OK, here's the deal: the Knights softball team has a game the night of the All-Star Game, and five of us BARB guys are on that team, so Tuesday is a no-go for our All-Star gathering. Here's my alternative: we'll gather at Me and Ed's Pizza (Bullard and West) on Monday, July 14th, starting some time between 4:00 and 7:00, and catch the Home Run Derby (ESPN) and possibly the Taco Bell Softball Legends Classic while talking ball. The exact time will be determined after conferring with Jeff Moore regarding a possible practice on Monday.
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The current issue (July 2-8) of USA Today Sports Weekly is instructive. The writers and editors of that worthy publication listed the top 10 MVP candidates in both leagues, ranking them by points as in actual MVP voting. Here's the breakdown of qualifiers:1. Lance Berkman, Darwin (151)
2. Josh Hamilton, Darwin (145)
3. Chipper Jones, Darwin (99)
4. Chase Utley, Brooklyn (96)
5. Carlos Quentin, Oakeyland (93)
6. Milton Bradley, Darwin (91)
7. Albert Pujols, Frostbite (86)
8. J.D. Drew, unaffiliated (73)
9. Dan Uggla, S-Mart (67)
10. Justin Morneau, Black Mesa (56)
Elsewhere in that same issue, fantasy experts Paul Petera and Ron Shandler ponder the question of who the Fantasy All-Stars are: that is, those players "who have most exceeded their preseason projected value" and turned their owners the tidiest profits. As the writers remark, "If you're at or near the top of your standings, chances are a few of these guys are on your roster." Indeed! Here are the BARB guys deserving of a mention from that list...
AL
C Dioner Navarro, Worcester
C A.J. Pierzynski, S-Mart
1B Kevin Youkilis, Black Mesa
1B Aubrey Huff (Brooklyn, minors)
2B Ian Kinsler, Black Mesa
2B Jose Lopez, Black Mesa
SS Bobby Crosby (Pottsylvania, minors)
SS Orlando Cabrera, Oakeyland
OF Josh Hamilton, Darwin
OF Milton Bradley, Darwin
OF Carlos Quentin, Oakeyland
LHP Cliff Lee, Pottsylvania
RHP Mariano Rivera, Las Vegas
LHP George Sherrill, Worcester
NL
C Ryan Doumit, Darwin
C Geovany Soto, Casselton
1B Lance Berkman, Darwin
1B Jorge Cantu, Las Vegas
2B Dan Uggla, S-Mart
3B Chipper Jones, Darwin
3B Mark Reynolds, Oakeyland
SS Ryan Theriot, Pottsylvania
SS Miguel Tejada, S-Mart
OF Xavier Nady, S-Mart
OF Kosuke Fukudome, Las Vegas
RHP Edinson Volquez, Yuma
RHP Kerry Wood, Las Vegas
RHP Jon Rauch, Yuma
It's instructive to see which team is getting the most bang for its' draft buck, at the moment. Also, it's interesting to see the All-Stars currently not in the league:
1B Jason Giambi
3B Joe Crede
OF Pat Burrell, J.D. Drew, Ryan Ludwick, Nate McLouth
SP Aaron Cook, Ryan Dempster, Joe Saunders
Here's a question: don't you think we should place all of these guys in the expansion pool? We are probably going to be having an expansion draft this month, and I'll have news about that at the All-Star gathering.
Speaking of the actual All-Stars, the Finches will be putting four in the starting lineups (Berkman, Bradley, Hamilton and Jones) and five in the reserves (Carlos Guillen, Cristian Guzman, Scott Kazmir, David Ortiz and Aaron Rowand), a total of nine All-Stars. How did other BARB owners do? Hey, I'm glad you asked! The first number is the total number of All-Stars, the second number, with the asterisk, is the number of starters....
Black Mesa (6, 2*)
Brooklyn (4, 2*)
Casselton (4, 1*)
Darwin (9, 4*)
Frostbite (8, 1*)
Las Vegas (7, 3*)
Lexington (3, 0*)
Oakeyland (2, 0*)
Pottsylvania (3, 0*)
S-Mart (4, 1*)
Worcester (7, 3*)
Yuma (6, 1*)
Man, it's a great time to be a Finches fan! Any front-runners out there?
5 comments:
Here's why the Finches don't win it all...
The track record of the big four (or whatever they are called today):
Hamilton is completely unproven in the long haul. Addiction tends to relapse.
Chipper is the worst MVP candidate. For one, he sits out all the big games ala Rod Carew. He chokes in the big games, thus is not/should not be considered for MVP.
Bradley is about to have a meltdown as its almost mid-summer.
Berkman tends to fade as his team does. Houston is not going anywhere so where is the urgency for a guy that shows up only an hour before games?
I still feel that Darwin is one of the most overrated rosters. Yeah they have had the best first half, but most of their players haven't proved durable over the course of the season. Greinke was put in a hospital a few years back for being unstable. Not as good as numbers might indicate.
its hard to win championships without pitching. unless BARB runs differently...
I have to say, Eric, that your analysis is flawed in one respect, which is that Berkman is known for being a second-half player. Peter Gammons thinks he has a 50-50 shot at a Triple Crown.
Hamilton is a risk, granted. As someone who has watched Alan Wiggins, Eric Show and Ken Caminiti, I know something about addiction destroying ballplayers. In a way, my commitment to Hamilton is a statement of my belief that addiction can be overcome when an individual makes a commitment to a support system. He's already slowed up quite a bit in the last month, as teams have quit pitching to him with runners in scoring position.
Come on, this 'Chipper is a choker' stuff is just silly. He's a victim of his own success. In 92 postseason games, Jones has hit .288 with 96 hits (13 of them HR), 72 BB and 47 RBI. How is that choking? I agree that Jones has missed quite a bit of playing time the last five years due to injuries. But, you know, Willie Mays made it his business to be out of the lineup when Nolan Ryan pitched and I don't see anyone asking him to return his spot in the HOF. If Chipper's in the lineup, he's going to produce runs well above the league average hitter at his position, and that's what matters.
Milton? He sure has a bad reputation, and reality is more than 50 percent perception. But what, really, has he done to not deserve his first All-Star berth (he'll be the starting DH for the AL, BTW)?
I think Matt's critique is more valid. I don't have one pitcher on my roster who is a threat to give me 230+ innings. But the loss of bullpen depth has backed Darwin into a corner, and so I'm going to have to push Kazmir, Billingsley, Greinke etc. to give me more innings per start than they've been able to historically produce. But this is temporary. If I can get some bullpen help, I can go back to the plan I've been using for a year and a half. We'll have to see.
Anyway, Darwin's big haul at midseason is no guarantee of anything one way or the other. I'm just patting myself on the back for seeing things that other owners didn't see. All other things being equal, Brooklyn would be a better team right now if it still had players like Jones and Carlos Guillen, IMHO.
kazmir billingsly greinke and whoever else simply dont stack up against other pitching in the division and i will be severely disappointed to see darwin make it to the playoffs with such horrible pitching.
With the end of today's "32nd man" voting, the Squirrels officially have eight All-Stars. When this post was made we only had six, but Evan Longoria and Corey Hart held off stiff competition to earn the final spots on the AL and NL All-Star rosters!
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