Thoughts about My All-Star Ballot

Voting for the 2012 All-Star Game ends tomorrow, after the polls opened seemingly on Opening Day.  And while I cast my first round of votes - the maximum of 25 times - about a month ago, I used my no fewer than 5 secondary email addresses to make my voice heard again at the last minute.  When I stringently evaluated players for the esteemed honor of representing their league in the vaunted midsummer festivities,  I used two methods: Fantasy Points (graciously calculated by ESPN's fantasy system) and Wins Above Replacement (or WAR, according to baseball-reference.com).  When these methods are at odds or inconclusive, I fall back on what makes the All-Star Game what it is today: rank popularity.

FIRST BASE

At the time I took my statistical snapshots (Monday), Prince Fielder had a slight lead in points over Paul Konerko (944 to 938) but trailed his AL Central rival by almost 3/4 of a WAR (1.8 to 1.1).  Considering they both have negative defensive WAR, I went with Konerko since he's a more complete hitter.  Joey Votto is his league's clear pick for this position as the only first baseman in the NL with more than 2.0 WAR.  If Brett Lawrie wasn't so spectacular with his glove, Votto's 4.3 WAR as of this week would lead the majors, but more on that later.

SECOND BASE

I went with Robinson Cano as he leads all AL 2B in both points and WAR (1,058 / 3.1).  Jason Kipnis (1,026) and Ian Kinsler (1,022) are both close behind in points, but while Kipnis is keeping pace with 2.7 WAR, Kinsler has racked up only a puzzling 0.7 WAR.  The NL was a little harder to crack: Darwin Barney surprisingly leads all NL 2B with 3.3 WAR, but most of those come from defense, and I'm of the opinion that an All-Star starter should be able to hit.  Brandon Phillips, Dan Uggla, and Jose Altuve all have that ability, but I went with the diminutive Astros sophomore (who leads the pack with 887 points, but trails with 1.7 WAR) because I like the idea of someone marginally shorter and stockier than me becoming a star in the big leagues.

SHORTSTOP

Defensive shortstops lead the pack in WAR - Brendan Ryan, Mike Aviles, and Yunel Escobar all have racked up over 2.0 largely with their gloves - along with Asdrubal Cabrera (sharing the lead with 2.4) who alone shows above average talent with the bat.  Elvis Andrus leads the pack in points (920 to Cabrera's 830), but I valued Cabrera's power over Andrus's speed - plus there are too many Rangers on the leaderboard already.  In the NL Starlin Castro seems the obvious choice - his 897 points and 2.8 WAR both lead the league.  Rafael Furcal may have deserved my vote in late May, but he's contributed just a little over half the wins of the Cubs sophomore.

THIRD BASE

If I asked you who was leading the majors as of the start of this week with 4.5 WAR, I'll bet precious few could've named Brett Lawrie without looking it up.  Granted, most of those are due to his superb defense (he already has 31 defensive runs saved above average!) and I think Miguel Cabrera's 1,011 points, plus the successful move from 1B constitute more All-Star-worthy accomplishments.  David Wright is dominating the competition in the NL with 1,131 points and 4.0 WAR and I will say no more on the matter.

CATCHER

I don't care that Mike Napoli is on my fantasy team, Matt Wieters has been the superior catcher this year.  Despite the fact that the Oriole leads the Ranger by about 50 points, Naps has played more than a quarter of his games at 1B this year - and while the added positional eligibility is a plus, I think it takes away from his standing as a pure backstop.  Carlos Ruiz (829 / 3.3) and Yadier Molina (892 / 2.7) were neck and neck in my estimation, so I flipped a coin and gave my vote to the incumbent... although on closer inspection, Chooch probably was the more worthy candidate... but a quick look at the leaderboard shows that neither of them will probably start the game.

DESIGNATED HITTER
Edwin Encarnacion has been a great story this year and has somehow amassed more WAR (2.4) than his competition (and vote leader) David Ortiz (1.8).  But looking at the numbers shows Big Papi has had a more impressive offensive season, and that's what the DH spot is all about.

OUTFIELD

Josh Hamilton (1,262 / 3.1) deserves a spot on the AL team, but I didn't feel like I needed to pour more votes into his pocket when he's approaching the all-time record for most All-Star votes already.  Mike Trout (988 / 3.7) likely deserves a spot, but I can't bring myself to vote for an Angel.  And I would have voted for Jose Bautista (1,147 / 2.4) since he was my first round pick for my fantasy team this year.  But instead, I decided to vote on only 2 AL OF spots to try to raise the vote totals of a couple of my favorite underrated outfielders: Josh Reddick (who is 5th among all AL players in WAR (3.0), 3rd among AL outfielders behind Trout and Hamilton) and Adam Jones (who is 3rd among AL outfielders in points (1,110), behind Hamilton and Bautista).

Ryan Braun (1,253 / 3.4) deserves a spot on the NL team, but I can't bring myself to vote for a loophole-rider.  (Take a page from Manny's book and serve your suspension like a man, even if it ruins what's left of your career.)  I gave my votes to Michael Bourn, who trails Braun by 0.1 WAR (also due to fantasy team solidarity), and Carlos Gonzalez, who trails Braun by 1 point.  Melky Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen, and Carlos Beltran all had legitimate claims to my 3rd vote, but I like Beltran's comeback story and the fact that he leads the other three in points.


UPDATE: Looking at the vote totals so close to the end of the polling period, it's a little depressing how unlikely it is that any of my marginal picks have any kind of shot at making the Starting 9.  On the one hand, I like to gather the largest sample size possible before casting the majority of my votes, but it's also an exercise in futility to wait so long because most of the races are already decided.  Not campaigning for whichever players I thought deserved spots would drum up the necessary support, no matter when I started doing my research.  I guess the hope is that enough like-minded people to myself are also mobilizing concurrently.  Which is also the hope in any voting process, political or otherwise.