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National League All-Star team

The Final 2015 National League All-Star Team

Major league baseball is the only sport that doesn’t name an official All-Star team at season’s end. I’ve always felt that was a huge omission and it’s now a tradition here at TheSportsNotebook to fill that void every October before the playoffs start. Below are my picks for the best at each position.

I require at least one outfield selection to be a true centerfielder. That doesn’t mean only person who plays center can be chosen, but it’s not realistic to compile a team of three corner outfielders and put them out there, any more than you would field a team without a shortstop. As you’ll see and can probably already guess, it wasn’t a problem—the centerfield picks would have made it under any selection format.

The pitching is picked with five starters, two setup men and one closer to make it look more like a real team and honor the important role setup men play.

Are we ready? Here we go…

C: Buster Posey (San Francisco)—Another strong year for Posey, with a stat line of .379 on-base percentage/.470 slugging percentage makes him a runaway choice in a year with Yadier Molina slumped with the bat in St. Louis and the formerly rising star that was Jonathan Lucroy in Milwaukee fell off the edge of the earth.

1B: Joey Votto (Cincinnati)—The choice between Votto and Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt is as close as it gets. Votto’s stat line is .459/.541, Goldschmidt’s at .435/.570. Both are in pure hitters’ parks. The reason I choose Votto—I value OBP slightly more than I value the fact Goldschmidt’s team was at least tolerable (79-83) while Votto’s was a 98-loss train wreck. Cincy had no one else in their lineup who could get on base. Imagine if pitchers ever had to come into Votto.

2B: Dee Gordon (Miami)—The one-time prospect in the Dodgers organization really found himself in South Beach. Gordon’s stat line was .359/.418, he stole 58 bases and his .333 batting average won him the batting title. Oh, and his calling card was always defense to begin with. A runaway choice here.

3B: Matt Carpenter (St. Louis)—I know that Nolan Arenado is the stat-sheet stuffer in Colorado, tied for the NL home run crown and leading the league in RBI. But it’s just so hard to take stats piled up at Coors Field seriously and Carpenter’s .365 on-base percentage is over thirty points better. Carpenter still slugged .505 and is just a better pure baseball player.

SS: Brandon Crawford (San Francisco)—He beats out St. Louis counterpart Jhonny Peralta in spite of trailing Peralta in OBP .321-.334. Crawford slugged 51 points higher and the San Francisco shortstop is a better all-around defender at an important spot.

CF: Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh)—“Cutch” is becoming a perennial on this list as the National League’s answer to Mike Trout. This year was another ho-hum .401/.488 stat line, good defense and leading the Pirates to a third straight hosting of the NL wild-card game.

OF: Bryce Harper (Washington)—His monster year, a breathtaking stat line of .460/.649, 42 home runs and 99 RBI finally answered the question of what all the fuss was about with this kid.

OF: Curtis Granderson (NY Mets)—The stat line is solid, at .364/.457, but the context matters the most here. Granderson is in a terrible park to try and hit in, unlike David Peralta or A.J. Pollock in Arizona, or Carlos Gonzalez in Colorado. And Granderson’s value to his team was enormous—the Mets’ lineup was the weak point all year and Granderson kept them afloat to the trade deadline, then help came with Yoenis Cespedes and the team won the NL East. That’s true value.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR SELECTIONS

SP: Zack Greinke (LA Dodgers) 19-3, 222 IP, 1.66 ERA
SP: Jake Arrieta (Chicago Cubs) 22-6, 229 IP, 1.77 ERA
SP: Clayton Kershaw (LA Dodgers) 16-7, 232 IP, 2.13 ERA
SP: Gerrit Cole (Pittsburgh) 19-8, 208 IP, 2.60 ERA
SP: Madison Bumgarner (San Francisco) 18-9, 218 IP, 2.93 ERA

The first three choices speak for themselves and after that, Cole was a pretty easy pick for the fourth spot. I debated between Bumgarner and John Lackey. The latter had a lower ERA (2.77) and you might be surprised to learn the St. Louis offense was significantly worse than San Francisco’s (the Giants were sixth in the NL in runs scored, the Cards’ eleventh). But the spread between Bumgarner’s 18-9 record and Lackey’s 13-10 was just too much to look past.

RP: Tony Watson (Pittsburgh) 1.91 ERA, 75 IP
RP: Kevin Siegrest (St. Louis) 2.17 ERA, 74 IP
CL: Mark Melancon (Pittsburgh) 51/53 on save chances, 2.33 ERA

If you wonder why the Cardinals and Pirates are the two best teams in baseball, this is the area to look. The only real challenger to Melancon was St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal. And the only challenger to Siegrest was Pittsburgh reliever Jared Hughes.

MLB Coverage: The National League All-Star Team

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We’re in the last weekend of the baseball season and it’s time to start the awards parade with selections for the final 2013 National League All-Star team. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage makes this a season-ending tradition, because I find it foolish that we place all the emphasis on what players are All-Stars at the halfway point (with voting beginning even earlier), rather than which players produced the best body of work for an entire season.

The rules for selection are as follows—it must be a true All-Star team. That means at least one outfielder must be a centerfielder, it means a complete five-man starting rotation must be picked, and a bullpen that includes a couple true setup relievers are also honored.

This list will then serve as the basis for our discussion of the MVP and Cy Young Awards, which will take place prior to the start of the National League playoffs on Tuesday.


THE EVERYDAY LINEUP

C: Buster Posey (San Francisco): Easily the toughest choice of them all, Posey nips St. Louis’ Yadier Molina at the wire. The players are virtually equivalent in all the key statistical categories. What swings me Posey’s way is that his advantage comes in on-base percentage (.471 to .453), and while Molina has a corresponding edge in slugging, the OBP ranks a little higher on my priority list. 

1B: Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona): Goldschmidt was a big bright spot on a disappointing Diamondbacks team, hitting 36 home runs and posting a stat line of .403 on-base percentage/.557 slugging percentage. Cincinnati’s Joey Votto had a big year himself, outpacing Goldschmidt in OBP, while lagging in slugging. Both players are in hitter-friendly parks, but the ultimate difference is that Goldschmidt drove in 124 runs to Votto’s 73.

2B: Matt Carpenter (St. Louis): This one’s not even a discussion. Carpenter’s numbers are not only the best, at .394/.487, but the NL’s better players at the position (Chase Utley, Neil Walker) all missed time with injuries, and Carpenter plays a solid defensive second base.

3B: Chris Johnson (Atlanta): Johnson’s edging of Washington third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is a pick where team success made a difference in a close race. Zimmerman is slightly better in power, Johnson in OBP. But not only do I value on-base percentage a bit more than slugging, but Johnson was essential to Atlanta’s offensive success as they surprisingly ran away from Washington in the NL East.

SS: Ian Desmond (Washington): I understand that Troy Tulowitzki is the NL’s best player at this spot, from all facets of offense to his defensive range. But injuries just kept Tulowitzki on the shelf, and Desmond ended up with 167 more at-bats coming into the final weekend.

That’s just too big a gap to ignore. And the Nationals’ shortstop posted a .458 slugging percentage in a park not nearly as friendly as Coors Field, and was respectable in both OBP and defense. Milwaukee’s Jean Segura is a comer, but faded in the second half.


CF: Shin-Soo Choo (Cincinnati): Choo gets the nod over Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen because the Reds centerfielder scored decisively better in the defensive metrics, something surprising given that Choo had played right field prior to this year. Both players are clearly a cut above the rest of the National League crop.

OF: Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh): The Pirate outfielder is still pretty damn good, and at .404/.506 and 27 home runs and leading his team into the playoffs, he deserves a place ahead of other candidates at the corner outfield spots.

OF: Matt Holliday (St. Louis): At .382/.476, Holliday was steady, albeit unspectacular as a key in the potent St. Louis offense. The top OPS’s (on-base + slugging) among NL outfielders were posted by Michael Cuddyer in Colorado and Washington’s Jayson Werth, but both had substantially fewer at-bats than Holliday.

STARTING ROTATION

Clayton Kershaw (LA Dodgers): With a buck-88 ERA, 15 wins and a workhorse load of 230 innings, the only conversation regarding Kershaw is about the Cy Young and MVP awards, which are not yet the subject here.

Madison Bumgarner (San Francisco): Bumgarner logged 200 innings and finished with a winning record, at 13-9, for what proved to be a bad team. The 2.77 ERA is a little higher than I’d like, but the innings are impressive.

Adam Wainwright (St. Louis):  I normally insist that All-Stars have a sub-3.00 ERA, especially in the National League. But I’m not going to pick nits at 3.01, where Wainwright sits. And the fact he’s got 236 innings of work for a team likely to win its division and that lacks a great bullpen, mark him very valuable.

Jose Fernandez (Miami): The 2.19 ERA, second to Kershaw in the National League is too good to pass up, even at a fairly pedestrian 172 innings.

Cliff Lee (Philadelphia): Lee is the last choice and it’s his 214 innings that enable him to edge out Matt Harvey and Zack Greinke for the honor. Lee’s 2.93 ERA is substantially higher than Harvey and Greinke, who are below 2.30. But Philadelphia is a tough park to pitch in, while the Dodgers and Mets are both in pitcher-friendly environments.

BULLPEN

Craig Kimbrel (Atlanta): Nailing down 49/53 save chances at a 1.25 ERA and being instrumental in helping a team win a division title gets you in the MVP and Cy Young conversations.

Mark Melancon (Pittsburgh): He was the best setup man in baseball for much of the season and then stepped into the closer’s role when Jason Grilli got hurt after the All-Star break. Melancon has a 1.41 ERA and had 16 saves.

Tony Watson (Pittsburgh): Watson worked 70 innings, a threshold number for setup relievers and ended up with a 2.42 ERA. And given how important the Pirates’ bullpen depth was to their success, I like having two Pittsburgh relievers in the pen.

Read The Choices For The American League All-Star Team