The Baseball Blog: AL All-Stars

Welcome back to the blog everybody. Last time I picked my NL ALL-STAR TEAM, so today I’ll tackle the AL squad (all stats are through June 29).

With fan voting having ended at midnight Thursday, the AL starters appear to be:
C: Jason Varitek, Red Sox
1B: David Ortiz, Red Sox
2B: Robinson Cano, Yankees
3B: Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
SS: Derek Jeter, Yankees
OF: Manny Ramirez, Red Sox
OF: Vladimir Guerrero, Angels
OF: Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners

Varitek has been long-underrated as a backstop, but it’s unfortunate that he’s going to limp into Pittsburgh this season with a .250 batting average. The most deserving of all AL catchers is Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, who leads baseball in hitting with a .392 average, is among the game’s best behind the plate in just his second full season, and has posted an exceptional .458 on-base percentage.

Since Varitek won the fan voting, I’ve got to leave off several other deserving players. Still up for consideration are Jorge Posada, Kenji Johjima, Ivan Rodriguez and Victor Martinez. I was hoping that Rodriguez would overtake Varitek so that I can include him, but since he didn’t his over-.300 average just isn’t enough to overcome power numbers that don’t measure up to the other candidates. Posada, Johjima and Martinez all have 10 home runs, but Martinez has the most RBI (49) and highest batting average (.294), so he’s the choice.

At first base, Ortiz is going to get the nod to start, and deservedly so. His continued clutch play and stellar power numbers (22 HR, 68 RBI)) are more than enough to overcome his uncharacteristically low average (.267). Jason Giambi has proven that his comeback last season wasn’t a fluke with 22 homers and 61 runs batted in, and although his .267 batting average is low I’ll give him the nod.

I’d like to include Minnesota’s Justin Morneau here in a nod to his 19 homers and 63 RBI, but he’s not even among the top two first basemen in his division, let alone the league, so that’s not going to happen. Instead, I’ll give the nod to Cleveland’s Travis Hafner, primarily a DH but having a monster year (.310, 21, 62), and one of the White Sox two candidates, Jim Thome or Paul Konerko. Since the game is in a National League park there’s no DH category, otherwise I’d probably include both. In the current situation I can’t justify including two players from one team at the same position so I’ll give the spot to Konerko on the strength of his .315 batting average. Apologies to Thome’s league-leading 24 home runs.

Already I can tell that getting a representative from each team onto my squad is going to be a problem, but that’s a problem for later.

At second base, Robinson Cano is having a very good year offensively and has improved on defense. He hasn’t shown a ton of power but he hits the ball to all fields and that ability has carried him to a .325 average. Mark Loretta of the Red Sox has nearly identical numbers to Cano.

Tadahito Iguchi of the White Sox gets honorable mention, if only because of his unbelievable performance against the Astros last week, when hit hit a 3-run homer in the 8th inning and then a grand slam with two outs in the 9th to tie the game. He doesn’t make my squad, but I wanted to acknowledge the performance.

Alex Rodriguez is going to start the game at third base, and despite his much-maligned inadequacies in clutch situations, he’s still having a pretty good year (15, 52, .276)

(Just a quick note on A-Rod’s struggles. I’ve seen many games where the network will put up a stat that says A-Rod is hitting somewhere in the neighborhood of .350 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. That’s all well and good, but that doesn’t matter if all of those hits come with runners in scoring position and 2 outs in a 10-1 game in the fifth inning against Kansas City. The fact remains that A-Rod is a far cry from teammate Derek Jeter when it comes to hitting in the clutch, and that will likely always be the case.)

For my remaining third basemen the candidates are Hank Blalock of the Rangers, Toronto’s Troy Glaus, Boston’s Mike Lowell, and Joe Crede of the White Sox. All have their credentials. Lowell is hitting .311 with 26 doubles after an absolutely atrocious season in Florida last year, but doesn’t have the power numbers of the others; Glaus has great power numbers (21 HR, 53 RBI), but he’s hitting only .248; Blalock has only 11 homers to go with his .290 average,

(Sorry to interrupt the column, but A-Rod just hit a walkoff 2-run homer against the Braves when the Yanks were down 1. Maybe there’s hope for this kid yet.)

Anyway, back to third basemen. Crede has 14 homers, 54 RBI and a .302 average, all strong numbers among players at his position.

I can’t pick Blalock because he’s not the best candidate on his team and his numbers aren’t eye-popping. I’ll take Lowell, as a reward for his perseverance (he’s the early frontrunner for Comeback Player of the Year), and Crede because although Glaus has more homers but a batting average more than 50 points lower.

Derek Jeter is having another Derek Jeter season, batting .333 and on pace for well over 100 runs yet again. He also leads AL shortstops with 15 steals and has a .426 OBP. To back him up, Miguel Tejada is the obvious first choice, having another outstanding season (16, 55, .313) on a struggling Baltimore team. My final pick at shortstop comes down to Michael Young, Orlando Cabrera and Carlos Guillen. As a nod to the great baseball the Tigers are going I’ll take Guillen’s power numbers (9 HR, 44 RBI) over the superior batting averages of Young and Cabrera (.327 and .306 respectively). I’d really like to give Young a spot though, and might slip him on later. Screw that, I’m going to slip him on right now, I’ll deal with the consequences later in the column.

As I move on to the AL outfield, I’m starting to realize that picking this team is nearly impossible. First off, there is not one player on the Kansas City Royals worthy of a roster spot.  This fact alone makes picking the rest of the team nearly impossible, but for now I’ll put second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and his .286 average on the team. Hey, at least his name will give the guy who stitches the names on the jerseys a workout.

In the outfield, the starters are going to be Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki. All three are having representative seasons and deserve a spot on the roster for Pittsburgh. As my backups, players I considered included Alex Rios and Vernon Wells of Toronto Magglio Ordonez of the Tigers, Jermaine Dye of Chicago, Carl Crawford from the Devil Rays, and Oakland’s Nick Swisher. Since I don’t have any reps from Tampa Bay or the A’s yet, Swisher and Crawford are the both on my team, and as my third reserve outfielder I’m like to go with Rios, who is finally emerging as the talent many have expected him to become with 15 home runs and 53 RBI to accompany a .330 batting average. However, I’ve got to give the nod to his teammate Wells who’s having an even better year, batting .315 with 20 longballs and 62 runs batted in.

The pitching staff is also a tough call in the AL. Since I began this column, I’ve noticed that it’s been exceptionally difficult to pick my AL team whereas picking the NL team wasn’t nearly as challenging. I guess it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since the AL has totally dominated the NL in interleague play and it would follow that they therefore have superior players.

Anyway, my guarantees for starters are Jose Contreras, who’s 8-0 with a 3.54 ERA, and Boston’s Curt Schilling, who’s 10-2 with a 3.54 after his win Thursday night and should have a few more wins, having gotten several no decisions in June that could have easily been wins. After that it’s a crapshoot. I’ve whittled the remaining candidates down to 7, but it’s tough after that. The way I see it, Mike Mussina (9-3, 3.28), Kenny Rogers (10-3, 3.44), Francisco Liriano (8-1, 2.21), Johan Santana (9-4, 2.59), Justin Verlander (10-4, 3.13), Roy Halladay (10-2, 3.22), and Scott Kazmir (9-5, 3.59) are all deserving of a spot.

I’ll put Liriano and Santana both on the team for their sub-3.00 ERA’s, and I think Verlander deserves the nod over teammate Rogers for being counted on as the ace of a surprising team in just his first full year in the bigs. My final choice has to be Halladay, who has carried the Blue Jays to within striking distance in the AL East in the absence of his proposed partner-in-crime A.J. Burnett.

In the bullpen for the AL the first three choices are simple. Jonathan Papelbon has been a revelation in Boston, allowing only 2 runs in 36 appearances while compiling 24 saves in the first 26 opportunities of his career. Jenks has proven that his emergence last October was no fluke, striking out 42 batters in just over 36 innings while notching 24 saves in 25 chances. B.J. Ryan is one of the biggest reasons, along with Halladay, why the Blue Jays matter again; is 0.47 ERA is bested only by Papelbon’s 0.45 among closers. As for my final choice, here comes a shocker…it’s Mariano Rivera. He may not be leading the league in saves (he’s just 17 of 19 in save chances), 33 hits allowed in 43 innings don’t scream dominance, but folks let’s remember one thing: this is Mariano F---ing Rivera we’re talking about, the most dominant closer in the history of the game. If there’s anyone who deserves to make the team based on reputation in what has been only a solid, not spectacular year to this point, it’s Rivera. Plus, he’s a Yankee, which never hurts in my book.

I know I’m over-budget on players at this point, so I’m going to have to pair things down, but first a quick recap:
C: Varitek, Mauer, Martinez
1B: Ortiz, Giambi, Hafner, Konerko
2B: Cano, Loretta, Grudzielanek
3B: Rodriguez, Lowell, Crede
SS: Jeter, Young, Guillen, Tejada
OF: Ramirez, Guerrero, Ichiro, Rios, Crawford, Swisher
SP: Schilling, Contreras, Liriano, Santana, Verlander, Halladay
RP: Papelbon, Jenks, Ryan, Rivera

With 33 players, I’m two over the number. I hate to do it, but Mike Lowell and Carlos Guillen are going to have to go. Detroit’s hot start isn’t enough to keep Guillen on the team since I need young as a rep from Texas, and Lowell’s great batting average isn’t enough for him to outlast Crede in the race for backup to A-Rod.

So, drumroll please, my AL All-Star roster (starters in italics):

C: Jason Varitek (BOS), Joe Mauer (MIN), Victor Martinez (CLE)
1B: David Ortiz (BOS), Jason Giambi (NYY), Travis Hafner (CLE), Paul Konerko (CHI)
2B: Robinson Cano (NYY), Mark Loretta (BOS), Mark Grudzielanek (KC)
3B: Alex Rodriguez (NYY), Joe Crede (CHI)
SS: Derek Jeter (NYY), Miguel Tejada (BAL), Michael Young (TEX)
OF: Manny Ramirez (BOS), Vladimir Guerrero (LAA), Ichiro Suzuki (SEA), Alex Rios (TOR), Carl Crawford (TB), Nick Swisher (OAK)
SP: Curt Schilling (BOS), Jose Contreras (CHI), Francisco Liriano (MIN), Johan Santana (MIN), Justin Verlander (DET), Roy Halladay (TOR)
RP: Jonathan Papelbon (BOS), Bobby Jenks (CHI), B.J. Ryan (TOR), Mariano Rivera (NYY)

The candidates for the AL Final Man ballot are too many to mention, but I would put Guillen on my team since I feel really guilty about having only 1 All-Star from the team with the best record in baseball.

Perhaps it’s my East Coast bias, but I tried to pick my team based on the stats, not on reputations, and not on popularity. The final tally is 6 Red Sox, 5 Yankees, 4 White Sox, 3 reps each from the Twins and Blue Jays, 2 Indians, and 1 player each from the O’s, D’Rays, Royals, M’s, Rangers, Oakland, and Angels.

Do you have issues with Steve’s AL All-Star picks? Do you think you could pick a better team? Let him know by emailing him at steve.schaefer@atomicsportsmedia.com and keep an eye out for his reaction column once the teams are announced on July 2nd.