NL All Bat, No Glove All Stars

This is a follow up piece to my last article, regarding the amazing ability for major leagues to be prolific hitters and dismal fielders. And they say baseball is a 5 tool game. Ha.

1B - Prince Fielder
wRC: 74.1, most created
UZR/150: -2.8, 5th most lost
Now here's an ironic last name, amiright? Come on, it had to be said. Fielder has been the most productive 1B in the senior circuit (slightly edging out Joey Votto, 71.5 wRC). Given that that Albert Pujols has been more Albert Punchless this year, can't say I'm too shocked to see Fielder atop the list.

2B - Neil Walker
wRC: 38.1 6th most runs created
UZR/150: -7.0, 2nd most runs lost
Ok, so he's been 4% less than league average from an offensive standpoint, there really wasn't a good candidate here in the NL. It was either good at both eg Rickie Weeks, or pathetic at both, and I'm looking at you now, Dan Uggla.

SS - Starlin Castro
wRC: 49.4, 3rd most created
UZR/150: -7.9, 5th most lost
Another surprise to me. My eye test says Castro plays a decent field, but the numbers disagree. And knowing me, I go with my head over my eyes every time. Unless I have beer goggles on.

3B - Chase Headley
wRC: 47.1, 2nd most runs created
UZR/150: -8.2, 3rd most lost
Hmm. Didn't see this one coming. Partly because I never imagined Headley putting up a wOBA of .350 in that park, but mostly because I never would have ever imagined mentioning Chase Headley here. Ahh, the wonders of small sample size!

RF - Lance Berkman
wRC: 59.4, 3rd most runs created
UZR/150: -22.9, most lost
So he's not even played 400 innings there, I had to put him in this list. I mean, we all know he's had an incredible offensive year, but I think the amazing thing is his defense. I mean, 22.9 runs lost...thats just impressive. Thank the fantasy gods that defense doesn't matter in fantasy. Honorable mention to Aubrey Huff attempts at defense that compiled an amazing -119.0 UZR/150 in only 88 innings of play.

CF - Matt Kemp
wRC: 76.7, most by 13 runs
UZR/150: -14.9, most runs lost by 5
Honestly, I didn't even really need too look this up. I only did to get a firm definition of his numbers. Both his offensive and defensive numbers shouldn't surprise anyone by now. If only I owned him on any of my 3 teams #swoon. Anywho, I should stop saying anywho and get back to work.

LF - Ryan Braun
wRC: 68.3, most runs created by 14
UZR/150: -6.4
Yep, he is what he is. And that saying is probably the world's worst saying of all time, other than "thrown under the bus." Braun is a fantasy monster. It's no shocker to see him a top the offensive list, and near the bottom of the defensive spectrum.

C - Brian McCann
wRC: 52.6, most runs created by 13
DRS: -4, tied with Yadier Molina for most runs lost*
This is absurd. Yadier Molina is an animal of a defensive catcher. I hate defensive metrics sometimes. Either way, defensive metrics hate both McCann and Yadi. Go figure.

Obviously we are dealing with a preposterously small sample size yet. Most offensive numbers have normalized to some degree, but UZR really needs a 3 year sample to be truly accurate. This was done purely out of fun, and to make fun of some truly abysmal fielders.

All Bat, No Glove

As I laid in bed last night, unable to sleep, I decided to once again peruse the single season FanGraphs Leaders board. Not for any particular reason, but once there I found how good and bad Matt Kemp is. His offense has been crazy good, as I'm sure you're well aware, but good lord, his defense has been "cover your eyes bad."

Since the All Star Game is approaching, I decided to make the most prolific offensive and most inept defense possible. All data is from qualified players from this year, so give me a little leeway in the interpretations of numbers. I'll be using wRC for offense, and UZR/150 for defense. This will give you a rough idea of how many runs each player has created and cost his team. Catchers I'll only be using DRS, because quantifying defense is hard enough for position players, let alone catchers.

Here is the AL "All Bat, No Glove" starting 8:

1B - Miguel Cabrera
wRC: 71.2, 2nd most created, behind only Adrian Gonzalez
UZR/150: -12.1, the worst by more than 10 runs. Thats a win. His WAR just lost 1.0 due to defense...in half a season. Unreal.
No surprise here. A fackin gorgeous wRC already, his defense is rated so poorly I almost feel bad for making fun of it. Almost. I mean wow. That's almost the penalty of DHing right there in WAR.

2B - Robinson Cano
wRC: 54.8,3rd most created
UZR/150: -5.3, the worst by 5+ runs
I know Orlando Cabrera rates lower defensively, but this isn't a list of no bat, no glove. Can't say I'm too shocked to see the "Gold Glover" here. I hate that award. But that's a post for another day.

SS - Asdrubal Cabrera
wRC: 57.4, the most runs created by a comfortable 6
UZR/150: -4.1, second most runs lost
This comes a pretty big surprise. Everyone knows what a hellova year Asdrubal is having at the dish, but I never viewed him as that bad of a defensive shortstop. I looked up his career numbers and sure enough, he's been bad his whole career there. Don't worry, BBTN still gives him web gems. And yes, any other year, Jeter would be the run away at this spot. Normally he's at least good at one part of baseball, but not this year!

3B - Mark Reynolds
wRC: 51.4, 2nd most created
UZR/150: -32.7, hands down the most lost, by a mind blowing 20.6 runs!
The words you're looking for are spilled on the floor from when your jaw dropped. At least that's what happened to me. That is so unimaginably bad that words elude me. I have to move on. otherwise my head might explode.

RF - Brennan Boesch*
wRC: 51.7, 3rd most created
UZR/150: -6.7, second most lost
*So I'm kind of cheating here. Boesch has spent the majority of his time in RF, but almost as much in LF. I was just shocked to see his name as the 3rd most wRC in the AL, behind the monster Joey Bats and 3 True Out Quentins.

CF - Adam Jones
wRC: 46.5, 4th most created
UZR/150: -18.8, most lost
He gets lost in the AL East sometimes, but this guy can really stick. And since he plays in the AL East, non Yankee or Sawx division, we're done talking about him. At least he got more words here than ESPN has given the O's all season! At least that's what a little blue bird told me...poor Torono. Also, between this guy "fielding" Center, and that disaster at 3B, I can't believe the O's pitchers haven't gone on strike yet. And now the O's might hire me for all this ink I'm giving them!

LF - Josh Willingham*
wRC: 29.3, 8th most
UZR/150: -16.3, 2nd most lost.
*Manipulated the numbers a bit here too. He doesn't quite qualify, but I've seen enough of him attempting to play LF that I'm sticking him here. And yes, that isn't a typo. He hasn't even created 30 runs yet. I swear I hate being an A's fan sometimes.

C - Kurt Suzuki*
wRC: 25.0, 6th most
DRS: -3, 2nd most in the AL
*Fucking catchers, they only play 4 times a week, if that. They're all split timing and platooning. I had to put someone here, just like my A's had to put someone in the All Star game. *sigh*

This AL team would put up 12 runs a game, and give up 10. I think this should be the the starting 8 for the ASG. The best thing about a format like this would be that neither pitcher would be happy about! And isn't that what the ASG is all about? Making sure no one is happy, just all equally angry?

The NL lineup will be posted tomorrow! I think I'm going to optimize the lineups, then figure out which team would score and give up more runs. And yes, this is entertaining to me.

Some ASG thoughts

10 Years ago I loved the ASG. The idea of the best players in MLB's seperate leagues on exhibition against each other? Who wouldn't love that?

5 Years ago I was enthusiastic about the ASG. No, I was more enthusiastic about my recent discovery of a little website known as Fire Joe Morgan. Their take on the voting, the game mattering, who deserves what and so forth captivated me like the young wide-eyed child of yesteryear. The budding movement of baseball nerds such as myself was in full swing. We laughed at RBI's, and scoffed at Saves. OBP was the stat of choice for us.

Last year, I had a strong disdain for the All Star Game. I finally realized that its awful. The idea itself is fantastic, but the execution is just...deplorable. It had nowhere to go but up for me, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, it could be saved.

Today. I'm fuming. This is absurd. I'm doing what most sabermetrically inclined people tend to do when we feel slighted...we take to the blogosphere!! The following is a list of things that I would do to fix the ASG. I truly love baseball, and I think if this brief break from the regular season is the "All-Star" Game, then the people in it should be the best at their position. Hopefully by the end of this, I won't have broken an arm reaching for truth, or sprained my ankle getting off my high horse.

Change #1 - The Fan Voting
The voting is a popularity contest. It's a contest where the only merit is name recognition value. The reason for this is simple: Fans are ignorant. Actually I'm sorry, most fans are ignorant. Let me clarify further: Fans are not dumb, but ignorant of the facts and the numbers. For example, many baseball fans consider RBI's, vitally important. RBI's and batting average are what the vast majority of fans will cite when making the case for their All-Star ballots. Unfortunately, I have what Doctors call "The Burden of Knowledge" and I can't share those crude talent assessments. Think about it. Batting average has been the mainstream calculator of a baseball hitter's talent since...well, since Henry Chadwick. Again, I do not blame the fans themselves for their votes, I blame us. The sabermatricians. The guys with glasses and calculators who seemingly everyone says "live in our mother's basements." We can do a better job of helping the uninformed with answers instead of snark, with the correct stats over the old and obsolete. We can do better, and we owe the fans and more importantly the game itself to share our knowledge. Let us not change the voting system, but let us change the basis of the votes. If we can open the eyes of the casual fan to the beautiful truth of the numbers, then the All Star Game will win me back.

Change #2 - Every team gets a representative
How absurd. This isn't Pony League baseball where feelings will get hurt. This grown men being paid (very well) to play a game. They are, by definition, professionals. Lets treat them as such. If a team doesn't have any deserving players, then so be it. I hope that embarrassing the entire organization. Few things motivate as well as the fear of public humiliation. If a team gets snubbed from the ASG, I guarantee changes will happen. The fans would clammor, the owner rattle the President, the President yells at the GM, the GM to the manager, and the manager to his coaching staff and the players. That is of course assuming none of the coaches gets fired. Let's finally drop the notion that there should be fairness in the ASG. We shouldn't reward overall mediocrity when stuck on a pathetic team. If I do my job, but the rest of the office is in pathetic shambles, am I automatically considered CEO material? Come on.

Change #3 - Rosters
35 roster spots? Ummm, this is easy to fix. The ASG rosters should be like this:

C - 2
1B - 2
2B - 2
SS - 2
3B - 2
OF - 5
UTIL - 4
SP - 4
RP - 3
P - 3

Bam. 29 Roster slots. Just trimmed the fat. If it looks similar to a fantasy roster, well, it should. Because thats what it. Simple. If a MLB manager can't win a game with 29 of the supposedly best players in his league, then what is he doing managing his own team of 25?? 29 is a lot. I would personally like to see it cut down even more, but I felt that soon we would be approaching the point of diminishing returns of a smaller roster. DL players are still eligible. I split them up as follows:

12 fan voting
10 player voting
5 manager voting
2 final voting -comprised of players who received votes from the 3 earlier voting, but did not make the cut.

Change #4 - In game rules
-A roving lineup card. That is to say that any player, not just one, can start, play 2 innings, sit, then go back in if need be.
-No tie games.
-2 IP limit for pitchers, 4 consecutive innings or 3 consecutive plate appearances for a hitter.

Change #5 - It "matters"
The ridiculous fact that this sole game decides home field advantage for the World Series is almost beyond words. I hate this. The World Series is played months away, and it actually matters. The AL fans never flaunted the recent winning streak. The Giants have flaunted their rings. The World Series matters. The ASG, in truth, does not and should not. Let team with the best regular season record be awarded home field advantage.

Please Bud Selig, do the right thing and adjust, amend, whatever you want to call it, but just fix the All Star Game.