2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

How so? When I read it that way, it sounds as if you think one of the three starters from the Orioles is not deserving.

Chris Davis is an easy choice at first base. He's right there with Miguel Cabrera as the MVP for the American League right now.

Jones isn't quite as easy a call, but certainly deserving of one of the AL's three outfield spots.

There isn't a particularly good choice at shortstop. Peralta has better ratios than Hardy, but with Hardy's advantage in home runs and with the glove, I have no problem with that selection.

 

Good for Mozelik and brave too considering the percentage of Bible thumpers in the Cardinals' fanbase is sky-high.

As evidenced by the crusaders in the comments section of the link. Ugh.

 

How is that possible? And who? Other than maybe Jason Castro, who has had an outstanding first half for a bad team, there is nobody on the list who a baseball fan wouldn't recognize. I understand one or two or even three or four players if you mostly watch the National League.

But 13?

How?

And, once again, who?

 

AL Starters
C Joe Mauer, Twins
1B Chris Davis, Orioles
2B Robinson Cano, Yankees
SS J.J. Hardy, Orioles
3B Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
OF Mike Trout, Angels
OF Adam Jones, Orioles
OF Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
DH David Ortiz, Red Sox

AL Pitchers
RHP Max Scherzer, Tigers
RHP Felix Hernandez, Mariners
RHP Clay Buchholz, Red Sox
LHP Brett Cecil, Blue Jays
RHP Justin Verlander, Tigers
RHP Justin Masterson, Indians
LHP Chris Sale, White Sox
RHP Mariano Rivera, Yankees
RHP Bartolo Colon, Athletics
RHP Yu Darvish, Rangers
RHP Hisashi Iwakuma, Mariners
RHP Jesse Crain, White Sox
RHP Joe Nathan, Rangers
LHP Glen Perkins, Twins

AL Reserves
1B Prince Fielder, Tigers
OF Torii Hunter, Tigers
SS Jhonny Peralta, Tigers
2B Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox
OF Nelson Cruz, Rangers
UTIL Ben Zobrist, Rays
C Jason Castro, Astros
1B Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays
OF Alex Gordon, Royals
2B Jason Kipnis, Indians
3B Manny Machado, Orioles
C Salvador Perez, Royals

My guess...

These guys are pretty off the radar unless you follow baseball pretty closely. But this is only eight.

 

I'll walk back this statement a little after looking at the statistical record and filtering through my own biases, being a Tiger fan who thought Peralta and Hunter were better options. Then again, with six guys in and memories of Dmitri Young's All-Star cameo back in 2003, I should probably sit down and shut up.

If we're going to go all sabermetric, Peralta does have better WAR than Hardy (2.3-2.0), but as you correctly noted, Jhonny's rhange would be inferior if you gave him a motor scooter to get to the ball. As for Hunter, he is having something of a renaissance in Detroit, but Jones (who I always screw up with Adam Scott, the Tea Party zealot who hits the Tigers and only the Tigers) has almost identical OPS with significantly more power. Meanwhile, many of my experiences with J.J. Hardy are when he was a way-under-the-radar shortstop in Milwaukee.

Besides, everyone made it in and the last thing I'm going to do is get into a flame war over frigging All-Star picks.

As much as anything, I'm just not used to the O's by virtue of their historical ineptitude over the past 15 years plus their 2012 being such a statistical outlier, getting three starters. Also, who wouldn't want to reference a little Orioles magic.

 

Those would have to be some of the guys, you're right. Masterson somewhat would surprise me, because he's been a mainstay on Cleveland's staff for a few years now. Perez and Kipnis were both somewhat highly regarded prospects, for what that's worth. Crain is a middle reliever, so that makes sense. He's in a lot of trade talk right now. Or was, until he was DL'd.

I play in a fairly involved A.L.-only fantasy league, with keepers, so there aren't two many American Leaguers off my radar, even deep onto benches and bullpens.

 

More Mariners than Angels made the roster.

Perkins is one under-the-radar guy who will be a hot commodity at the trade deadline.

 

The Braves sucked for years then were great for the next 14 years.

The Orioles sucked for years then last year happened. It is continuing into this season, and I'll bet dollars to donuts they're in the playoffs again. Don't think they're in outlier territory anymore.

Davis and Jones are no-brainers and the only reason Machado isn't starting the ASG at third base is because the reigning Triple Crown winner and one of the greatest players of this generation is.

Machado is on pace to break the doubles record and fields the position like Brooks Robinson -- and it wasn't until 2 days ago he could buy a beer so there will be plenty of ASG starts in the near future.

 

Didn't mean to sound flame warish. Just saying all three are legit, though in Hardy's case, it is only because the position is very weak this year.

 

Most surprising news of the day is that Yasiel Puig DOES NOT lead the Final Vote tally thus far. Freddie Freeman does:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130708&content_id=53087042&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

 

Sale and Scherzer I have never heard of also. So in actuality it's 10. I don't follow the AL. If they haven't played the Dodgers, I won't know who they are.

 

Kind of strange that a baseball fan would immerse himself into one team so heavily but forsake the rest of baseball.