Reviewing My All-Star Picks
July 5th 2009 20:39
The All Star teams were announced today and the lineups were fairly close to the ones I picked in a previous post. In the NL, mine matched all positions except for Raul Ibanez in place of my pick of Matt Kemp. Ibanez has hit better than Kemp this year, but missed time with an injury and plays inferior defense compared to Kemp. Overall, Ibanez has a case to be the starter.
In the AL, mine matched 5 of 8, with Teixeira, Pedroia, and Josh Hamilton making the team instead of Youkilis, Kinsler, and Hunter. Teixeira and Youkilis were a toss-up for me, but only because Youkilis had missed time with an injury. Teixeira is a deserving starter. Kinsler is clearly outplaying Pedroia this season, but Pedroia did win the MVP last season, so a starting spot makes sense. Torii Hunter is having the best season of his fairly successful career and about 4 or 5 times more valuable this year than Josh Hamilton. Hamilton had a great year last season and one of the best comeback stories of all-time. That being said, he has been hurt a large portion of this season and has played average, at best, when in the lineup. Hunter got robbed on this one.
For pitchers, no Jered Weaver, Cliff Lee, David Aardsma, Yovanni Gallardo or Rafael Soriano??? Wakefield's 4.30 ERA does not belong anywhere near an All-Star roster (and yes I realize he has 10 wins). Ditto on fellow 10-game winner Jason Marquis. Gallardo's ERA is more than a run lower than Marquis'. Aardsma has been the best reliever in the majors this year and Soriano has been near unhittable, but it would have been difficult to fit them onto the rosters.
In the AL, mine matched 5 of 8, with Teixeira, Pedroia, and Josh Hamilton making the team instead of Youkilis, Kinsler, and Hunter. Teixeira and Youkilis were a toss-up for me, but only because Youkilis had missed time with an injury. Teixeira is a deserving starter. Kinsler is clearly outplaying Pedroia this season, but Pedroia did win the MVP last season, so a starting spot makes sense. Torii Hunter is having the best season of his fairly successful career and about 4 or 5 times more valuable this year than Josh Hamilton. Hamilton had a great year last season and one of the best comeback stories of all-time. That being said, he has been hurt a large portion of this season and has played average, at best, when in the lineup. Hunter got robbed on this one.
For pitchers, no Jered Weaver, Cliff Lee, David Aardsma, Yovanni Gallardo or Rafael Soriano??? Wakefield's 4.30 ERA does not belong anywhere near an All-Star roster (and yes I realize he has 10 wins). Ditto on fellow 10-game winner Jason Marquis. Gallardo's ERA is more than a run lower than Marquis'. Aardsma has been the best reliever in the majors this year and Soriano has been near unhittable, but it would have been difficult to fit them onto the rosters.
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