2004 I Love Baseball All Star Thread: Cast Your Votes

i wanted to know your source (as i explained) because i've been trying to find park factors for awhile now, and because i wanted to know what data was being used. and i think one of our sources must be wrong, because if us cellular is really increasing home runs by 30% it would be very difficult to be a neutral park overall.

fwiw, i remembered/realized that my baseball prospectus lists park factors, and they have us cellular as a very slight hitter's park. but again i'm not sure what data they use.

konerko: 1B

thomas: none

Now I'm not normally anti-BBTN because I think at worst they're nice guys with an old-school, backwards thinking perspective, no harm intended. But some of their picks were ridiculous. Also ridiculous was basing their picks on nothing other than HR-RBI-BA, which probably has more to do with BBTN dumbing it all down for everyone at home to understand than anything else. Slugging percentage and OBP and BB are still statistics that don't get people excited.

REEEEEEETHIIIIIIINK
(but both of 'em regularly destroy the brewers. maybe estrada instead of craig wilson.)

Vernon Wells deserves an AL OF spot ahead of Beltran among the CF regulars, too, but has no shot to start.

Plus, he pulled a hammy last night. >:(

Everett must be stopped (preferably not by injury). Pack it for Renteria (I'd be willing to go to Larkin if his votes weren't lagging).

AL:
First Base: D. Ortiz, BOS (write-in)
Second Base: J. Uribe, CWS (write-in)
Third Base: H. Blalock, TEX
Shortstop: M. Young, TEX
Catcher: V. Martinez, CLE
Outfielder: C. Beltran, KC
Outfielder: V. Guerrero, ANA
Outfielder: M. Ramirez, BOS

NL:
First Base: A. Pujols, STL
Second Base: J. Kent, HOU
Third Base: S. Rolen, STL
Shortstop: J. Wilson, PIT
Catcher: M. Piazza, NYM
Outfielder: K. Griffey, Jr., CIN
Outfielder: B. Abreu, PHI
Outfielder: B. Bonds, SF

(Whoops - should've swapped out Griffey for Berkman, maybe.) And, also, because I was lazy, I used MLB's retardo arbitrary rating system (which just multiplies RBIs & HRs & Ks & SBs & other stuff by some factor, and then adds / subtracts where applicable) as a divining rod. Didn't affect my decisions at all, but if you want to throw stones, use that as the slingshot.

Re: Morb trumpeting the greatness of Vernon Wells - I didn't realize this but Wells & Beltran have similar stats (excepting Beltran's mind-boggling success as a basestealer, which is why he'll undoubtedly get the nod) (plus, VDub's "slow start" bit him in the ass, especially in the counting run-production stats) (he should've followed Beltran's lead - sprint out to an early lead, & then ease off the gas in mid-May) (I wonder if the Jays' "station-to-station" approach has something to do w/ Wells not running hmmmmmm).

If Beltran were to be a voted a spot, it could be the first case of trade hype doing it. Or pre-emptive Yankee homerism.

and you're right, wells isn't stealing cuz he's not allowed to by daddy richardi. but docta, 12/3 is more impressive than 5/1, please. especially when you consider that 12 of 15 is a poor percentage for carlos.

david, do you have some ranger fan in you that you've kept hidden? blalock and young, come on. (should be a-rod and jeter obv)

C - Pudge
1B - Palmeiro
2B - I actually can't remember, not Soriano though
3B - Blalock
SS - M Young
OF - Vlad
OF - Manny
OF - V Wells

C - Piazza
1B - Pujols
2B - Kent
3B - Rolen
SS - also can't remember
OF - Abreu
OF - Griffey Jr.
OF - Giles

AL

1B Giambi (Harvey, PAUL KONERKO, Hatteberg [!!])
2B Belliard
SS Jeter
3B A-Rod
C Posada
OF Beltran
OF Vlad
OF Matsui

NL

1B Pujols
2B Loretta
SS Wilson
3B Rolen
C Lo Duca (Kendall)
OF Berkman
OF Alou (Dunn/Abreau)
OF Edmonds (Griffey)

the other guys'll hopefully get votes from me eventually.

JD, how many RUNS are 7 extra steals (and 2 CSs) worth? Maybe one?

Home 33 119 20 27 4 1 6 19 15 15 5 1 .227 .307 .429 .735
Away 27 110 22 34 12 1 6 24 15 22 7 2 .309 .402 .600 1.002

i'm just saying it's more impressive, and by end of the season the difference will probably be quite a bit larger. 20-30 steals, if the past means anything. i agree that 12/3 isn't worth marvelling at in and of itself but baserunnning is a big part of carlos's game, while for wells it's practically a non-factor. they just happen to be flukishly close right now.

for some reason filling out these ballots is a major pain in the ass for me. i have to get motivation from reading and disagreeing with other people's.

Vernon Wells' vote total isn't even being reported, not in the top 15. Trot Nixon and Kevin Mench are ahead of him.

Sheffield is a respectable starter, fuckingmother Jeter isn't.

Playing rotisserie is for peepuls on whom real baseball is wasted.

JD, Jeter hits .300 or so in an average month of his career, so what's so impressive? And why's a "hot" June better than a hot April?

i don't get that you're saying about jeter hitting .300 in an average month of his career. he does, and that's why he's an all-star!

I Love Baseball: answering the question "what do you get when you cross the record nerd with the stat geek?" since 2003.

Battin gaverage basically sucks, but Nomah has hit 8 points higher than Jeetz with lots more power, and he can, y'know, field.

for some reason i always thought you had to pass some really hard test to gain membership (which would be cool) but it turns out all you need do is give them money: http://store.sabr.org/sabrstore.cfm?page=list.cfm&cat=0&man=&mem_ID=30478&afid=&criteria=1001&action=list&startrow=1&maxrows=10&. oh well.

(nomar is a more talented player, and i'm a yankees fan)(though he was worse last year, offensively)

Figuring out "how to win ballgames" is kind of a waste of time to me. I'm not a player, coach or in any way involved with a professional baseball team at a decision-making level. I don't think anyone else at ILB is either.

My only problem with the whole SABR-nerd phenomenon remains the aura of elitism about it, as you've illustrated. "My way of enjoying the game is the right way, the One True Path, yours sucks."

(Oh, and my seat-of-the-pants/"When It Was A Game"-fucking-rules response to SABR-disciple superiority would be: "You've turned an occasionally beautiful, poetic, mythological and mystical game into a calculus class, fuck a bunch of that.")

I'd just like to say, for the record, that I can swing & miss with the best of 'em (amateurs). Unfortunately, my pops thought that being big-boned from the waist down = nascent power hitter, when what it really meant = I NEED PLEATS.

I'd also like to note the subtext in Milo's "how to win ballgames" comments - that is, "only professionals shd be concerned with how to win ballgames", which is the same sort of (IN MY OPINION) floofy hoohah that taints all "why do you music critics bother to write about music?" discussions on ILM.

But, as noted before, there's plenty of room for stat whores and fuddy-duddy luddites here, and there ain't no need to fuck washing hats over it.

I don't even know anymore. http://i.imdb.com/Photos/CMSIcons/emoticons/basic2/sigh.gif

Of course there's room for both - I took a potshot at one segment because a potshot was taken at another. (also: I'm in second place in a league that will pay ~$1200 for first, this is inherently less of a waste of time for me than calculating win shares.)