One other All Star selection comment

by Adam J. Morris on Jul 5, 2009 3:19 PM CDT

I've said that Ian Kinsler got hosed, and I've also said that I don't think Kevin Millwood not making the team is that huge of a snub.

But also...Michael Young probably deserved to stay home, as well.

Evan Longoria won the fan vote, and deservedly so.

Young was named as the backup, and has had a solid year with the bat, going .314/.370/.497, but has also been pretty bad defensively.

But has anyone noticed what Scott Rolen has done?

.333/.392/.490 this year, with above-average defense.

Rolen has been better offensively (.310 EQA, vs. .294 for Young), has been better defensively, and unlike, say, Brandon Inge, has a track record of being (when healthy) one of the premier third basemen in baseball.

Yet Rolen didn't even make the Final Five ballot, which is probably more egregious than either Kinsler or Millwood being left off the team.

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Comments

I guess posts

complaining that the right people didn’t make the All Star game are fun and harmless, but its basically kind of silly, isn’t it?

I guess everyone views it differently.

Personally, Hill over Kinsler is less of a travesty to me than Wakefield over Millwood, but thats what keep all these opinions over all star games fun.

"I saw a soldier try to dig a foxhole with his bare hands. He didn't notice that he'd torn off all his fingernails. I got him out of there quickly; not for his sake, but for ours. Fear is poison in combat...destructive, contagious." - Band of Brothers

by DJCahill on Jul 5, 2009 3:25 PM CDT reply actions

There are quite a few pitchers more deserving that Wakefield

Frankie, C.J., and Feldman probably fall in that category as well.

by Adam J. Morris on Jul 5, 2009 3:29 PM CDT up reply actions

some1 mentioned durability

and the concept that wakefield could pitch further into the game if he was the last guy out of the pen than any1 else b/c he’s a pure junkballer who doesnt have to strain and exert a tone of strength and energy to pull off what would be needed.

mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.

by Jayslick on Jul 5, 2009 3:59 PM CDT up reply actions

Home field advantage will be ours!

by Inkara1 on Jul 5, 2009 4:25 PM CDT up reply actions

But but but Adam...

Feldman doesn’t deserve it though because he doesn’t have 10 years of success. Isn’t that right?

Ron Washington...giving hope everywhere to the kids who eat lead paint chips of being a big league manager when they grow up since 2007.

by rangers85 on Jul 5, 2009 4:30 PM CDT up reply actions

Hill over Kinsler is not a travesty

Hill is having an overall better season than Kinsler. The real travesty is of course Red Sox Nation voting in Pedroia.

by docvisit on Jul 6, 2009 8:14 PM CDT up reply actions

Red Sox finally provide some assistance

by robert_d_wilfong on Jul 5, 2009 3:32 PM CDT reply actions

Popularity, AVG, HR, RBI

are what most fans use when voting. Not WAR, EQA or any other sabremetric stat.

Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
Mitch Moreland - 2009 Rangers Minor League POY

by RangerMad on Jul 5, 2009 3:43 PM CDT reply actions

I'm not sure most fans use stats at all.

They’re just using names. Or in the case of Boston & New York, teams.

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." ---Red, The Shawshank Redeption

by drizzle on Jul 5, 2009 3:46 PM CDT up reply actions

that is why I put popularity first

Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
Mitch Moreland - 2009 Rangers Minor League POY

by RangerMad on Jul 5, 2009 3:54 PM CDT up reply actions

popularity

too many young ppl voting . they never look at your stats at all its who they like.

by kaiserbillwolf on Jul 5, 2009 5:32 PM CDT up reply actions

Did Lind make the AS team

i thought he was doing really well this season, his OBA was 100+ points higher than his BA and he has like 18 HR’s or so. I figured that should do the deal. It is toronto though they have trouble pulling off getting votes

mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.

by Jayslick on Jul 5, 2009 3:57 PM CDT reply actions

Lind is on the vote-in ballot

Figgins
Kinsler
Lind
Pena
Inge

by AL Fan on Jul 5, 2009 4:00 PM CDT up reply actions

ah ok, i think he should get in

Lind BaseballRef

hard to vote against, although i guess OFers are exppected to be more in line with this than a 2bman

mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.

by Jayslick on Jul 5, 2009 4:06 PM CDT up reply actions

I hope Kinsler doesn't make it...

maybe that will knock him down a notch and convince him to be the player he can be. His .256 avg is laughable. Millwood or even Cruz should have been the Rangers lone All-Star.

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981

by TxStCa on Jul 5, 2009 4:21 PM CDT reply actions

Kinsler

He’s been better than either Cruz or Millwood this season.

by Adam J. Morris on Jul 5, 2009 4:23 PM CDT up reply actions

Millwood probably,

but what is your reasoning on Cruz? The defense?

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981

by TxStCa on Jul 5, 2009 4:32 PM CDT up reply actions

UZR thinks cruz has been significantly better defensively

Probably comes down to RF vs 2b but seems pretty odd to state it so factually when its at the very least extremely close.

the preceding post was a great success.

by DShep on Jul 5, 2009 4:36 PM CDT up reply actions

Exactly.

I don’t understand how it’s so matter of fact that Kinsler has been better than Cruz.

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981

by TxStCa on Jul 5, 2009 6:12 PM CDT up reply actions

i think his point with kinsler

is that we should want a bit more of the Michael Bourne concept of hitting out of kins (not that bourne is worth a shit) but i heard an interview with him where he commented that the difference between 250 and 300 BA was a hit here and there maybe not even 1 a week and that after he realized that (read: hitting coach crammed it down his throat) he went more out of his way to get that one hit a week regardless of how he got it and it had an effect of making him adapt his hitting approach a little more.

if not making an AS game got us a lil change in IK’s approach, id think it was a battle lost and the war closer to won

mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.

by Jayslick on Jul 5, 2009 5:15 PM CDT up reply actions

The problem with that is

when you just need a single to score a run, he tries to yank it out of the park which leads to pop up to 2nd, or slow grounder to short and then lollygags it to 1st. As much as we complain about Byrd at least he hustles every single day, not like Kinsler who half asses every day.

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981

by TxStCa on Jul 5, 2009 6:16 PM CDT up reply actions