Hometown Teams Tournament, Round 1, Part 2

After all this Trade Deadline business with players changing teams left and right, it's nice to find comfort in some things that can't change, such as where players were born. That's why when you're done manically refreshing MLB Trade Rumors and you've had a chance to digest all the analysis from Fan Graphs, you should settle in and read about the lineups from the next matchup in my Hometown Teams 2014 All-Star Break Tournament feature! This game features all the best players born in the US state of Texas (ranked 8 out of 10) against the best players born in the country of Venezuela (ranked 9 out of 10).

I was surprised that the Venezuelans clocked in so low in the rankings despite a roster featuring arguably the game's best pure hitter (Miguel Cabrera) and right handed pitcher (Felix Hernandez). Not to mention a red-hot leadoff hitter (Jose Altuve), top 5 closer (Francisco Rodriguez), and a current and former All-Star catchers (Salvador Perez and Victor Martinez, respectively). But a weak outfield and lack of pitching depth kept this World Baseball Classic participant from the top 6 teams who get a bye in the first round of this 10-team double elimination format. Carlos Gonzalez is a powerhouse when healthy, but he's rarely ever been that for a long stretch of his career, and after him the outfield is so thin that Martin Prado had to move from his regular position of 3B (much like how he moved from his previous team earlier today). Likewise, the final two spots in this rotation are filled with primarily long relievers, neither of whom had started more than 4 games by the break. Anibal Sanchez has bounced back in the second quarter of 2014 and Henderson Alvarez has had a surprising season, but you want a little more stability and consistency in tournament style play such as this.

Speaking of consistency, you don't get much better in that department than Texas's best starting pitcher, who also happens to be the best starting pitcher in all of baseball, Clayton Kershaw. If this thought experiment ever became a reality, his game 1 matchup against King Felix would be one of the greatest pitching battles of our generation. Scott Kazmir has been a great story these last couple of seasons, rocketing himself back into relevance after several years on the shelf, and both Josh Beckett and John Lackey are veterans with solid postseason track records. Even though I'm assuming this tournament is taking place during the 2014 All-Star Break (since that's where the stats are from, which is why they're in italics and underlined) I left the two injured members of this team on the roster, because while Beckett has a couple of viable replacement candidates in the rotation (Nate Eovaldi and Homer Bailey come to mind), the best backup option for Gattis is Detroit second stringer Bryan Holaday, and that just didn't seem fair. Speaking of not fair, rookie super utility man Brock Holt slots into the shortstop position, even though he's only played 4 games there all year, because the next viable options were injured Cliff Pennington or minor leaguers Ryan Goins and Omar Quintanilla.

I'm really not sure who would win a matchup between these two teams, as each has a very different array of talents. Perhaps what I'll need to do is plug the rosters into my copy of MLB 14: The Show and see who comes out on top. Until then, I'll continue posting my analysis for the remaining teams, so stay tuned!