The first All-Star Game thoughts of July
Voters picking Derrek Lee over Albert Pujols to start the MLB All-Star Game is the equivalent of picking U.S. Open Champion Michael Campbell over Tiger Woods for an All-Star Skins Competition.---
As preposterous as it is that the consensus pick for the greatest hitter in baseball, the reigning League Championship Series MVP (after hitting 5 HRs,) the top finisher in last year's NL MVP voting that's currently on a 25-man roster, a .339 hitter for the year who has already put together the best four years of a career in baseball history, the best player on the team with the best record (one that has already built a nine game lead in their division,) a workaholic, and the most respected player on that team is not the top vote-getter at his position, I take a tiny amount of solace in the fact that Albert Pujols will be in the National League starting line-up as the designated hitter. It also appears that Phat Albert will be joined in the starting line-up by teammates Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, David Eckstein, and, with any justice, Chris Carpenter, who, in action tonight, already has 11 wins and has allowed one earned run in his last 29 innings as I write this (middle of the third inning.)
Matt Morris, Jason Isringhausen, Yadier Molina, and Mark Grudzielanek are also deserving of All-Star selections by the All-Star manager, Tony LaRussa, and it might surprise you to know that Reggie Sanders has already hit 17 home runs.
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Statistic comparison of the day:
Stan Musial -- Played in a record 24 All-Star Games, hit a record six All-Star home runs
Ted Williams -- 17 All-Star Games, four All-Star home runs
Yet, perhaps sarcastically due to his inability to win a World Series, the All-Star MVP Award was re-named the Ted Williams MVP Award in 2003.
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The date of this year's All-Star Game, July 12th, will also mark the 50th Anniversary, to the day, of Stan the Man's 12th-inning, game-winning home run in the 1955 Mid-Summer Classic, played in Bud Selig's hometown of Milwaukee. The All-Century slugger is a healthy 84 years old and surely waiting by the phone (with his harmonica, no doubt) for an invitation to Detroit. I'm confident that Major League Baseball won't forget to call.
posted by CM @ 7:53 PM
10 Comments:
Since I have no idea who Michael campbell is, I can't put up a great argument. I can simply present the facts.
This is the 2005 all star game. Thus far in the 2005 season, Derrek Lee is leading Albert Pujols in hits, doubles, triples, homeruns, RBIs, slugging per., stolen bases, on base per., and batting average. Lee is also better devensively and is a more integral part of his team than any other player.
So integral the Cubs are two games over .500, the 13th best record in baseball.
Pujols leads in runs, the basis upon which baseball games are scored, and he tied Lee in RBIs last night. I think Pujols is better defensively, more aggressive, fearless-- and versatile, having played three different positions in playoff action. This versatility allowed the Cardinals to pursue Scott Rolen and trade Tino Martinez when building their pennant-winning club. The Cubs haven't won a pennant since the trials began at Nuremberg.
This just in...
The numerologists at The Baseball Prospectus (subscription website) have determined that Pujols (15 percent) has a better chance than Lee (10 percent) to hit for the cycle this year. The Bernie Miklasz column at www.stltoday.com/sports has confirmation.
Hit for the cycle? Do you mean the Triple Crown?
Exactly
I hope, Chris, you won't be making a case for Chris Carpenter being the starting All-Star pitcher since he hasn't been an established great for as long as John Smoltz, Roger Clemens, Dontrelle Willis, and Livan Hernandez, and they all have more post-season experience.
In your All-Star "definition", in a similar analogy, those guys are closer to Pujols and Carpenter the equivalent of Derrek Lee.
Neither of us could ever agree on this subject, but c'mon, man. Nuremburg? Numerologists? That's straying a bit far from the all-star game. Team history can't logically factor into any all-star selection discussion, nor can the likelihood of any one player over another accomplishing something that is nearly, if not completely, impossible to accomplish is this era of specialty hitters.
Defensivley speaking, Pujols might be more versatile, but we're arguing about who the best first baseman is. And, no matter what the numbers say, no one can streatch like Lee.
I agree. When the Cubs sixty year pennant drought enters into the argument you may have subconsciously admitted defeat.
Tell it to Baseball Prospectus.
I know we all have our definitions of what makes a player worthy to start over another in the All-Star game, and I completely understand the Derrek Lee argument.
But that being said, I have to give it up for Pujols.
I find it ridiculous that I've read a number of mid-year baseball publications online that are calling Derrek Lee the mid-point MVP. Say what you want about the comparative stats, but Albert Pujols is the MVP so far. Rolen's been hurt and the Cardinals still have a ten game lead. Their runs, RBI, homeruns are all similar, and Derrek Lee has seven more hits (which essentially accounts for the average difference), but it's mind-blowing to me that Pujols wouldn't be MVP. Mark my words, he's going to wind up being the Shaquille O'Neal of baseball - the guy who gets edged out every year by somebody having a career year.
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