Oakland got snubbed big time, 1st place team with only 1 all star, they couldn't squeeze an A's reliever onto the final vote ballot?
Oakland got snubbed big time, 1st place team with only 1 all star, they couldn't squeeze an A's reliever onto the final vote ballot?
"Reality tells us there are no guarantees. Except that some day Jon Lester will be on that list of 100-game winners." - Peter Gammons
Bruce is having his best year to date and deserves to go before Puig. I think you can make a strong case that he should go before McCutchen. McCutchen is right at .300 with less than 10 bombs. Surely he won't be asked to embarrass himself in the home run derby again.
That's backwards, IMO. A late mad dash? What season are you watching? Bruce was bad in April, but has played at or near all-star caliber level ever since. Sure he's streaky, but his overall numbers definitely place him in the top echelon of NL outfielders. On the other hand, Choo played like an MVP the first three or four weeks of the season, but certainly hasn't been all-star caliber since. And his BA against lefties is about as bad as it gets. I'd like to have seen both selected, but Jay is more deserving, IMO.
Bruce does have a case, though I don't think he's having a better first half than some of his other years. Strikes me that he has actually now settled into his career norm at .830 OPS.
McCutchen isn't as dominant as he was last year, but he's helped by the fact that he is the only bonafide star on the team with the best record in baseball. He's also got a slight lead on Bruce in OPS and plays a more demanding defensive role. So I have no problem with McCutch over The Boss, even though both are worthy.
Last edited by RedEye; 07-06-2013 at 09:10 PM.
“Every level he goes to, he is going to compete. They will know who he is at every level he goes to.” -- ED on EDLC
Thrilled that Joey and Brandon are starting nods for the NL team and happy to see Aroldis get picked for the pitching staff. Bummed for Jay that he didn't get picked but that's all right. I'm sure he isn't going to lose any sleep over it as he now has four days off before the second half of the season. Any of Latos, Leake, or Bailey could have been named to the team as well but I'd rather see most of our pitching staff stay home and rest for those days. Go Reds!
Edit: Forgot to say that I'm also thrilled for Travis Wood to be selected to his first All Star team and LOVE that there are FOUR Orioles going to the AS game this year. Very cool!
Last edited by HeatherC1212; 07-06-2013 at 08:57 PM.
"I tried to play golf, but I found out I wasn't very good." -Joey Votto on his offseason hobby search
An MLB.com reporter asked what one thing Votto couldn’t do. “I can’t skate or play hockey,” Votto said. “Well, I can skate ... but I can’t stop.”
Bruce leads Pence in HR, RBI, 2B, Hits, XBH, Runs, TB, SLG, and OPS. Even the two areas Bruce is supposedly weakest -- OBP and Walks -- he leads Pence in those also. Pence leads in SB with a whopping 13. Bruce is also better defensively. If one player can so clearly outplay another, yet trail in OPS+, how useful is that stat?
DocRed (07-06-2013),max venable (07-06-2013)
Hugs, smiling, and interactive Twitter accounts, don't mean winning baseball. Until this community understands that we are cursed to relive the madness.
Because all ballparks don't have the same dimensions and that can drastically alter "production". Of course, in some places you need to score more runs to win and in others less runs because the overall scoring environment varies.
OPS+ attempts to equalize OPS for all of the parks that a player spends time in. Playing in the West (in either league) that isn't also Colorado or Texas, you are going to spend a lot of time playing in very large ballparks that are very tough on hitters production.
You don't have to adjust for those things if you don't want to. I do though because I think it matters.
I understand how OPS+ works. My point is it shouldn't be such a factor that it places one player ahead of another player who has unquestionably outperformed him. Jay plays in a park that gives up more HR, but Pence plays in a park that allows for more triples, and probably doubles as well. It works both ways. A ballpark can account for some differences statistically, but it doesn't expain every statistical edge Bruce has over Pence.
It doesn't work both ways though. HR are directly tied to AVG/OBP/SLG/Runs/RBI. A home run has no chance of being caught. A home run that lands 2 rows deep here may be caught in San Francisco. If it is caught there, that hurts your average, on-base percentage and slugging (and thus OPS). A double there is going to be at least a double here. The ballpark could explain most of the edge Bruce has over Pence. Maybe it doesn't, maybe all of his home runs would have been home runs in San Francisco (we could really look it up if we wanted to, but I don't want to take the time to do it).
I am curious, doug, would you have Pence or Bruce on the final pick thing? If you had to choose one of them.
I also find it interesting that Tulo comes off the DL and will play in an exhibition game that (sort of) counts for nothing. Esp. when your team is only 3.5 GB out of first place as of today.
marcshoe (07-07-2013),RedFanAlways1966 (07-06-2013)
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