All-Star Voting Has Begun

Voting for the All-Star game has begun. On MLB’s web site you can vote up to 25 times. The vote’s beginning brings up some interesting questions though:

1- Should you vote just based off of what the player has done so far this season? If you do, this means that you are voting based off of 1-month’s data right now.
2- Should you vote based off of what you think the players will have done by the All-Star break? This might be more accurate, but also unfair to the player who starts off hot. If they continue this way into the All-Star break and you vote for someone who did not get back to their normal stats, that’s not right.
3- Should you just wait until the day before the voting ends, and then vote? This is definitely the fairest way to do it, but it has its problems as well. First, you might forget to vote. Second, all the votes may have been decided by the time you vote, so you already know your vote won’t count.
4- On a different topic, should you vote appropriately for the league that does not have your favorite team? This only became a problem when they idiotically decided to link home field advantage to the All-Star game. Sure you always wanted your league to win, but really who cares if they don’t. Therefore seeing the best players was the most important concern. Now, I want the AL to win. I want to make sure if the Yankees get to the World Series, that they have home field advantage. Should I then vote for players who have a chance to get the vote, but are not as good as a player they are competing against? It’s my way of positively impacting the Yankees’ season.

If I had to vote today, I would probably use a combination of how the player has already done this season, with how I think they will have done by the All-Star break. And I will not try to sabotage the National League team (although this could be one thing Yankees and Red Sox fans could do together. It would almost be kind of sweet).

AL Catcher:
Right now, Victor Martinez and Ramon Hernandez are the only two to consider voting for. By the time voting ends that could change. Currently, Kenji Johjima, AJ Pierzynski, Jorge Posada, and Ivan Rodriguez are 44th, 45th, 46th, and 47th in the AL in OPS. Any of those four or Jason Varitek could join the race. Victor Martinez has been the better of the two so far, and may very well remain the best of the entire group.
Victor Martinez

AL First Base:
Tough position. Imagine if Jim Thome and Nick Swisher were here too. Here we have Jason Giambi, David Ortiz, Travis Hafner, Chris Shelton, and Paul Konerko. These five hitters represent 5 of the AL’s top 14 in OPS. That’s even more impressive when you figure that three others, Swisher, Thome, and Jonny Gomes aren’t even on the AL ballot. I think you immediately have to eliminate David Ortiz. If this was a weak position it would be one thing, but since it’s a strong position, and Ortiz hasn’t played a single game at first base this year, and only 140 in the last 8 seasons combined, we’ll toss him out. Shelton deserves a lot of consideration due to the Tigers fast start, but if you factor at all where you think they’ll be by the all-star break, you take him off. Konerko’s been good, but not Hafner/Giambi good. Giambi has a sizable lead in the AL in both OBP and SLG.
Jason Giambi

AL Second Base
There is a chance Robinson Cano or Tad Iguchi could get the vote because Cano plays in New York and Iguchi will get the Japanese vote, and the two best candidates play in Baltimore and Minnesota. Luis Castillo has been a little better than Brian Roberts this season, but that is completely due to his new home. He’s batting .364, but about .100 points higher than that at home, and about .100 points lower than that on the road. You have to give him some credit for taking advantage of the home conditions, but if put Brian Roberts on an equal surface, he’d have significantly better numbers than Castillo.
Brian Roberts

AL Shortstop
Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada, and Michael Young are the three to consider. Carlos Guillen has gotten off to a better start than Young, but his chances of keeping it up are not as good as Young’s chances. But for now, considering how they are doing now and their All-Star pasts, this comes down between Jeter and Tejada. Tejada has an unreal .423 batting average. Despite that, Jeter still has the higher OPS, mostly because Tejada doesn’t run hard. Jeter has as many triples as Tejada has doubles. Tejada doesn’t run out popups or some groundouts, and his defense has been deteriorating. It’s a shame to watch him do anything other than hit these days.
Derek Jeter

AL Third Base
If you were going to vote right now based off of performance of this season, you would limit your choices between Eric Chavez and Troy Glaus. If you are voting purely on what you think they’ll be doing by the All-Star break, then you can vote Alex Rodriguez. This is one of the prime examples on why not to vote yet. Since for this I am voting right now, I’ll go with baseball’s best position player to never make an All-Star team.
Eric Chavez

AL Outfield
Vernon Wells is the one outfield lock on this vote. He deserves it right now, and there is no reason to think he won’t come All-Star time. The next best candidates from what they’ve done this season are Alexis Rios, Jermaine Dye, and Kevin Mench. Followed by a group including Casey Blake, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, and Johnny Damon. It would be safe to assume that Vladimir Guerrero will get into this race soon as well, and still possibly Ichiro and Matsui who will both be well supported in the Japanese vote anyway. This is not like third base though, where the good start is by a person who puts up very good numbers every year while playing Gold Glove defense. Therefore I’m not just going with the three best players as of this point, but the three who have good enough numbers but I want to see on my All-Star team.
Vernon Wells, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez

NL Catcher
There is only one big name catcher in this league, which means Mike Piazza might end up getting the vote. Since Paul LoDuca is doing well, Piazza probably will come up short, as he won’t be able to get the New York vote. That leaves the race between LoDuca, Brad Ausmus, Damian Miller, Michael Barrett, and Brian McCann. Not exactly the names the AL puts out at this position. I’ll eliminate Ausmus and Miller based on the fact that history says they will not be able to maintain their current numbers. Only one of these remaining three is still getting better.
Brian McCann

NL First Base
Albert Pujols

NL Second Base
If Alfonso Soriano was still a second baseman, he may very well get the vote in either league. Before the season Jeff Kent and Marcus Giles may have been two of the leading candidates, now they would have to get very hot to have a chance. Todd Walker, Craig Biggio, Jose Vidro, and Chase Utley headline the race here. How important is All-Star game defense? Todd Walker has a .442 OBP and a .514 SLG. Biggio isn’t the defensive player he used to be and neither is Vidro. I haven’t seen Utley play this year, but it doesn’t seem like we have a great defensive player from this group, so may as well go offense.
Todd Walker

NL Shortstop
For quite some time the NL hasn’t been able to compete with the AL at this position. Even with Nomar as an NL 1st Baseman, and ARod at third, the NL still hasn’t gained ground. They might pick up some ground soon with Hanley Ramirez, Ronny Cedeno, Jose Reyes, and JJ Hardy, but none of them are All-Stars yet. That leaves the race between Jack Wilson and 39-year old Omar Vizquel. Jack Wilson has more home runs, but Vizquel gets on base a lot more, still can play a slick shortstop and has helped the Giants stay in the race even with a slumping Barry Bonds.
Omar Vizquel

NL Third Base
This has become a pretty deep position. David Wright is 6th in OPS at this position in the NL. He’s still behind Morgan Ensberg, Miguel Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion, Garrett Atkins, and Scott Rolen. Based off of what they have done and will do, for my voting I have it as a 3-person race between Ensberg, Cabrera, and Wright, although this is easily arguable. None of the three is a bad selection, but Wright hasn’t been as good as the other two this year so far, and they’ve both done it before, so I’ll eliminate him too. Cabrera’s team has 6 wins.
Morgan Ensberg

NL Outfield
If we look at the NL’s top 3 in OPS in the outfield we have Brian Hawpe, Barry Bonds, and Moises Alou. I was about to just throw out Brian Hawpe because he is a Rockie, but I figured to be fair I should at least check his splits before throwing him out. After looking at his splits I think the last time I was this shocked was when the Brewers made Jeffrey Hammonds the highest paid player in their team’s history. Hawpe has extreme splits, but the wrong way. He has a .764 OPS in Colorado, and a 1.454 OPS away from the mile-high conditions. I checked a second source to verify this. Okay, he’s on my team. Despite Bonds’ OPS, there are more than enough reasons not to take him. Adam Dunn, Carlos Lee, Bobby Abreau, and Pat Burrell are the next group in OPS, with Andruw Jones not too far behind. Soriano and Jason Bay are easily within striking distance if they get hot. So I’ll factor in what they’ve done, offense, defense, history and the surprising realization that I have to take Hawpe.
Brian Hawpe, Moises Alou, Andruw Jones

AL Starters
C- Victor Martinez
1B- Jason Giambi
2B- Brian Roberts
SS- Derek Jeter
3B- Eric Chavez
LF- Manny Ramirez
CF- Vernon Wells
RF- Gary Sheffield

NL Starters
C- Brian McCann
1B- Albert Pujols
2B- Todd Walker
SS- Omar Vizquel
3B- Morgan Ensberg
LF- Brian Hawpe
CF- Andruw Jones
RF- Moises Alou

Since I want ARod the AL team, I’ll wait a while before I vote.