FanPost

The WAR All Stars Vs real life ones (ft. OUTRAGE! & SNARK!)

EDIT: so, there was a typo on the original MLB.com lineup, listing Reyes at 3B and Polanco at SS. That was incorrect. I will adjust this post from its original form to show this.

Let me preface this by saying I really, really despise everything about this game. It was fine when it was an exhibition game, but making it count for home field advantage in the World Series, yet keeping all the parameters (letting fans vote) of the exhibition really just makes me sick to my stomach from a logic perspective. MLB is currently the only sport on earth that lets fans physically decide where the championship games are played, UGH. But that's only half of it, its a simple equation here: If its going to count, put the best possible players in. Now, where do you count from? It should be from the day after last seasons ASG, but no, its only based on under half a year....and the teams still aren't correctly represented.

Seeing as I'm bored/hungover and have the day off, here's who got in and who should have, with my own comments on the situations. Répartition après le saut...

Selected 1B: A. Gonzalez, M. Cabrera, P. Fielder, G. Sanchez, J. Votto

Actual best 1B: A. Gonzalez, M. Cabrera, P. Fielder, G. Sanchez, J. Votto

Nailed it! Great picks. No problems here....

Selected 2B: R. Cano, H. Kendrick, R. Weeks, B. Phillips

Actual best 2B: B. Zobrist, D. Pedroia, R. Weeks, D. Espinosa

Cano ranks a distant 4th in 2B WAR for AL players, Kendrick 3rd. Kind of mind blowing Pedroia would get overlooked. Zobrist is the most overlooked though, because he has a 4.0 WAR and plays literally anywhere. They could have selected him as the ridiculously silly "UTL" position like they have in the past. Phillips and Espinosa are close, guess Danny should get on twitter, huh?

Selected SS: D. Jeter, A. Cabrera, J. Reyes, S. Castro, T. Tulowitski

Actual best SS: J. Peralta, A. Cabrera, J. Reyes, T. Tulowitski, S. Drew

Hoo boy, again? Really? Why do we let this happen? Washed up Jeter, he of the 0.5 WAR (tying such luminaries as Elliot Johnson and Robert Andino in AL SS) is the starter. Sadly the talent pool for SS is so bad he's only the 14th best SS in the AL according to WAR. Sigh....if you are playing an important game that "counts", you simply do not select this player, you select Peralta, who's 3.2 WAR leads all AL SS, or even the really under-rated Alexei Ramirez, or Yunel Escobar, or Elvis Andrus....there's so many better players here. And yet, Cap'n jump throw gets the call....I hate the ASG.

Drew & Rollins are having better years than Castro, but there's that totally rad "every team must be represented" rule which is more or less as dumb as a mercy rule. Pick the best for the game that's supposed to show the best.

Selected 3B: A. Rodriguez, A. Beltre, P. Polanco, C. Jones

Actual best 3B: A. Rodriguez, A. Beltre, R. Roberts, P. Sandoval

Guess they couldn't possibly have Roberts start in the ASG, could they? Polanco is the 4th best 3B which means he's starting, meh. Chipper is their Jeter, being 13th best 3B in WAR, but at least he isn't starting. Yo, AARON MILES has a better WAR than Chipper though, oof.

Selected C: A. Avila, R. Martin, M. Weiters, B. McCann, Y. Molina

Actual best C: A. Avila, M. Wieters, C. Santana/V. Martinez, B. McCann M. Montera/C. Ianetta

The starters are perfect. Wieters is sure having a quiet breakout year, huh? Strange Santana+Martinez would get overlooked because they are pretty high profile, but Martin and his mediocrity get the call because, you know, Yankees. Sigh. Molina gets in on rep too, but Martin is a more terrible pick.

Selected AL OF: J. Bautista, J. Hamilton, C. Granderson, M. Cuddyer, J. Ellsbury, M. Joyce, C. Quentin

Actual best AL OF: J. Baustista, C. Granderson, B. Zobrist, J. Ellsbury, A. Gordon, B. Gardner, D. Span

Haha this is where WAR/UZR is awesome. The best players who have WAR that are UZR-tilted, namely Zobrist, Gardner & Span, are all overlooked in favor of Joyce, Cuddyer & Quentin, who aren't having bad years, but are good wit the bat. The two glaring omissions here are Gordon & Zobrist, who clearly deserve it more than Quentin & Cuddyer.

Selected NL OF: L. Berkman, R. Braun, M. Kemp, J. Bruce, M. Holliday, H. Pence, J. Upton

Actual best NL OF: A. McCutchen, R. Braun, M. Kemp, M. Holliday, S. Victorino, M. Bourn, J. Upton

Wow, for all his offense, Berkman is still a massively shitty RF, only having a 2.6 WAR. Its a devastating blow for the NL squad that one of the best players they have, Andrew McCutchen, was overlooked here. If the ASG was legit, this would not happen. Bruce, Berkman, Pence = 6.3 WAR. McCutchen, Bourn, Victorino = 12.2 WAR. That's quite a difference.

Selected DH: D. Ortiz, M. Young

Actual best DH: D. Ortiz, V. Martinez

Again, having a DH by selecting a DH is a dumb idea. Why not have Miguel Cabrera starting here? Just pick the best hitter/worst defender! This is stupid as hell. At least there's no "UTL" this year though.

AL most overlooked players: Ben Zobrist, Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, Alex Gordon, Jhonny Peralta, Alexei Ramirez

AL least deserving players: Derek Jeter, Michael Young, Michael Cuddyer, Russell Martin

Zobrist needs a publicist, he is really a helluva ballplayer, would love to have him here. Speaking of potential trades: Gordon needs to be targeted by the A's, he's even playing a good LF too in addition to mashing. Seeing as Ozzie is a twit, he thinks Juan Pierre is the best player he has, so I'd try and pry Ramirez from them as well.

NL most overlooked players: Andrew McCutchen, Shane Victorino, Michael Bourn, Danny Espinosa

NL least deserving players: Chipper Jones, Placido Polanco, Lance Berkman, Yadier Molina, Hunter Pence, Jay Bruce, Starlin Castro

Their OF selections are a total mess, and McCutchen really needs to throw a press conference to say how BS it is he's not there. I'd love to see Bourn, not Pence, in an A's uniform sooner than later. Dude kicks major ass in CF, he's like Rajai, but without the suck. He doesn't hit HR but is all kinds of awesome otherwise.

Selected AL SP: J. Beckett, F. Hernandez, D. Price, J. Shields, J. Verlander, J. Weaver, CJ. Wilson, G. Gonzalez

Actual AL SP: J. Weaver, CC Sabathia, J. Verlander, D. Haren, D. Price, F. Hernandez, J. Shields, CJ Wilson

Strange a Yankee would get overlooked, and CC really is having an excellent season. Beckett & Gio over Haren & CC....matched up head to head you don't see an obvious winner there in a single game sample, so nothing to complain about too much.

Selected AL RP: A. Crow, B. League, C. Perez, M. Rivera, J. Valverde

Actual AL RP: D. Robertson, S. Santos, M. Rivera, J. Papelbon, J. Walden

WAR for relievers is kind of meh, but they went with the top 4 in saves (sigh) and Aaron Crow, who's having as good a WAR year as Brad Ziegler is. Perez + Valverde are particularly awful...actually the WAR leaders are a WAY better bullpen than the selected one. Ouch.

Selected NL SP: M. Cain, R. Halladay, C. Hamels, J. Jurrjens, C. Kershaw, C. Lee, T. Lincecum, R. Vogelsong

Actual NL SP: R. Halladay, C. Hamels, C. Lee, C. Kershaw, D. Hudson, T. Lincecum, M. Bumgarner, J. Zimmerman

Wow. The Phillies & Giants combine for the top 6 out of the top 9 SP WAR. That's insane. What's weird is Vogelsong is nowhere near that top 9. This is why the ASG sucks, the "emotional picks" are never worth their time. Big deal Vogelsong made a comeback, he's not actually that good. Coming back from a bar that you yourself set so low is a pathetic reason for selection. Its like saying "PL78 didnt leave his mom's basement for 2 weeks, but he did that one time to go to a party so HES THA BESTEST PARTYER EVAR!!!!".

I'd put Hudson in over Jurrgens and Bumgarner over Vogelsong, but damn that's a brutal group to face, thankfully the AL has awesome hitters like Derek Jeter and Russell Martin (and his .223 BA) to face them! Ahhhhh, I hate this!!!!

Selected NL RP: H. Bell, T. Clippard, J. Hanrahan, J. Venters, B. Wilson

Actual NL RP: C. Kimbrel, J. Venters, J. Axford, S. Marshall, M. Adams, J. Hanrahan

Again, they went with saves instead of actually good, but they even screwed that up. Why Clippard???? Put Kimbrel in over him and Axford over Wilson and you have a way better pen.

And I'm done. Please file complaints about hypocrisy, statistical and grammatical errors below. Thank you for reading!