Friday, July 07, 2006
ESPN's All-time All-Star List
ESPN has a vote for the all time all-star. They asked me to vote for some of these, but I can't bring myself to select one of their picks for some of them.
Starting Catcher
Roy Campanella 1953
Johnny Bench 1970
Mike Piazza 1997
I went with Campy because he had a great combo of HR, Power and RBI, and also because he was a better defensive guy than Piazza. The Dodgers have always succeeded in producing catchers, so they had to get hat position.
Now a none of the above:
Starting First Baseman
Stan Musial 1946
Will Clark 1989
Jeff Bagwell 1996
How about Derrek Lee 2005? The guy batted .335, hit 46 HR and batted in 107. The Cubs had a winning record this year before his injury! Or for that matter, Mark McGwire 1998, 70 HR .299 BA. People still pitched to him; of his 162 walks, only 28 were intentional.
Starting Second Baseman
Joe Morgan 1975
Joe Morgan 1976
Ryne Sandberg 1990
Craig Biggio 1997
First, it is absurd to give Joe Morgan two shots on similar seasons, especially since he's an ESPN broadcaster. But I will say that his speed combo in 1975 was good.
Starting Shortstop
Honus Wagner 1908
Arky Vaughan 1935
Ozzie Smith 1987
I pick Smith, because he's the best defensive shortstop quite possibly in the history of the game. And he hit .300 that year. End of story.
Starting Third Baseman
Eddie Matthews 1953
Dick Allen 1964
Mike Schmidt 1980
Adrian Beltre in 2004 batted .334 with 48 homers and 121 RBI. He was also part of the best defensive infield in the National League that year. Tell me again why he's not on the list if we're just looking at single-season performance. I guess the same reason Roger Maris isn't on the AL List.
Starting Outfielder
Hack Wilson 1930
Mell Ott 1936
Willie Mays 1954
Duke Snider 1954
Willie Mays 1955
Frank Robinson 1962
Hank Aaron 1963
Barry Bonds 1996
Barry Bonds 2001
Again, absolutely worthless to give Mays and Bonds each two seasons. Aaron is a gimme. Snider absolutely deserves to be there for the average and RBI combo, and Wilson hit .356 that year.
Starting Pitcher
Christy Mathewson 1905
Bob Gibson 1966
Dwight Gooden 1985
Greg Maddux 1994
Randy Johnson 2002
It doesn't take a genius for this one. This list is officially worthless for its negligence of Sandy Koufax. I'd pick the 1965 Koufax, with a 2.04 ERA, 0.855 WHIP (they never cite WHIP, just W-L and ERA), and 382 K. Koufax even came out of the bullpen to save a couple games, and pitched 27 complete games, although '63 Koufax pitched 11 shutouts. Fernando '86 was the last pitcher to pitch 20 complete games. Don't forget the greatest knuckleballer of all time, Phil Niekro. No votes for a dead-ball pitcher (Mathewson) either.
Starting Catcher
Roy Campanella 1953
Johnny Bench 1970
Mike Piazza 1997
I went with Campy because he had a great combo of HR, Power and RBI, and also because he was a better defensive guy than Piazza. The Dodgers have always succeeded in producing catchers, so they had to get hat position.
Now a none of the above:
Starting First Baseman
Stan Musial 1946
Will Clark 1989
Jeff Bagwell 1996
How about Derrek Lee 2005? The guy batted .335, hit 46 HR and batted in 107. The Cubs had a winning record this year before his injury! Or for that matter, Mark McGwire 1998, 70 HR .299 BA. People still pitched to him; of his 162 walks, only 28 were intentional.
Starting Second Baseman
Joe Morgan 1975
Joe Morgan 1976
Ryne Sandberg 1990
Craig Biggio 1997
First, it is absurd to give Joe Morgan two shots on similar seasons, especially since he's an ESPN broadcaster. But I will say that his speed combo in 1975 was good.
Starting Shortstop
Honus Wagner 1908
Arky Vaughan 1935
Ozzie Smith 1987
I pick Smith, because he's the best defensive shortstop quite possibly in the history of the game. And he hit .300 that year. End of story.
Starting Third Baseman
Eddie Matthews 1953
Dick Allen 1964
Mike Schmidt 1980
Adrian Beltre in 2004 batted .334 with 48 homers and 121 RBI. He was also part of the best defensive infield in the National League that year. Tell me again why he's not on the list if we're just looking at single-season performance. I guess the same reason Roger Maris isn't on the AL List.
Starting Outfielder
Hack Wilson 1930
Mell Ott 1936
Willie Mays 1954
Duke Snider 1954
Willie Mays 1955
Frank Robinson 1962
Hank Aaron 1963
Barry Bonds 1996
Barry Bonds 2001
Again, absolutely worthless to give Mays and Bonds each two seasons. Aaron is a gimme. Snider absolutely deserves to be there for the average and RBI combo, and Wilson hit .356 that year.
Starting Pitcher
Christy Mathewson 1905
Bob Gibson 1966
Dwight Gooden 1985
Greg Maddux 1994
Randy Johnson 2002
It doesn't take a genius for this one. This list is officially worthless for its negligence of Sandy Koufax. I'd pick the 1965 Koufax, with a 2.04 ERA, 0.855 WHIP (they never cite WHIP, just W-L and ERA), and 382 K. Koufax even came out of the bullpen to save a couple games, and pitched 27 complete games, although '63 Koufax pitched 11 shutouts. Fernando '86 was the last pitcher to pitch 20 complete games. Don't forget the greatest knuckleballer of all time, Phil Niekro. No votes for a dead-ball pitcher (Mathewson) either.
Labels: Lists
# posted by StolenMonkey86 @ 5:11 PM 
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What about Deion Sanders? He was an outstanding baseball player. The morons at ESPN forgot about him.
He spent his best year with the San Fransisco Giants, so you probably wouldn't like him as much as I do.
He spent his best year with the San Fransisco Giants, so you probably wouldn't like him as much as I do.
Fred, he was in SF there for half a season. I think you liked him because he was on the Cowboys won the Superbowl with him.
His best year was 1992 in Atlanta where he hit .304/.346/.492, even stealing 28 bases (not as impressive as the 56 in 1997, but he had 150 more AB that year and was a less productive hitter).
Point is, there were a lot of other players much better.
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His best year was 1992 in Atlanta where he hit .304/.346/.492, even stealing 28 bases (not as impressive as the 56 in 1997, but he had 150 more AB that year and was a less productive hitter).
Point is, there were a lot of other players much better.
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