Saturday, June 24, 2006

All Star game...

So a while back, I noted that this year should be interesting for All Star selections. Notably that Ozzie will have a field day picking all of his White Sox. so with about a week, week and a half, left in voting, I figured I would revisit.

In the last month, nothing has really changed in terms of Ozzie having the potential to pick tons of his own guys.

So here are the guys I see making the team.

Pierzynski - the guy is 8th in the league in hitting. Ozzie loves him. And with 30 man rosters, he can easily carry 3 catchers (the fan winner currently Tek, the most deserving, Mauer, and AJ)

Konerko and Thome - maybe and just maybe, Konerko does not make it. With Papi the 1B starter and no DH, Thome is a lock. Konerko is in a tight race with Giambi, Hafne and Mourneau for a third first baseman. Tough call.

Dye - a no brainer for an OF selection.

Crede - this is a tough call. A-rod is the starter. Glaus is a no brainer as the back up. But Crede could easily be considered third best. Or at least defensible. Chavez has cooled. Lowell has a ton of doubles and has had a great year, but again, Ozzie makes the picks. And actually I don't have a problem with Crede making the team - he may never get there again.

Iguchi - he has struggled a bit lately. but after Cano, who is there at 2B? Maybe Jose Lopez? Roberts? I know he has been hurt, but can you believe he has ZERO HRs.

Podsednik - I originally thought maybe. Ozzie could defend it as "if they need a SB." but that was when he was hitting close to .300. He has gone from .290 to .250 pretty fast.

So I can easily see 5 position players.

Pitchers.

Contreras might be the best pitcher in the AL right now. He's in.
Buerhle - 8 wins as well. he's in.
Jenks - he loves Jenks. He's probably in. With Papelbon and Ryan.

And that may be it. Vazquez and Garcia have come back to earth. And Garland has struggled.

so probably we have 8 Chi Sox in the ASG. And that might actually be about right.

18 comments:

  1. Yeah, 8 actually wouldn't be offensive, since so many of them are deserving.

    I figure Kazmir will make it this year. First D-Rays pitcher to do it? (And actually deserve it? I think Rolando Arrojo was their first "required" All-Star")

    Oh, and can you imagine the Mets this year with Kazmir? They'd have 50 wins by now.

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  2. Oof - Schilling loads the bases with n oouts, Delcarmen with an out followed by a 1-run single...tie game...

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  3. ...and The Other Javy Lopez comes in as a LOOGY, and gets the double play. Not bad...

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  4. Oh, and Riske's ERA is down to 2.57.

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  5. I wouldn't have trusted Riske in any big situations.

    So I was going to do my full All Star analysis. And this is going to be hard (actually it is hard every year)

    Looks like only KC will have a forced all star this year. It maybe Grudzielanek as a 2B, given how weak the field is. The only other option I can see is Reggie Sanders, but he is hitting .250. I'm sure there have been some tough forced picks in years past, but this could be one of the worst ever.

    C -Tek
    1b Ortiz
    2b cano
    3b a-rod
    ss jeter
    of ichiro
    of valdi
    of manny

    there are your 8 starters.

    c AJ pierzynski, mauer
    1b - thome, konerko
    2b - grudzielanek
    3b - Glaus, Crede
    ss - tejada or young that is a tough one since bal and TEX (Gary matthews or Otsuka) dont have other great candidates
    OF - (any 4 of these?) wells, crawford, dye, rios, sizemore, swisher, ordonez

    Pitchers
    RPs - Jenks, Papelbon, Ryan, maybe Otsuka if young does not go, maybe KRod
    SPs - Contreras, Buerhle, Johan, Kazmir, Zito, Halladay, Mussina, Rogers

    Wow, maybe there won't be 8 white sox. You know its always easy to point at guys that "should" make a team, but when you actually try to construct a roster from scratch, even with 32 spots, it fills up pretty quickly.

    Perhaps Mussina gets selected, but there is a real possibility that only Jeter and A-Rod make the team. And I can hear the Ozzie quote if asked "people are probably sick of seeing the Yankees." Hey he could even say that about the Sox as well.

    Could you imagine if he leaves Papelbon off? I could see it if he gives up a few runs between now and July 5th. Selections often have lifetime acievement status.

    Interesting that the Tigers have the best record, but I could only come up with two potential all stars. sure there are guys that could be mentioned (I-Rod, Marcus Thames, shelton, Inge and Verlander), but I really only see rogers and Magglio making it.

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  6. Of course, the problem with trying to do it from scratch is that's not how it gets done - Ozzie picks some, the players pick some, the fans pick one more. Leads to some weirdness.

    PAPI!!!!!!!

    My god that guy is ridiculous. I mean, half of RSN was SURE he would do that.

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  7. I think half of NY knew he would do it as well.

    Isn't funny how the Yankee fans are all over A-Rod, but the press seem to be doing everything to defend him. Sure there are the occassional stories noting (quite obviously) that he is no Ortiz, but in general they are all very supportive (George King turns his propoganda up a notch, Chass does, Sherman generall defends him). I guess since he is always avaialable for comments and makes the reporters job easier, they cut him a lot of slack.

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  8. And I continue to hate Fox/MLB for not letting me watch that game. At least I got to see an amazing goal by Argentina...

    And yeah, the All star selections are even harder since they come from so many different sources. Its hard enough to draw up a list of 32, but when it isn't even really 32....

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  9. Of course, there's a chance Loretta shoots ahead of Cano in the voting; if not, he's an early favorite for the "32nd man" spot. And yet a Royal is needed. If not Grud, then Elarton? Man that's bad.

    Baltimore also has Ray, but that doesn't help - both Baltimore and Tex have a SS and a RP; Gary Matthews Jr helps that though, but that's at the expense of Crawford or Sizemore or Swisher.

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  10. Of course, either Sizemore or Hafner have to be on the list...

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  11. Yeah, I think that is why Sizemore makes it. A lot more versatility than Hafner.

    The KC all star this year might be the worst ever. I may have to research that a bit. Then again I be there was some year the fans voted somebody in who was having an awful year. Like maybe a Ripken or a Reggie near the end of their career.

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  12. It'll be hard to beat Mike Williams from 2003. His ERA at the time was 7.55. Several KC Royals are better than that...

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  13. Nice research. Wow. Lance Carter with TB was pretty questionable a few years ago.

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  14. Okay, so I'm going to try to name my team.

    Starters - current leaders

    C -Tek (or pudge if he catches him)
    1b Ortiz
    2b cano or loretta
    3b a-rod
    ss jeter
    of ichiro
    of valdi
    of manny


    c - pierzynski, mauer
    1b - thome, konerko
    2b - grudzielanek
    3b - Glaus
    ss - tejada
    OF - wells, crawford, dye, rios, sizemore

    Pitchers
    RPs - Jenks, Papelbon, Ryan, Otsuka (to earl's point baltimore has Tejada and Ray and Tex has Young and Otsuka - Tejada is so much better than Young that he gets the nod and Otsuka gets the Tex spot by default)
    SPs - Contreras, Buerhle, Johan, Kazmir, Zito, Halladay, , Rogers, Pitcher 12

    Pitcher 12 is one of these guys (in order of my likelihood - currently i would pick schilling, but I would never underestimate the power of Ozzie) Mussina, Schilling, Bonderman, Verlander, Rivera, and Liraino)


    Toughest ommisstions:
    Hafner - but Sizemore has flexibility
    Matthews, but hard to pick him over Wells, rios or Crawford
    Swisher - its easy to leave young guys off
    Crede - was on my original list. I still think there is a chance Ozzie takes him and bumps either wells or rios.

    the fan vote will be Johnny Damon.

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  15. We always say the manager picks it, but technically it's always listed as the manager "in conjunction with MLB" or "and the Commissioner's Office". So I wonder how much power the manager actually has? Maybe Ozzie will be so busy with his sensitivity/English classes he won't have any time.

    Also, they'll be in a bind picking the 5 guys on the 32nd man ballot - Damon or Rivera? Bonderman or Verlander? No way will they do more than one guy per team. So there will probably be a Yank (Rivera/Mussina/Damon), a Red Sock (Loretta/Schilling), and a Tiger (IRod/Bonderman/Verlander). And 2 of these 3: Swisher, Hafner, Crede.

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  16. Yeah, you do hav to wonder how much say MLB has in it. If it really was Ozzie's call I would love him to take the 8 starters, then grab a player, anyone really from the unrepresented teams and then stock the team with like 18 White Sox. And when he is asked about it he could say "Controversy? What do you mean. I had to pick those 8 other guys, but had it been up to me I would have just brought my team. In case you hadn't noticed, we are pretty good. and we are only playing the NL. Those guys are not that good. I really think my team can take them."

    Now that would be fun.

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  17. Or maybe he'll make zero effort to play all the guys. Pull all his starters after 1 inning, replace them with all his White Sox, and manage the game "normally".

    "I am, I am the manager. I, you know, get to decide what to do. You [expletive] [expletive]s do not get to decide what to do. I am the one who gets to decide what to do. Are you, you know, the manager? I do not think so. You are an [epithet] who [expletive] [expetive] [expletive]. Ozzie Guillen is the manager, so I think you [expletive] in the media should not be telling me how I should be doing my job."

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  18. exactly. That is what i was going for with him picking all White Sox. Then he could go even further and say that with the home team in the WS decided by the game, it is only fitting that the White Sox decide the fate since they are, you know, going to be there anyway.

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