All-Star voting ended last night and while the purpose of this is to get the top players at each position into the game, then to fill in the rest while making sure every team has at least one participant. For the sake of silliness, what would happen if every team’s best player automatically made the squad, then the rest of the spots were filled in based on team necessity and talent? It might look a little something like this:
Team Based NL All-Stars
C – Buster Posey – San Francisco Giants
1B – Paul Goldschmidt – Arizona Diamondbacks
2B – Joey Votto – Cincinnati Reds
3B – Nolan Arenado – Colorado Rockies
SS – Corey Seager – Los Angeles Dodgers
LF – Kris Bryant – Chicago Cubs
CF – Marcell Ozuna – Miami Marlins
RF – Josh Harrison – Pittsburgh Pirates
Bench – Michael Conforto – New York Mets
Bench – Ender Inciarte – Atlanta Braves
Bench – Aaron Altherr – Philadelphia Phillies
SP – Max Scherzer – Washington Nationals
RP – Carlos Martinez – St. Louis Cardinals
RP – Jimmy Nelson – Milwaukee Brewers
RP – Clayton Richard – San Diego Padres
While I was unwilling to switch any position players to pitcher, in order to get every team’s stars in the line-up, some position changes were necessary. Since Goldschmidt is the top 1B in the NL, Votto was forced to move to second and later down the line, this pushed Harrison to right field. The other corner outfielder is also an infielder although Bryant has played some time in the outfield in his career. With Seager at short and Arenado at third, this team should not only be solid offensively, but defensively. The bench is made entirely of outfielders, so the NL will be set when they want to bench Harrison and Bryant.
On the mound, the NL will start out great, but there’s no world that Richard should be an All-Star with his 4.42 ERA, low K rate and high home run rate, but San Diego must have an All-Star, so here we are.
Filling Out the NL Roster
Bench
Anthony Rendon – Nationals
Bryce Harper – Nationals
Zack Cozart – Reds
Daniel Murphy – Nationals
Cody Bellinger – Dodgers
Yasmani Grandal – Dodgers
Bullpen
Stephen Strasburg – Nationals
Zack Greinke – Diamondbacks
Clayton Kershaw – Dodgers
Kenley Jansen – Dodgers
For the sake of brevity, we’ll go with the more typical 25 man roster instead of the crazy All-Star roster of 30+. Since all teams already have a participant, we can focus on team needs and the best available players, so we get four more Nationals and four more Dodgers, although Grandal is an add only because the team needs a second catcher. If it weren’t for the rule that I just made up that says all the players on the first list have to play first, this would be an incredibly dominant pitching staff as Scherzer leads to Strasburg, Greinke, Kershaw and Kenley Jansen to close it out. This bench also carries another 2B and more outfielders so the NL can have a more conventional line-up once the starters are removed.
Team Based AL All-Stars
C – Jed Lowrie – Oakland Athletics
1B – Justin Smoak – Toronto Blue Jays
2B – Jose Altuve – Houston Astros
3B – Jose Ramirez – Cleveland Indians
SS – Andrelton Simmons – Los Angeles Angels
LF – Miguel Sano – Minnesota Twins
CF – Lorenzo Cain – Kansas City Royals
RF – Aaron Judge – New York Yankees
DH – Avisail Garcia – Chicago White Sox
Bench – Jarrod Dyson – Seattle Mariners
Bench – Jonathan Schoop – Baltimore Orioles
SP – Chris Sale – Boston Red Sox
RP – Chris Archer – Tampa Bay Rays
RP – Michael Fulmer – Detroit Tigers
RP – Yu Darvish – Texas Rangers
The positioning of the AL roster makes more sense than the NL’s and they have defense wizards up the middle with Simmons at short and Cain in center. Sano definitely deserves to be included as both the Twins top player and one of the best hitters in the AL, but Ramirez bumps him off third and into left field. Should Terry Francona want to go to a more solid defense, Dyson is available off the bench. The only question mark is a huge one as no AL team’s best player was a catcher, so Jed Lowrie is going to start behind the plate. We’ll fix that when we fill out the rosters, though.
On the mound, a pair of Chrisses give the AL a strong start, although arguably not as strong as the NL.
Filling out the AL Roster
Bench
Alex Avila – Tigers
Gary Sanchez – Yankees
Corey Dickerson – Rays
Carlos Correa – Astros
Aaron Hicks – Yankees
Mookie Betts – Red Sox
Bullpen
Luis Severino – Yankees
Lance McCullers – Astros
Andrew Miller – Indians
Craig Kimbrel – Astros
The AL’s first need on the bench was a pair of catchers, so we’ll go with Avila and Sanchez although Salvador Perez has a fine claim on the position. Since they already have Schoop and Sano can move into the infield, the rest of the bench is a short stop and three outfielders who all are generally offensive minded.
The major difference between this roster and the real All-Star roster is a lack of actual relievers, players who are often selected to get a representative from an otherwise undeserving team. Since we’ve already covered all the teams, we can have the top two relievers in the AL, Kimbrel and Miller coming in to close out the game from the right and left side.
Other than a little silliness due to multiple players being selected that play the same position, these are still a pair of solid All-Star teams and it will be interesting to see if these teams would potentially be better than the real ones which are selected by the fans, then filled in as best possible.
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