Utley, Rowand, and Hamels Named All-Stars

Philadelphia Phillies, originally uploaded by gajdam1.

The MLB All Star teams were announced today, and, somewhat surprisingly, three Phillies made the NL squad, and none of them were Ryan Howard or Jimmy Rollins. Chase Utley was by far the top vote-getter at 2B, which makes sense because he's honestly one of the best second basemen the game has ever seen, easily the best of his generation. Aaron Rowand, who makes the All Star team for the first time, was a manager's selection by Tony LaRussa (who we believe wasn't drunk and asleep at the wheel this time). I think they all deserve to be in San Fran. But I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Cole Hamels is lucky to have a spot this season, considering some of the guys that were passed up.

Don't get me wrong--on their own merit, Cole's numbers may be good enough, but LaRussa decided to take 6 closers--more than you usually see on an All Star roster (the managers select the pitching staff). This left a lot of deserving starters out of the game and made the criteria for making the cut that much higher. Or at least it should have. The All Star picks are apparently not about who's most deserving; they're about subjective feelings--both of fans and managers, and also rules about each team getting a player named to the team... and maybe, just maybe... marketability?

I know it won't be a popular statement in this town, but there are a few starting pitchers who might be more deserving than our staff ace. Even worse, one of them is a dirty, dirty Met. John Maine may not have the K totals that Cole puts up, but his ERA and WHIP (the latter is, IMO, the most important acronym in pitching stats) are lower, and their win totals are the same (9). On Friday night, the two faced off, and Cole got rocked while Maine cruised through the Phillies' runs-aplenty lineup for a solid win. Make no mistake about it, I hate the goddamn Mets, and it pains me to point this out, but Maine should be an All Star. So maybe keep Cole and give up Brian Fuentes' spot, right? Fuentes has been so bad lately that he lost his closer's job, and yet somehow he's an All Star? I'm all for it. But there are a few other names out there that should be considered worthy of All Star status this season.

Let's start with Ian Snell, who comes from a team that only gets an All Star because every team must have one. Nope. They picked Freddy Sanchez, the NL's third 2B (so don't expect to see more than 3-4 innings of Chase). Snell, who might not be able to cook without almost landing on the DL, sure can pitch, posting a 2.90 ERA so far--almost a full point lower than Hamels' 3.87. But there's someone who's maybe even more deserving than those two: Chris Young. Third in the league in ERA (2.14!), with an impeccable 1.09 WHIP, and not an All Star. I won't even mention Brandon Webb, Aaron Harang, Roy Oswalt, and Tim Hudson.

I couldn't be happier that Cole is an All Star. Before his recent subpar starts, I wouldn't even make these comparisons. I just don't get how they pick these rosters, and ol' Cole is the example I'm using. Similar long-winded, stat-heavy, "obviously he's a rotogeek" arguments could be made about Rowand and probably a handful of other All Stars on either team. Hell, J.J. Hardy had a great start to the season at SS for the Brew Crew, but he's hit a whopping .220 in the last month, and he's starting over J.Roll, Edgar Renteria, and Hanley effing Ramirez. It's like the last few weeks haven't even counted. Bear in mind though, there are still the final few vote-in's to come, so one of these deserving arms may get to wear a hideous All Star uni after all.

Finally, Charlie Manuel turned down an invite to be an assistant to LaRussa, citing prior engagements. Those engagements may or may not include the fact that the last time he was an assistant for an All Star team, he was fired a day later. 

Comments

[GM-Carson]

Every year worthy players get snubbed while league average guys represent their league. It's all a joke because the fans get to vote and that's why Griffey got in all those years despite being injured and why so many damn Mets are in the starting lineup year after year. Bunch of B.$.!

[TC]

I like WHIP as a stat just fine, but to say it's "the most important acronym in pitching stats" is only true as far as your Fantasy Baseball League goes. While, sure, a low WHIP often indicates a good pitcher, WHIP values a walk the same as every kind of hit, and every kind of hit is valued the same as every other. That's just not an accurate depiction of reality.

Take, for instance, Pedro Martinez. Pedro posted the lowest WHIP of career in 2000, at 0.737. That's 20% lower than his second best WHIP. However, Pedro had significantly more strikeouts and significantly fewer home runs in 1999, and an argument can easily be made that 1999 was his best season. Even if 2000 was the better year, it's only modestly superior, and that's mostly due to a better an incredible improvement on batting average against on ball in play, which dropped nearly 100 points, and can largely be attributed to that most nebulous of concepts: "Luck".

Hamels, given his recent mediocrity, is certainly a borderline all-star, but I'd take him over Maine. Young definitely deserves to be there, but at Fuentes expense, not Hamels.

[Matt P]

Now that's a solid comment, TC. I do like WHIP as an indicator of a pitcher's efficacy, because I think it's just more universal, better evaluating non-K pitchers (which there are a lot of). A guy like Pedro is a punchout guy, so maybe K's are best in judging him from year to year. As far as fantasy, WHIP is only one stat of the five we use, so K's are just as valuable, if not more (and in my league, I actually shoot for getting the Totals categories, rather than the Averages). I like your analysis though. That's some good baseball talk.

[Carl P]

Good stuff, Matt. This happens every year, it seems, and it's almost always because someone from every team HAS to make the all star team, as if Freddy Sanchez is going to cause a bunch of Steelers fans to tune in. Whatever. I don't mind the spirit of the rule, but it is silly.

As for LaRussa, doesn't it seem a little bit like he decided on this team around the beginning of June? It's funny - guys that have struggled in June (Hardy, Hamels, Fuentes) had their struggles completely ignored and made the team. Guys that have started heating up (um, Howard anyone?) have had their hot streaks completely ignored, and got dissed. I think this needs to be addressed with LaRussa. Knowing him, his "staff" got together around June 5, picked a team of guys they liked, and haven't budged since. That's my guess.

One more thing - WHIP may not be THE only stat to determine a pitcher's worth, but it is a heck of a lot better than ERA. If a guy is giving up a lot of hits and walks, but he is "scattering them well", all that means is that he's getting lucky. It's all gonna fall apart eventually, because the fact of the matter is that either hitters are hitting well off of him, he has bad control, or both. I'll take the guy with the better WHIP over the guy with the better ERA every day of the week.

Still shocked that Howard isn't on this team. Are you allowed to play in the HR Derby if you aren't on the all star team?