All Star Ruminations

Well, Saj and I decided to take the month of June off to recharge the old batteries. Saj will probably try to convince you that he left me in the States to go oil up Swedish supermodels, but that would be a lie. They were Norwegian and I was there, too.

We return now on the first Monday of July with a promise. Throughout the summer, we will have two posts a week for you. Please check back regularly. It'll be mostly baseball for a while, with tennis, golf, and offseason NBA and NFL mixed in. Around September, things will heat up with the NFL kicking off and baseball getting into its stretch run, with our beloved BoSox making a run at another World Series.

Later this week, Saj and I will give our thoughts on recent NBA developments around the league. Today, however, we will concentrate on yesterday's announced MLB All-Star rosters.

I'll start with what I think was the biggest snub of the year, an interesting choice for me as many are saying Kevin Youkilis, my favorite player in the league, was the biggest AL snub. However, easily the biggest snub of the year is one of my least favorite players in the league: Gary Sheffield.

Check it: Gary Sheffield is 2nd in in the American League in runs, 3rd in homeruns, 10th in RBI but has more stolen bases than anyone with more RBI than him, he's 4th in walks, and 7th in OPS. Most importantly, he's carried my fantasy team while the likes of David Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Miguel Tejada were underperforming. That, Saj, is an All-Star. What do you think? Who's the biggest snub?


I will agree that Gary Sheffield is having a very good season, his LL Cool J/pedophile moustache notwithstanding. But while deserving, it's hard to find a place for him. For one, the AL already holds five reserve outfielders on it's roster. Crawford and Rios are picks of necessity (baseball's inane "every team" rule) and Hunter and Sizemore legitimately deserve their selections. The only spot I could see being vacated for the good Mr. Sheffield would be Ramirez's. And, yes, Sheffield is having a better season that Manny, but the All-Star Game is as much a popularity contest as it is a celebration of performance. And Manny, I'm willing to wager, is somewhere near infinitely more popular than Gary Sheffield. Why? Because Sheffield is the kind of guy who would steal walkers from old people and punch them in the face.

I'd say the biggest collective snub of this year's All Star rosters belongs to the alienated trio of the NL shortstop quintet that is taking the league by storm this season. While Jose Reyes and J.J. Hardy are definitely deserving, Hanley Ramirez (on pace for 20 HR, 50 SB and 130 R), Edgar Renteria (hitting .324, OPS .879), and Jimmy Rollins (on pace for 30 HR, 30 SB, 100 RBI, 130 R!) are having great seasons as well. In fact, I would like to see Orlando Hudson removed from the roster in favor of one of these guys. No offense, Orlando.


Not a bad observation. The talented NL shortstops brings me back to the turn of the millenium when the American League had four dynamo short stops (Arod, Nomar, Jeets, Tejada) battling for the crown of best shortstop in the game. Now two of them play other positions and one was probably on roids. Still, even though Jeter seemingly survived the battle, Arod is still the best shortstop ever... he just plays third base.

Let's project some lineups, shall we? Here's what I got for the American League:

1. Ichiro Suzuki CF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Alex Rodriguez 3B
4. David Ortiz 1B
5. Vlad Guerrero RF
6. Magglio Ordonez LF
7. Ivan Rodriguez C
8. Placido Polanco 2B
9. Josh Beckett P

Saj?


I agree for the most part. The only thing I'd add is that maybe Leyland throws his guy Magglio a bone at 3 and moves the others down. And flip flop Polanco and Pudge. Also, I like Beckett starting.

National League:

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Chase Utley 2B
3. Carlos Beltran CF
4. Barry Bonds LF
5. Ken Griffey Jr. RF
6. Prince Fielder 1B
7. David Wright 3B
8. Russell Martin C
9. Jake Peavy P

I barely agree with this, but I think La Russa likes Beltran at three. And as per convention Griffey gets the nod at 5 over young guy Fielder, the catcher hits before the pitcher, and there's a bigheaded asshole in the clean up spot.


Bonds in his home park is up in the first inning, so he hits 3rd, thus defying the general rule of the big-head hitting fourth (see Ortiz). So I swap your three and four, and the rest are the same.

1. Reyes SS
2. Utley 2B
3. Bonds LF
4. Beltran CF
5. Griffey RF
6. Fielder 1B
7. Wright 3B
8. Martin C
9. Peavy P

It appears our lineups are quite similar. At least that makes it easy to see who's more right, which is usually me. We'll keep an eye on the 3-4 in the NL and where Magglio hits in the AL.

NBA Draft fallout later in the week.


Conceding your Bonds point. It makes too much sense. But in that case I see Griffey hitting clean up.