Every season, All-Star starters for each league are chosen by a fan vote. While it is indeed a great honor for the players and it certainly allows us fans to engage with the game more directly than from the stands, it amounts to a popularity contest that isn’t rooted as much in on-field performance as it should be. (Matt Kemp currently leads the NL in total votes, despite playing in just 36 games and currently residing on the DL.) Things would shake out a lot differently if we eliminated the popularity aspect and honed in on tangible performance.
Below, I give you The Correct All-Star Ballot: the definitive list of who would start at each position, based solely on this year’s performances.
C: The field in the AL isn’t as strong as years past. Russell Martin of the Yankees has been terrible, hitting just over .200 and Joe Mauer is a long way from his MVP numbers. There is no perfect candidate but the race comes down to three guys: Mauer, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Matt Wieters. Wieters started off impressively but has cooled dramtially with the rest of the Orioles (we called that, by the way). He’s now batting .250 with 9 homers. Decent numbers, but not exactly something that screams All-Star starter.
Saltalamacchia has been very good lately. He’s clubbed 13 long ones with an .849 OPS to boot, but he’s only hitting .259. He’s made massive strides this season and the Red Sox have to be thrilled, but I’m not sure its enough to warrant starting in KC.
Mauer plays for a terrible team and is coming off a terrible season. He’s a shadow of the MVP we saw in the 2009 season but he’s hitting the ball well this year. He’d be in line for a few Comeback Player of the Year mentions if he wasn’t being overshadowed by a couple of teammates. Joe has only 3 homers, but he’s got 3 steals and an .843 OPS. While he’s not on pace for even 10-10 season, he’s batting .313 and that’s pretty good for a catcher. If we forget about what he’s supposed to be and focus only on this season’s performance (which is essentially the entire point of this post), he gets the start.
1B: Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez, and Prince Fielder “should” all make the club, but the starter at first base has got to be Paul Konerko. Konerko has led the upstart White Sox to first place in the AL Central and he’s done it with a league leading .346 batting average and .419 OBP. Oh yeah, he’s also got 13 homers and 39 RBIs. Konerko is quietly building up a very strong MVP campaign, and together with Adam Dunn, has made the lefty-righty combo in the middle of the ChiSox order as formidable as the one across the lake.
2B: This is our first major deviation on the Correct ballot. The position should be Robinson Cano’s to loose, especially with the injuries to Dustin Pedroia. Cano started off torpidly but has come back around lately. He’s now got a .297 AVG and 15 bombs to go with 35 RBI and a steal. In some years that’s even good enough to start an All-Star game. But a prototypical second baseman is doing his thing in Cleveland and playing like a rich man’s Ian Kinsler. Jason Kipnis has a .280 average, 11 homers, and 46 runs scored, all less than Cano. But, he’s got 41 runs batted in while adding 17 steals, a dimension that Robbie just doesn’t have. Kipnis gets the nod here for well rounded consistency (and his Indians have ridden him to a division lead).
3B: A good argument can obviously be made for Adrian Beltre, the current ballot leader. He’s hitting .322 in the dynamic Rangers offense, blasting 13 homers and knocking in 48. He also plays some of the game’s best defense at the hot corner.
We head West though, to find the Correct third baseman. I wasn’t sure what position to put Mark Trumbo in, but MLB has him at third on their ballot and that’s good enough for me. Trumbo has carried the Angels for much of the season and has hit his way into the lineup despite an undefined defensive role. (Give Mike Scioscia a lot of credit here.) He’s got an impressive 2.2 WAR, bolstered by a .316 AVG (even after falling in recent days), second in the AL to Beltre. His 17 homers top Beltre’s 13, while the two are tied with 48 RBI and trail Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera (56) by a healthy margin. Young Mr. Trumbo is having a phenomenal season and deserves to edge Beltre in the starting lineup.
SS: Derek Jeter is the poster boy for issues with fan voting. Ironically, not this year though. Jeet has made 12 All-Star games in his career and a good argument can be made that he hasn’t deserved the last two. He’s slowed down a lot these past few years, but Jeter has had a resurgent season. He leads the league in hits with 92 and that alone should be enough to warrant a starting spot. He’s also hitting .310 and has 7 homers, more than he had all last season. He’s not the player he once was, but this year he’s the best at his position.
OF: Three guys will get a start in the outfield and one of them has to be Josh Hamilton. Hamilton has come back down to earth a bit lately (one has to return from the Orbit he was on) but he’s till batting .320 with 22 homers and a league-leading 64 RBI. And that’s after hitting only 1 HR in the entire month of June. Hamilton was galloping along at over a .400 clip until May 16th and his AVG has never been lower than the .320 it is now. Also, he had that 4 homer game in Baltimore in the midst of one of the most impressive offensive weeks ever recorded. Josh gets to start–actually he can even choose left or center.
The second spot has to go to Adam Jones. Jones has carried the Orioles on his back this year and seems to hit a walk off every other night. He was rewarded with a big contract extension already this season, and now he should start the All-Star game. Mr. Jones is hitting .300 with 19 homers and 9 steals and is finaly living up to the potential (and hype) he’s always had. He’s also played in every game this season.
There is no dearth of viable candidates for the last outfield spot. Josh Willingham, Josh Redick, and Matt Joyce should all make the team, but the Correct starter would be rookie Mike Trout. Trout has been amazing since being called up and has kick-started the Angels in a way that might make him a candidate for the MVP if he keeps it up. Trout is hitting .337 out of the leadoff spot for the Halos, with a league-high 20 steals. (You can see more of what I think of him here.)
DH: It’s David Ortiz. He finally avoided those terrible Aprils of his and is hitting .300 with 18 homers and 49 RBI. (He also has a much-overlooked 1/1 K/BB ration.) Today is his first home off day of the season.
-Max Frankel
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