Baseball All-Star Game Rosters Announced!

[ISiddiqui]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas...lstar_rosters/

American League

Starters Avg. HR RBIs
C -- Jorge Posada, NY Yankees .254 17 50
1B -- Carlos Delgado, Toronto .306 28 92
2B -- Alfonso Soriano, NY Yankees .296 22 49
SS -- Alex Rodriguez, Texas .297 21 54
3B -- Troy Glaus, Anaheim .264 15 46
OF -- Manny Ramirez, Boston .326 20 66
OF -- Hideki Matsui, NY Yankees .309 9 63
OF -- Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle .347 7 27

Reserves Avg. HR RBIs
C -- Ramon Hernandez, Oakland .263 10 35
1B -- Mike Sweeney, Kansas City .321 12 50
2B -- Bret Boone, Seattle .310 22 70
3B -- Hank Blalock, Texas .332 14 48
SS -- Nomar Garciaparra, Boston .333 13 57
DH -- Carl Everett Chi White Sox .270 18 51
OF -- Dmitri Young, Detroit .294 17 47
OF -- Vernon Wells, Toronto .304 21 80
OF -- Garret Anderson, Anaheim .309 19 72
OF -- Melvin Mora, Baltimore .360 12 43

Pitchers W-L ERA SV
SP -- Esteban Loaiza, Chi White Sox 11-4 2.28 0
SP -- Roy Halladay, Toronto 12-2 3.64 0
SP -- Jamie Moyer, Seattle 11-5 2.99 0
SP -- Mark Mulder, Oakland 11-6 3.10 0
SP -- Barry Zito, Oakland 8-5 3.12 0
SP -- C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland 8-3 3.27 0
RP -- Eddie Guardado, Minnesota 1-3 3.41 20
RP -- Brendan Donnelly, Anaheim 0-0 0.41 1
RP -- Keith Foulke, Oakland 5-1 2.53 22
RP -- Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Seattle 1-0 0.81 3
RP -- Mike MacDougal, Kansas City 3-3 2.79 23
RP -- Lance Carter, Tampa Bay 5-3 4.17 14

National League

Starters Avg. HR RBIs
C -- Javy Lopez, Atlanta .308 23 49
1B -- Todd Helton, Colorado .338 15 68
2B -- Marcus Giles, Atlanta .281 8 36
SS -- Edgar Renteria, St. Louis .332 8 59
3B -- Scott Rolen, St. Louis .285 16 57
OF -- Barry Bonds, San Francisco .308 25 52
OF -- Albert Pujols, St. Louis .378 26 80
OF -- Gary Sheffield, Atlanta .328 22 68

Reserves Avg. HR RBIs
C -- Paul Lo Duca, Los Angeles .303 5 30
1B -- Richie Sexson, Milwaukee .262 23 60
2B -- Jose Vidro, Montreal .327 10 42
3B -- Aaron Boone, Cincinnati .268 15 51
3B -- Mike Lowell, Florida .287 26 73
SS -- Rafael Furcal, Atlanta .294 11 33
OF -- Luis Gonzalez, Arizona .319 17 61
OF -- Andruw Jones, Atlanta .291 22 60
OF -- Preston Wilson, Colorado .301 19 76
OF -- Jim Edmonds, St. Louis .305 27 63
OF -- Rondell White, San Diego .285 16 47

Pitchers W-L ERA SV
SP -- Kevin Brown, Los Angeles 10-4 2.30 0
SP -- Shawn Chacon, Colorado (x) 11-4 4.27 0
SP -- Mark Prior, Chicago Cubs 8-3 2.54 0
SP -- Woody Williams, St. Louis 10-3 3.18 0
SP -- Jason Schmidt, San Francisco 8-4 2.30 0
SP -- Russ Ortiz, Atlanta 11-4 3.50 0
SP -- Randy Wolf, Philadelphia 9-3 3.23 0
SP -- Kerry Wood, Chicago Cubs 8-6 3.36 0
RP -- John Smoltz, Atlanta 0-1 0.81 31
RP -- Eric Gagne, Los Angeles 1-3 2.09 30
RP -- Billy Wagner, Houston 1-3 2.47 22
RP -- Armando Benitez, NY Mets 2-3 3.18 20
RP -- Mike Williams, Pittsburgh 0-3 6.29 24

---

Pretty good job. I'd rather have the Mets represented by Burnitz and the Pirates represented by Giles, but I guess you need closers (even crappy ones like Benitez and Williams). Funny that the lone Tampa representative was ALSO their closer.

[BillyMadison]

Wow.. Burnitz got the SHAFT! Should be in over Benitez! 17 HR's and he missed a month!

[Chief Rum]

What a shocker--most of the picks actually look like solid picks, instead of the usual wasteland we get from these things.

It just goes to show you what can be accomplished if you replace a nitwit like Brenly and a total "homer" and East Caster like Torre with two guys in Baker and Scioscia who actually seem to know what they are doing.

I'll look closer at the numbers later, but my first impression is good. Even the fans didn't screw it up too much.

CR

[korme]

Sadly, my boy Boone doesn't look like he belongs.

[Hammer755]

The selections of Mike Williams and Lance Carter show the absurdity of forcing each team to have a representative.

[McSweeny]

Jason Varitek got screwed man! he's got way better numbers than Jorge and what's his name from Oakland! boooo

[BillyMadison]

What happened to A.J. Pyrzinski? He's better then Ramon!

[Cuckoo]

Where's Sosa? I thought he was voted in by the fans.

[KWhit]

Originally posted by Cuckoo
Where's Sosa? I thought he was voted in by the fans.

Thanks god he wasn't! That would have been the biggest joke of all if he'd have made it. Luckily, enough of the fans realized that Sosa didn't deserve it.

[superbama]

You forgot to list Edgar. "Poppy" made the American as starting DH

[Cuckoo]

Originally posted by Cuckoo
Where's Sosa? I thought he was voted in by the fans.

Well, I had thought for some reason that he was a lock because the vote totals released last week had him second behind Bonds. I guess in the final tally, he was fourth behind Bonds, Sheff, and Pujols. I agree he didn't deserve to make it. I was just surprised that the numbers changed that much.

[GoldenEagle]

Who is going to be play centerfield out of Bonds, Sheffield, and Pujos?

[Logan]

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
Who is going to be play centerfield out of Bonds, Sheffield, and Pujos?

No one. They'll all just stand in LF and relax. Its not like the game matters...

[tucker342]

hahaha

I hate how one player from each team has to be on the All Star team

Much better than usual this year, than in previous years.

[EagleFan]

It's nice to see the managers didn't follow in Torre's footsteps and pick a dozen of their own players.

[Chief Rum]

Actually, I did a little more checking, and Scioscia and Baker can't take all the credit after all.

Apparently that player balloting put a lot of players ont he roster, too, especially among reserves. So we have the fans to thank for the starters (as usual), we have the players/coaches/managers to thank for half of the reserves, and we have Scioscia and Baker to thank for the rest (including, I some, the unfortunately neccessary individual players from teams that didn't have a rep yet).

Still, it's just wonderful to see such diversity. Especially non-New York diversity. No offense to Yankees fans, but Torre was a friggin' All Star tool, regardless of his other qualities as a manager. He should say a prayer of thanks every day for the existence of that utter dumbass Bob Brenly, because without Brenly, the focus would be solely on him.

CR

[McSweeny]

Originally posted by Ronnie Dobbs2
Agreed. I know that everyone in Boston's offense is doing well, and that may have hurt him, but the man is having a monster season from the plate. Sure, he's no more than adequate defensively, but he's been having the best year at catcher this year outside of Lopez.

i think he's great defensively. Much much better than that joke of a catch Posada. He calls one hell of a game too and he handles that Boston pitching staff amazingly

[mckerney]

And exactly how is Troy Glaus better than Corey Koskie?

Oh yeah, and Dontrell Willis got screwed.

[mckerney]

Originally posted by Logan
Its not like the game matters...

But Fox's advertising campaign is saying the game matters...

Huh, it's because the league that wins gets homefield advantage in the World Series?!?! What the fuck? Where the hell did that idea come from?

[tucker342]

I don't know, but it's a terrible idea

[Bearcat729]

I wonder which would have been better for the Reds

Boone who was chosen, Kearns who has cooled off recently and may be injured, Barry Larkin or Jose Guillen who is putting up huge numbers, is the Reds 4th outfielder and wasn't even on the opening day roster.


Sometimes I agree that we don't need one rep from every team.

[Swaggs]

Sigh...nothing says All Star like a 6.29 ERA at the midpoint of the season.

I'm proud to be a Pirates' fan today.

[tucker342]

I'm sorry, but that's why every team should'nt half to have an all star

[bbor]

Nice to see 3 Blue jays representin

[sterlingice]

No, every team should have an All-Star, but the managers were kindof handicapped by the system this year. The players got to vote for reserves and a lot of the pitching staff so the managers basically were stuck naming about a third of the pitchers and that's it.

Jeremy Burnitz and his .288 with 17 homers (to say nothing for that .972 OPS) would have been ok for the Mets, right? Or how about carrying 3 catchers including Jason Kendall and his .300 average for Pittsburgh? And I know there are all of 3 Tampa Bay fans in the entire world but Aubrey Huff, my fantasy team thanks you for playing 3B this year with your .307 average, 16 homers, and .914 OPS. These are worthy All-Stars. Even Dmitri Young, the selected Tiger for pitiful Detroit, is hitting .290 with 17 homers and a .920 OPS.

Now, the system is so rigid, that people are calling for the omission of team's reps. Fuck, if I were in Detroit right now, the fact that my city even had someone worth of All-Star consideration would make me watch so that I could see some good baseball and maybe even get to see Young.

Unfortunately, because of how it works, the manager's hands are basically tied and he has to pick those crappy closers to fill his team's void. The words "All Star Closer" are about to go right out the window as you'll get a really good one as the main closer and then the closer for all the teams where the players didn't pick the right guy in the field.

That said, I'll take the rosters this year over Torre's or Cox's any day. Tho, somehow we still ended up with 7 Braves and Willis was a huge omission.

SI

[Chief Rum]

Originally posted by mckerney
And exactly how is Troy Glaus better than Corey Koskie?

I haven't checked the numbers, and I know Glaus has been slumping, so I'll figure without looking that Koskie is beating the pants off of him, as is Blalock, along others.

But you're probably better off posing this question to the fans who voted Glaus in. I'm an Angels fan and I would be the first to admit he shouldn't be there (meanwhile, Garrett Anderson deserves to start, but he doesn't because Japan voted away two-thirds of the starting AL outfield--thems the breaks).

CR

[Chief Rum]

I thought it might be good to breakdown the roster further by how the players got in, with so many different entities having a say in the roster, it seems.

We should at least know who to blame.

For instance, Varitek and Koskie have been picked out as notably absent. But it was the fans who picke Posada and Glaus, and the players who picked Hernandez and (rightfully) Blalock. With Scioscia having to use four of his picks on pitchers, and a fifth spot going to the Internet-voted-in final player, that left just two spots for offensive players--one of which had to go to a Tiger.

So Varitek and Koskie and others were competing with pretty much every offensive player remaining in the league for that spot. So you can see how they aren't there.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

The Starters

C: Jorge Posada, NYY (.254, 17, 54)
1B: Carlos Delgado, TOR (.306, 28, 92)
2B: Alfonso Soriano, NYY (.296, 22, 49)
3B: Troy Glaus, ANA (.264, 15, 46)
SS: Alex Rodriguez, TEX (.297, 21, 54)
OF: Manny Ramirez, BOS (.326, 20, 66)
OF: Hideki Matsui, NYY (.309, 9, 63)
OF: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA (.347, 7, 27)
DH: Edgar Martinez, SEA (.299, 17, 59)

Player Elected Reps

C: Ramon Hernandez, OAK (.263, 10, 35)
1B: Mike Sweeney, KC (.321, 12, 50)
2B: Bret Boone, SEA (.310, 22, 70)
3B: Hank Blalock, TEX (.332, 14, 48)
SS: Nomar Garciaparra, BOS (.333, 13, 57)
OF: Garrett Anderson, ANA (.309, 19, 72)
OF: Melvin Mora, BAL (.360, 12, 43)
OF: Vernon Wells, TOR (.304, 21, 80)

SP: Esteban Loaiza, CWS (11-4, 2.28)
SP: Roy Halladay, TOR (12-2, 3.64)
SP: Jamie Moyer, SEA (11-5, 2.99)
SP: Mark Mulder, OAK (11-6, 3.10)
SP: Barry Zito, OAK (8-5, 3.12)
RP: Brendan Donnelly, ANA (0-0, 0.41, 1 sv)
RP: Keith Foulke, OAK (5-1, 2.53, 22 sv)
RP: Eddie Guardado, MIN (1-3, 3.41, 20 sv)

Mike Scioscia's Selections

Note: Scioscia still had to find players from DET, CLE, and TB

OF: Dmitri Young, DET (.294, 17, 47)
SP: C.C. Sabathia, CLE (8-3, 3.27)
RP: Lance Carter, TB (5-3, 4.17, 14 sv)

After that, he had just three spots to fill from anywhere. He chose:

DH: Carl Everett, CWS (.274, 18, 51)
RP: Shigetoshi Hasegawa, SEA (1-0, 0.81, 3 sv)
RP: Mike MacDougal, KC (3-3, 2.79, 23 sv)

It should also be noted that Scioscia (and Baker) were required to pick four pitchers here from these six picks, as the extra pitchers are just in case the game goes to extras.

I would do the National League, but I am tired, it's way past my bed time , and I'm an American league fan anyway. I'll leave it to you NL guys to figure out why Burnitz ain't going.

CR

[ISiddiqui]

It's nice to see the managers didn't follow in Torre's footsteps and pick a dozen of their own players.

It's because of Torre that they took most of the reserve player selections away from the manager and gave it to a vote for players/coaches. It's literally can be called the 'Torre Rule' .

[oykib]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
It's because of Torre that they took most of the reserve player selections away from the manager and gave it to a vote for players/coaches. It's literally can be called the 'Torre Rule' .

Torre wasn't the first manager to do it. Every manager of every dynasty has done it. Cito Gaston was notorius and Bobby Cox has been as bad as Torre.

They should just make a rule that you can't add more than a fourth reserve from a team. If the fans want to elect the whole starting lineup...great for them. But if you've already got four (combination: voting and reserves) or more than four (voting), that should be that.

It's too hard on the manager of a good defending champ because his job is to keep his players happy. It's bad for the fans. So tie his hands.

On a side note, the one rep per team rule needs to be done away with. With 32-man rosters these scrubs ain't gettin' in the game, anyway. There are too many undeserving players owing to the stupid process.

Here's Ken Rosenthal's take:

http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/k...20030706a.html

[ISiddiqui]

Torre wasn't the first manager to do it.

But he is the most egregious case. You normally don't make a rule for the first person to do something, you make it for the worst case.

Example, the reason that when a ball strikes you on the baseball results in you being out AND the batter being out is because of what Don Hoak did. Hoak actually saw Jackie Robinson slow down and allow the ball to hit him, making him out, but the runner safe (on a potential DP ball), which was the rule. Hoak then a few games later, as the runner, picked up a ball on the basepath and threw it into the outfield, making SURE that the runner on first couldn't be tagged.

It's known as the Hoak rule, even though Jackie Robinson was the first documented case of having done it (though he probably wasn't first either).

[clintl]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
Example, the reason that when a ball strikes you on the baseball results in you being out AND the batter being out is because of what Don Hoak did. Hoak actually saw Jackie Robinson slow down and allow the ball to hit him, making him out, but the runner safe (on a potential DP ball), which was the rule. Hoak then a few games later, as the runner, picked up a ball on the basepath and threw it into the outfield, making SURE that the runner on first couldn't be tagged.

It's known as the Hoak rule, even though Jackie Robinson was the first documented case of having done it (though he probably wasn't first either).

Just to clarify, the batter and runner are both out only if the runner intentionally gets hit with the batted ball. If the runner is hit by a batted ball, but doesn't intentionally get hit or interfere, then the runner is out, and the batter is awarded first base and gets credited with a base hit.

[oykib]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
But he is the most egregious case. You normally don't make a rule for the first person to do something, you make it for the worst case.

Example, the reason that when a ball strikes you on the baseball results in you being out AND the batter being out is because of what Don Hoak did. Hoak actually saw Jackie Robinson slow down and allow the ball to hit him, making him out, but the runner safe (on a potential DP ball), which was the rule. Hoak then a few games later, as the runner, picked up a ball on the basepath and threw it into the outfield, making SURE that the runner on first couldn't be tagged.

It's known as the Hoak rule, even though Jackie Robinson was the first documented case of having done it (though he probably wasn't first either).

I still don't get where you get Torre being the worst. Torre and Cox pick the teams almost every year. Every year you get five reps from their teams. Division leaders almost always have five borderline All-Stars.

This year there are seven Braves and Cox didn't choose them. Ok, Smoltz, Sheffield, and Lopez are definites. But if the team were picked with an eye toward blance, Furcal'd probably get squeezed. And we can blame it on the fans, but Gile, Jones and Ortiz should definitely not be there.

But good teams have the names. It's assumed that the players are having better seasons thab players on also-ran teams. Besides, the new system was athrow in because they were changing the format anyway. If there hadn't been that dumb tie last year, there'd be no change this year.

The thing people complained about with Torre last year was that he took too many shortstops. The last SS was Jeter his own player. But Jeter has big name recognition and wasn't the worst possible selection. All of the SS were better than anyone who could've bee chosen third 2B.

Brenly took Damian Miller. Miller was another guy who wasn't really good enough to be on the team. But he was close enough that his manager had to take him.

[TroyF]

The only real problem I have is the lack of Willis on the all-star team. He needs to be there. He's exactly what baseball needs right now. I assume he'll be added when Chacon is forced to miss the game, but IMO, he should have been on it from the first go.

TroyF

[Chief Rum]

Sorry, oykib, but I have been watching All Star games since the early 80s, and no manager was quite as effective at getting his own borderline players on the roster as Torre. As for seven Braves being on the team, maybe you should check to see if they were voted in, by players or fans. Since that's out of a manager's hands, I hardly think you can blame that on a manager.

As for Torre, not only did he often pick his own players ridiculously, but he was also strongly East-Coast biased, picking replacement players from AL East teams before he would consider the other divisions. And the guy had virtually no desire to build a roster. Picking all of those SS's is exactly a symptom of that problem.

There's only one thing better in this game than Joe Torre finally having to sit his ass out of this one. And that's that so does Bob Brenly.

CR

[TroyF]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
Sorry, oykib, but I have been watching All Star games since the early 80s, and no manager was quite as effective at getting his own borderline players on the roster as Torre. As for seven Braves being on the team, maybe you should check to see if they were voted in, by players or fans. Since that's out of a manager's hands, I hardly think you can blame that on a manager.

As for Torre, not only did he often pick his own players ridiculously, but he was also strongly East-Coast biased, picking replacement players from AL East teams before he would consider the other divisions. And the guy had virtually no desire to build a roster. Picking all of those SS's is exactly a symptom of that problem.

There's only one thing better in this game than Joe Torre finally having to sit his ass out of this one. And that's that so does Bob Brenly.

CR

Agreed.

TroyF

[tucker342]

Willis got the shaft!!! That was probably the worst case of someone being snubbed this year...

[tucker342]

Oh, and I agree Chief Rum

[ISiddiqui]

I still don't get where you get Torre being the worst.

Well as already pointed out, he was just so blatent about it. I don't remember many articles written about Cox stacking his team, but I remember quite a few about Torre, especially placing his borderline players in the game.

Just to clarify, the batter and runner are both out only if the runner intentionally gets hit with the batted ball. If the runner is hit by a batted ball, but doesn't intentionally get hit or interfere, then the runner is out, and the batter is awarded first base and gets credited with a base hit.

Yeah, what he said .

[Hammer755]

More idiocy from Dusty Baker.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Corey Patterson reportedly will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. Dusty Baker of the Cubs, the NL manager, replaced Patterson on the ballot with Kenny Lofton of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kenny Lofton?!?!?!? What about Giles? What about one of about 10 other outfielders who are more deserving?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Hammer755
Kenny Lofton?!?!?!? What about Giles? What about one of about 10 other outfielders who are more deserving?

Brian Giles? What's the matter with you? He never played for Dusty Baker!

[ISiddiqui]

LOL!

Yeah, that is kinda messed up.