Browntown 'round the league edition: the All-Star C-Team
Crone and 7 other guys on the all didn¨'t-make-it-to-the-final-vote team
You would think us Padres fans talk about Tatis all day and night, but no. For the past week all we’ve cared about is why the all-star voters don’t appreciate Jake Cronenworth. You can’t change us. We’re damaged and we like it that way.
I think the voters did a pretty sophisticated job this year- in general it looks like the All-Star starters will deserve it. And even the top vote-getters to move on to the final voting aren’t bad choices. But as always, the guys that were left out of the top 3s are so good they would easily make the best team in the bigs, especially with a feel for their defensive efforts by using fWAR.
(fWAR is Wins Above Replacement, FanGraphs’ way of trying to figure out how valuable each player is to their team compared to other players at the same position. There are two other companies that measure it. I like FanGraphs, but it’s always worth checking on a players’ bWAR at baseballreference and WARP at Baseball Prospectus. I can’t describe it better than FanGraphs can here, and it’s a little, ok a lot, geeky, but the more you start to wrap your head around WAR the more interesting baseball gets, I think.)
Here’s the team of top fWAR players not included in the final vote, and where they rank in fWAR by position.
C: Will Smith, Dodgers (.828 OPS, 20 XBH, 2.6 fWAR - 2nd in MLB)
A guess on why he didn’t make it: Has to be his .260 batting average. Still some old school school voters out there. This dude is terrifying when your team’s bullpen faces him late in the game. I hate it. These numbers are despite a .527 OPS the last week; in the early going he was...gettin’ jiggy with it. But I don’t know- sexy name, sexy dude, don’t really get it. His BABIP is .283 to Posey’s .358, and Will is currently ranked the 3rd best defensive catcher (8.3 def), so it’s not unimaginable that he will end this year as the year’s best catcher, especially since Posey is 35 years older than him.
1B: Matt Olson, Athletics (.964 OPS, 20 HR, 2.9 fWAR - 3rd in MLB)
Why: Everyone voted for Vlad that didn’t vote for the guy on their team? That he plays in Oakland? I guess? Matt rakes and rakes and rakes and rakes. He rakes so much that he’s third in fWAR in the MLB despite being the third worst defensive first baseman (-7.9 def) behind Mountcastle (-9.0) and Hosmer (-10.1, kill me now). He’s also on a bit of a vanilla lineup without a Trout or Tatis or Acuna, although while you’ll never catch me bagging the Swagg Chain, the A’s Triton is the rad white guy version and any team willing to cosplay as a little mermaid character after the game gets props.
2B: Jake Cronenworth, Padres (.832 OPS, 12 HR, 2.8 fWAR - 4th in MLB)
Why: It’s easy to be outshined on the other side of that double play duo, and it’s only his second year in the league. Plus June’s been his best month, it’s only now that the Crone Zone is in full effect. He’s definitely on the low end of probability when it comes to whether these guys will actually go to Denver, because Adam Frazier will likely be the Pirates’ representative (his inclusion in the final vote is one of those good surprises, although he’s not Pittsburgh’s best player, more on that later). But if the Padres manage to make the playoffs the next couple of years, people will know his name.
SS: Trea Turner, Nationals (.838 OPS, league leading 16 SB, 3.0 fWAR - 4th in MLB)
Why: SIXTH in NL SS voting?! He also made the defensive play of the year, because he is a two-way legend, this one is a straight felony, I got nothing. Cue GoT shame gif.
3B: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland (.854 OPS, 16 HR, 2.5 fWAR - 3rd in MLB)
Why: Jose suffers from a combination of things: low profile, not a lot of chatter, and he’s the first ‘clear third choice’ on this list as Devers and Moncada also play in the AL. There’s also the low batting average at .258, which would be a career low- not that he’s the only one. That’ll probably come up under the new sticky stuff rules. (Plus Astros fans stuffing the ballots…whoops)
OF: Bryan Reynolds, Pittsburgh (.931 OPS, 33 XBH, 3.0 fWAR - 4th in MLB)
Why: Bad team, young ballplayer, tale as old as time. Almost won the ROY in 2019 but had a terrible short 2020 and fell back under the radar. He’ll either take the Pirates to the playoffs in a couple years alongside Ke’Bryan Hayes and be an all-star then, or he’ll be traded to a contender and be an even bigger star. He might even be an all-star this year, which would be sweet because then Crone might go and everyone gets to be happy.
OF: Starling Marte, Marlins (.875 OPS, 12 SB, 2.7 fWAR - 5th in MLB)
Why: Trout is the exception to the popularity contest rule- he’s 1st in voting despite only playing in 36 games. Ah, or are voters more sophisticated than you think? Trout, after all, despite a down year defensively, is still 10th among MLB outfielders in fWAR thanks to that 1.090 OPS. And Starling’s only played in 42 games, so why can’t he also win the popularity contest? I mean..from Pirate to Snake to Marlin…and his fWAR is his high for his defense as much as his offense. His fangraphs def ranking is 7.0, approached only by Jackie Bradley Jr. who’s played in 27 more games. But his baseballreference dWAR is only 0.2. Defense is difficult to measure. For my money, on the eye test only, if we’re going to have defensive players at the NFL Pro Bowl where they don’t actually do anything, we should definitely put Starling in the all-star game where he could play the outfield by himself and steal home the next inning.
OF: Joey Gallo, Rangers (.830 OPS, 16 HR, 2.5 fWAR - 7th in MLB)
Why: The voters aren’t that sophisticated. I don’t even know if I’m sophisticated enough to want a dude with a batting average below .230 in the all-star game. But that’s how effective Joey is with his good eye and power. You might think it’s a true outcome game and not be surprised his fWAR is so high, but Joey’s the only player in the league hitting under .230 with an fWAR over 1.0.