Your National League All-Stars?!
Written by Bill   
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 09:00
Oh, boy, what a day. Brutally kicked around (figuratively) in two small towns I've never heard of. Let's talk some baseball!

This doesn't happen all that often, but I have to disagree with tHeMARksMiTh: Charlie Manuel's NL pitchers and reserves are at least a little better than Maddon's AL ones. There's no Curtis Granderson, Tim Wakefield or Brian Fuentes here. Everyone either (a) is a huge star or (b) is putting up numbers that look like they could be All-Star numbers, in a vacuum, without considering their competition. I hate that Manuel, too, has taken five closers, but at least they've all pitched 30 or so really good innings; there's no Fuentes here.

But still.

All-Star: Jason Marquis, Colorado Rockies: 10-5, 3.87.
Not: Javier Vazquez, Atlanta Braves: 5-7, 3.05.
Marquis is having a really good first half. Probably fluky, but good. Still, he's probably the second-best pitcher on his own team after Ubaldo Jimenez, and Vazquez dances circles around both of them, but can't get anybody to score for him. Proving yet again that "All-Star pitcher" correlates more closely with "okay pitcher with great run support" than with any other label you might slap on there.

All-Star: Orlando Hudson, Los Angeles Dodgers: .288/.355/.416.
Not: Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants: .333/.388/.566.
Hudson is okay, and (like Mike Young in the AL) has a reputation for being much better than okay. UZR thinks O-Dawg stopped living up to his defensive reputation years ago and now is a moderate liability (which is still about a 1000% improvement over Jeff Kent). He's a decent-hitting 2B who can't really field the position. Sandoval, meanwhile, is absolutely destroying the ball, and is shocking everyone by being at least passable at both first base and third base. The current NL team has two reserve 2B and one reserve 3B; no reason that couldn't be reversed. And most important of all, Sandoval is really fun to watch. Like a young Guerrero, he swings at everything and usually hits it. The casual non-Giants fan would really like to see this guy play. Hudson, meanwhile, while not nearly the WTF pick Fuentes or Wakefield were, is just another quickly fading 30+ second baseman. That pick just makes no sense at all.

All-Star: Brad Hawpe, Colorado Rockies: .327/.401/.589.
Not: Matt Kemp, Dodgers: .305/.369/.474.
It's hard to fault a manager for taking a guy hitting like Hawpe is, but Kemp is a centerfielder who is playing the position very well (somewhat uncharacteristically, but still), while Hawpe is a corner outfielder who has been absolutely dreadful, giving away on defense nearly everything he takes on offense. Kemp has also stolen 19 bases in 23 attempts; Hawpe is a stump. Maybe you can't cut a guy hitting like Hawpe is, but you absolutely have to make room for Kemp on the team. Maybe...we don't need five closers?






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