Indians All-Stars

Chris Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera were each announced as American League All-Stars this morning. There is no question that both of these players are extremely deserving of the honor, however, that is not necessarily true of the rest of the team.

Asdrubal Cabrera currently leads all American League short stops in at bats (337), hits (98), runs (53), doubles (21), home runs (14 tied), RBI (49). He is second in triples (3 tied), batting average (.291) and slugging percent (.496), third in OBP (.341) and fourth in steals (12). In fact there is only one other short stop even playing in the same league as Asdrubal and that is Jhonny Peralta. The former Indians SS/3B is leading in almost every catergory that Asdrubal is not. The only other shortstop on the American League team is starter Derek Jeter who was voted in by the fans. By my account he is at best the 8th best shortstop in the American League this season, but when you ask the fans to vote, the team with the most fans will get the most players in. Jeter is just one of the four Yankee starters, most of whom do not even belong in the game at all. Including bench players, the Yankees have 6 total players on the team and yet the number one snub named by the TBS team that announced the rosters was C.C. Sabathia. Hopefully AL manager Ron Washington will realize this mistake and play Asdrubal for most of the game.

Chris Perez is currently third in saves with 19 and only has one blown save, which is two less than the two closers ahead of him. His ERA of 2.37 is third among regular closers, behind only Mariano Rivera and Kyle Farnsworth. His 8 runs allowed are less than all other closers except Rivera and his 2 wins are more than any other closer outside of Farnsworth and Joakim Soria. All four closers with 19 or more saves made the All-Star team this year, including Perez, Rivera, Brandon League and Jose Valverde. The bullpen as a whole is very strong and well picked. While Tony Sipp and Vinnie Pestano deserved consideration, you can’t go wrong Aaron Crow and the closers already mentioned. Crow is the only Royal on the team so he needed to go.

The only player on the Indians that could possibly be considered snubbed is Justin Masterson, who has a 2.85 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 113.2 innings pitched. Masterson was hurt by the large amount of great starters this season and the fact that he was unable to amass a large win total due to poor run support. Overall, Indians fans should be very happy with two players in the All-Star game as it has been two years since they have had that many. The next step is getting a starter voted in for the first time since Juan Gonzalez in 2001, but if the Indians keep playing well and making a name for themselves, this will eventually happen.