This is an all-star team I made on my lunch, taking into account the "one player per team" rule. The real teams could never look like this thanks to fan voting, but what the hell....
AL Starters C Jorge Posado, NYY 1B Carlos Delgao, TOR 2B Alfonos Soriano, NYY 3B Hank Blalock, TEX SS Nomar Garciaparra, BOS OF Melvin Mora, BAL OF Manny Ramirez, BOS OF Ichiro, SEA DH Frank Thomas, CHI SP Esteban Loaiza, CHI
Bench AJ Pierzynski, C MIN Mike Sweeney, 1B, KC Kevin Millar, 1B, BOS Bret Boone, 2B, SEA Michael Young, 2B, TEX Alex Rodriguez, SS, TEX Corie Koskie, 3B, MIN Eric Munson, 3B, DET Milton Bradley, OF, CLE Garrett Anderson, OF, ANA Aubrey Huff, OF, TB Vernon Wells, OF, TOR Roy Halladay, SP, TOR Eddie Guardado, RP, MIN Keith Foulke, RP, OAK David Wells, SP, NYY Sidney Ponson, SP, BAL Roger Clemens, SP, NYY Mark Mulder, SP, OAK Jamie Moyer, SP, SEA Brendan Donnelly, RP, ANA Barry Zito, SP, OAK
NL Starters C Javier Lopez, ATL 1B Todd Helton, COL 2B Luis Castillo, FLA 3B Mike Lowell, FLA SS Edgar Renteria, STL OF Albert Pujols, STL OF Gary Sheffield, ATL OF Preston Wilson, COL DH Barry Bonds, SF SP Kevin Brown, LA
Bench Mike Lieberthal, C, PHI Paul LoDuca, C, LA Richie Sexson, 1B, MIL Robert Fick, 1B, ATL Jose Vidro, 2B, MON Mark Loretta, 2B, SD Alex Gonzalez, SS, FLA Aaron Boone, 3B, CIN Kenny Lofton, OF, PIT Jim Edmonds, OF STL Corey Patterson, OF, CHI Luis Gonzalez, OF, ARI Shawn Chacon, SP, COL Dontrelle Willis, SP, FLA Eric Gagne, RP, LA John Smoltz, RP, ATL Mark Prior, SP, CHI Jae Seo, SP, NYM Billy Wagner, RP, HOU Miguel Batista, SP, ARI Hideo Nomo, SP, LA Woody Williams, SP, STL
(edited by Grimis on 26.6.03 1312) "When life hands you lemons, head down the hall, hide in the closet of your enemy, wait until they get a papercut, then leap out shouting BANZAI and crush the lemon in your hand right over the papercut. Save the peel. Go downstairs to the bar. Order a vodka. Use the peel. Yum!" - James Lileks
I would have thrown Austin Kearns from Cincy on the reserves over Boone or put them both on the reserves. But other than that we have pretty much the same line up.
WIENER OF THE DAY! July 6, 2002!
If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.
Are the real all-star rosters this big? I thought it was just 25 players.
Over 1500 posts and still never a Wiener of the Day!
Oliva: You are the weakest link! Goodbye!
Stewie: Ahahaha. Oh God, that's funny. That's really funny. You write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. 'You are the weakest link. Goodbye!' You know I've never heard anyone make that joke before. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference that outside program before. Because that's what she says on the show, right? Hmmm? 'You are the weakest link. Goodbye!' And ye...ye..yet you've taken it and....and used it out of context to insult me in this everyday situation. What a clever, smart girl you must be. To come up with a joke like that all by yourself. Mmmmm...that's so fresh too. Any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity. Mmmm? Cuz i'm here God you're so funny!
I think the real teams are 27 players. Might be thirty. I forget, I know they added two this year, but, I don't remember what the original settings were.
I don't know if I'd put Millar or Fick on there. There have to be more deserving first basemen in both leagues. Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, both come to mind over Millar in the AL. And Jim Thome, Derrick Lee in the NL.
I'd be more inclined to have Dmitri Young as Detroit's representative. He could replace Munson as a reserve third basemen, and he can also play the outfield and first base. I also think that Rocco Baldelli has merit to the team from the Devil Rays. I might also go with Wells over Mora in the outfield, but Mora's also in the top two in the league in BA. I was going to say something about Ponson, especially with Mora already being on the team, but I took a look at his numbers, and he's having a pretty damn good season. Same with Miguel Batista, although I think Jason Schmidt, Kerry Wood, Randy Wolf, and perhaps Javier Vazquez are all more deserving than him, especially considering you've already got Luis Gonzalez on the team.
(edited by Whitebacon on 26.6.03 1157) Baseball's Sad Lexicon
These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double- Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
I went back and forth between Munson and Young, which set off the chain reaction with the OF situation in the AL. No matter who you pick from Detroit, it's a reach. Palmeiro is only hitting .260(or so) so I couldn't merit his inclusion. Mora is hitting .366, is 2nd in the AL in OPS, and I'm certinaly not going to dis a Baltimore guy! If I had to do anything with Millar, I'd drop him, and put Edgar Martinez on there as another DH.
Batista is something I might consider swapping out with any of the pitchers you mentioned(in fact, Wolf was originally the Phillies rep before I switched with Lieberthal). Schmidt was a tough choice to leave out on the first list, as a lot of guys were deserving...
"When life hands you lemons, head down the hall, hide in the closet of your enemy, wait until they get a papercut, then leap out shouting BANZAI and crush the lemon in your hand right over the papercut. Save the peel. Go downstairs to the bar. Order a vodka. Use the peel. Yum!" - James Lileks
Raffy's hitting .269 with 17 homers and 47 RBI, compared to Millar's line of .313, 12, and 55(!!!). I didn't realize Millar had driven in that many runs. Shit, and he's fourth in the AL in OPS (among first basemen). I can't really argue with him being on there at all. I still have to disagree with Fick.
Edit: I need to finish my thoughts before hitting submit.
(edited by Whitebacon on 26.6.03 1235) Baseball's Sad Lexicon
These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double- Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Despite the hype the New York press has forced down America's throats, the great Clemens is only 7-5 this season after his most recent loss to Tampa. There have to be better candidates than that (and since Torre isn't picking the AL team this year, at least it means the Yankees 5th outfielder won't mysteriously be picked as a reserve). As for Millar, he's a streak player who has been racking up the RBI's the past two weeks (having Garciaparra and Ramirez on base in front of him has slightly helped that job out).
Where have you gone Gene Rayburn, a nation turns it lonely eyes to you.
Detroit: Munson (.244, 10, 30) should be replaced by Dmitri Young (.284, 15, 43).
Pittsburgh: Lofton isn't bad (.275, 8, 25) and Aramis Ramirez' (.292, 7, 43) OPS is slightly higher (.786 v. .772) but I'd go with Brian Giles, injury or not. His OPS is .932 and he only has about 70 less plate appearances than the other two guys. Plus he's the one Pirate who deserves to go every year.
San Diego: I'd take Rondell White (.291, 12, 37) over Loretta (.299, 6, 28) and Klesko (15 HRs but .254 BA).
Washington Huskies, 2003 Pac-10 football champs. Coming soon.
See, the problem with Rondell White (puts on the same old record) is that he might not make it injury-free to the All-Star break. Therefore, Loretta isn't quite as a bad an option to me as it may seem; if I'm not mistaken, he's also playing second, where .299/6/28 doesn't seem t be hideous - matter of fact, that's up there for the position. On the other hand, White's .291/12/37 puts him on par with more outfielders.
Dimitri Young should get the Tigers' spot over Munson - he can play third anyway, as he's done it a few times this year already. As for Pittsburgh... sure, why not Giles. I don't pay much attention to them, so I wouldn't know.
As for Fick, why not replace him with someone like Thome (.249, 18, 53) or Derrek Lee (.256, 13, 36, 14 SB)? Fick's not having a bad year by any stretch of the imagination, but Smoltz, Javy, and Sheffield are already on the team; Fick doesn't have to be there. (For that matter, you can swap out Fick, Sexson, and Luis for Jenkins, Thome, and Lee.) Heck, with adding Thome, you have the Phils rep, so you can drop Batista and add Wolf so you have even more Phillies goodness.
Also, where's the love for Orlando Cabrera at SS? We go how many posts without ANYONE mentioning him? Sheesh.
I'd actually argue for Meche's inclusion over Moyer's, as although their stats are insanely similar (Moyer: 10-5, 3.14 ERA, 71 K. Meche: 10-3, 3.27 ERA, 70 K), Meche has had the "better" season, at least to me. Less was expected of him - he's performed way better than anyone would think, hence he'd get the All-Star slot. Put Mussina on before Clemens, though - even though he did get 300 and 4,000 this year...