't give a damn because I don't think the majority of players who are All-Stars give a damn (unless its an incentive clause in your contract and you need the money perhaps. Mr. Sosa would know about that one this year). After all it's called the All-Star "Break". When I was a kid in the 1980s and early 1990s the feeling of the All-Star game was different to me. I used to be exicited about it and it hasn't been like that in a while. It's just not as much fun to watch. So when baseball takes a break, so do I. And not watching baseball makes the gf happy because it opens up the evening for all sorts of things--hey now.

But the above are my All-Stars for 2007. I have a line called "Difficult Ones not Picked" because these players could be All-Stars (and may be since they want at least one player from every team, makes you wonder who from the Nats is going--Dmitri Young--that's frightening to me) but I picked someone else at their position.

Here's my line of thinking when I picked my All-Stars. It boils down to stats for me. I don't go on if they've been in 10 of the previous All-Star games or if they're a "popular" player. To me the All-Star game is about who the best players are in each league during the current season. But then what is best to me based on stats? OPS is a big factor for me since all you can vote for is hitters.

If you don't know what OPS is, it is the sum of a players on-base-percentage (OBP) plus their slugging percentage (SLG). Therefore on-base-percentage plus slugging (OPS). The higher the OPS the more likely it is that the player can get on base more, has great power or both.

So for example, here are two players I voted for and their OBP, SLG and OPS.

Player A: .378/.643/1.021
Player B: .396/.545/.941

Player A has a lower OBP (18 points less), but a much higher SLG (almost 100 points higher) than Player B. Player A is Prince Fielder and Player B is Derek Jeter. Jeter hits for average and takes walks, Fielder is more of a power hitter than anything else. Both are different hitters but also very good ones this year.

But I don't always pick the player with the best OPS at a position. Certainly fielding comes into play too. I don't look at any stats with fielding, but go on what I've seen or heard. That's probably not the best way to sort that out since it's how they pick Gold Gloves each year, but I watch non-Yankee baseball games time to time and see Baseball Tonight at least 3 times a week to make an assessment.

I'm always disappointed the fans can't vote for pitchers. If I were commissioner for a day I would allow fans to vote for five pitchers--any combo of starters, relievers, and closers. What do the managers know more about pitchers than fans who watch them?

I also don't understand why there's only one write in player. How about at most three? Like I said, there are some players that I can't and others can't decide between that deserve to be the backup at a position.

We'll see how the voting turns out, I haven't even looked to see where it is now. And once the pitchers are picked some will pull the whole Pedro Martinez excuse and decline to pitch because they're a pitcher and above playing in the All-Star game for some reason (I can understand to a point if they're on a couple games rest). There is always some politics before, during or after an All-Star game. This year it's Barry Bonds being hand picked I believe by LaRussa.

And by the way, yes I picked three Yankees, but they're all the best at their position based on my method.