My All-Star Team: National League Hitters

Yesterday we tackled the American League All-Star Hitters. Today we move on to the batters from the Senior Circuit that are worthy of making the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim. While there were a couple of tough selections on the American League side, with more teams in the National League, it's going to be even harder. Since there is no DH, I'll be taking two extra hitters to fill out my 21-man position-player roster. And away we go (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Geovany Soto, Miguel Olivo and Brian McCann. While in the American League we have Jorge Posada, Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez (not to mention John Buck and Mike Napoli), in the National League, the pickings look a little different. But these three are definitely worthy (although all but maybe McCann will be beaten out by Yadier Molina it seems). Olivo has revived his career in Colorado and is hitting .301/.365/.523 with 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB and a .380 wOBA. Olivo's OPS is first among NL Catchers and his wOBA is second to Soto. Speaking of Soto, he has enjoyed a very nice bounce-back year in Chicago. While the rest of his team is underperforming, he's been quite good. His .408 OBP is tops (by far) among NL catchers and actually leads all Major League catchers. Meanwhile, McCann benefits from needing a third catcher here, though his .377 OBP, 8 HR, 30 RBI and .357 wOBA for the first-place Braves is nothing to sneeze at. McCann ranks ahead of Soto on WAR (2.0 to 1.6) mostly due to defensive adjustments, but Olivo's fielding puts him in the lead in that category (2.6). "Counting" Stats: Soto .268 avg, 8 HR, 18 RBI; Olivo .301 avg, 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB; McCann .258, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 3 SB. Honorable Mentions: George Kottaras (.822 OPS and .364 wOBA both third among NL catchers) and Nick Hundley (.822 OPS and .347 wOBA for first-place Padres). Picture from the Denver Post.

First Base: Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, Aubrey Huff, and Albert Pujols. The first place I'll take an extra hitter is at first where there's a ton of legit players. "Gonzo" leads the National League 1st basemen in WAR with 3.3 which is certainly a combination of his bat (.313/.411/.559 with 15 HR, 47 RBI, and a .407 wOBA) and his glove (league-leading at 1st) for the surprise first-place Pads. Votto leads all NL 1B in wOBA with .415 mark in a breakout year for him where he's matched offensive numbers with Gonzalez (15 HR and 47 RBI as well). Huff has been the biggest surprise of this group, in my opinion since I thought it was an awful move for the Giants to sign him. Huff's .311/.401/.549 line is excellent but his .411 wOBA puts him second to Votto among NL 1B, and his extremely low 11.5% strikeout percentage to go along with solid power numbers and at least average defensive  should earn him a trip to Anaheim. And Sir Albert isn't having his best year but still leads the NL 1B in RBI and is tied for the lead in HR and has 6 SB to go along with that. He will be voted in as the starter at 1st as the NL's leading vote getter and even in a "down year" for Pujols, you know he will be there among NL MVP candidates at the end of the year. Counting Stats: Gonzalez .313 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Votto .310 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI, 7 SB; Huff .311 avg, 12 HR, 37 RBI, 3 SB; Pujols .302 avg, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 6 SB. Honorable Mentions: Adam Dunn (17 HR leads NL 1B), Troy Glaus (.860 OPS as offensive prowess for Braves), Prince Fielder (numbers slightly down but still a force with a .378 wOBA), and Ryan Howard (coming on late with a .294 avg, 14 HR, and 52 RBI). Picture from Bleacher Report

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The Mets REALLY Need to Swing for the Fences

If there wasn't incentive enough before, now there's real incentive for the Metsies to take a page out the book of their cross-town Bronx Bomber friends: hit some home runs. Why? Because at least when they do so in 2010, it'll go to a good cause. From the New York Post:

If there are Mets fans who don't know who Stewart Rahr is, they will soon enough. The Brooklyn-born billionaire -- a k a Stewie Rah Rah -- is donating $1,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation every time a Met hits a home run at CitiField, and $5,000 every time David Wright does, as he did on Opening Day. Later in the season will be "Home Rah Rah Day" with giveaways of Rahr's trademark yellow sunglasses.

Last season the Mets hit 95 home runs which was dead last in the National League--well dead last in any league. Their leading homerun hitter was Daniel Murphy  with 12 and they had 4 people (David Wright, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur) tie for second with 10. They had the longest streak of games without a home run in 2009, when they had an 8 game drought from July 3rd to July 11th (they also went 7 games in May). So let's just say, they need to hit some more home runs in 2010. That's why they signed Jason Bay, wasn't it?

David Wright was the real disappointment of 2009 on the power front only hitting 10 home runs after hitting 33 the year before. Wright has the Mets only home run so far this season (pictured to the right from The Star-Ledger), so that's $5,000 in the books. It must be The Situation and Vitamin Water (H/T Ari). According to FanGraphs, the projections for Wright's 2010 home run total lie between 19 and 25. Let's hope that he finds his power stroke again. Come on David, it's for the kids!

The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Third Base

Voting just completed for middle infielders (where Derek Jeter took that in a land slide) and first base (where "The Iron Horse", Lou Gehrig took it easily). Now it's time to vote for the hot corner. We have some more below including information about a similar voting process at MSG and results from the past two polls. But make sure to vote on the right and let us know in the comments why you voted the way you did. And to switch it up this time, we'll give the Mets candidates first. Without further ado, the best 3Bs in New York (stats from FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference):

Mets

David Wright: Since he made his debut in 2004, Wright has been a fixture at third for the Metropolitans. And despite his wacky 2009, he deserves a spot on this list for his time in Queens. His .309/.389/.518 splits are excellent (and are all among the top 23 among active players) and he's added to that a .391 career wOBA. That wOBA total is 10th among all 3B (min 2500 PA) and ranks ahead of such names as Eddie Matthews, Miguel Cabrera, Harmon Killebrew, Kevin Youkilis, Wade Boggs, and George Brett at the hot corner. In 2007 and 2008, Wright won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger both years. He also finished in the top 9 in MVP voting in each year from 2006-2008. The big question for Mets fans is "can Wright rebound from a low power output in 2009?" Even without answering that question here (he only hit 10 HR and 52 XBH total), the truth is that the guy still hit .307/.390/.447. But this is a guy who averaged 73 XBH a year from 2005-2008 which is impressive for a third baseman. He just turned 27 in December so he should have plenty of time to build on these credentials. But even through age 26, he looks very similar to Scott Rolen and Duke Snider and adds the element of speed to his repertoire as well (119 SB). Since he broke into the league, Wright has been worth 32.0 WAR according to FanGraphs and has been an invaluable player to the Mets. (picture from the New York Times)

Howard Johnson: When David Wright needed some help with hitting this off-season, he went to hitting coach Howard Johnson. Why? Because HoJo was a pretty good hitter back in his day. A .251/.341/.459 hitter with the Mets, Johnson held his own at the hot corner. His two best seasons were 1989--when he led the league in runs with 104, hit .287/.369/.559 with a .416 wOBA (a career high), 41 2B (a career high), 36 HR, 41 SB (a career high), and a 169 OPS+ (also a career high)--and 1991--when he led the league in homeruns and RBIs with 38 and 117 respectively (both career highs), scored 108 runs (a career high), and hit a major league leading 15 sac flies. Both years he finished 5th in the MVP race, made the All Star team, and won the Silver Slugger. HoJo was originally drafted by the Yankees in the 1978 amateur draft but did not sign. He was eventually drafted in the first round by the Tigers before being dealt to the Mets in 1984. Johnson still leads all Mets 3B in HR, RBI and SB. Johnson also became the first Naitonal League infielder to go 30-30 in a season in 1987. (picture from JetsandMets.com)

Just missed: Robin Ventura (who only played 444 games with the Mets and his numbers lagged behind the two Mets candidates) and Wayne Garrett (played more games at 3rd than Wright but was nowhere near the offensive producer)

Yankees

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Tonight's Pitching Matchups

All courtesy of Play Index:

A.J. Burnett against the Mets (sorted by OPS):

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---
Gary Sheffield     38  30   9  0  0  3   6   7   5  .300  .447  .600   1.047     0   0   0   1   0
 Brian Schneider    23  23   9  3  0  0   2   0   3  .391  .391  .522    .913     0   0   0   0   0
 Daniel Murphy       3   1   0  0  0  0   0   2   0  .000  .667  .000    .667     0   0   0   0   1
 David Wright       18  15   3  1  0  0   4   2   7  .200  .278  .267    .545     0   1   0   0   0
 Ryan Church         9   8   1  0  0  0   0   1   4  .125  .222  .125    .347     0   0   0   0   0
 Luis Castillo      10   8   0  0  0  0   0   2   3  .000  .200  .000    .200     0   0   0   0   0
 Alex Cora          20  19   0  0  0  0   0   1   7  .000  .050  .000    .050     0   0   0   0   0
 Fernando Martinez   3   3   0  0  0  0   0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0
 Jeremy Reed         1   1   0  0  0  0   0   0   0  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   1
 Fernando Tatis      3   3   0  0  0  0   0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---
Total             128 111  22  4  0  3  12  15  31  .198  .297  .315    .612     0   1   0   1   2

Not bad at all. 128 PA and a .198/.297/.315 with only 7 XBH, 12 RBIs 15 BB and 31 K. Some ones to note. Alex Cora is 0-19 and Luis Castillo is 0-8 against Burnett. David Wright is 3-15 with only one XBH. Sheffield is the only one to homer against Burnett in his career and Brian Schneider has had a good amount of success.

And Tim Redding vs. the Yankees:

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---
Johnny Damon        5   4   3  0  0  0   0   1   0  .750  .800  .750   1.550     0   0   0   0   0
 Mark Teixeira      12   9   4  4  0  0   1   3   1  .444  .583  .889   1.472     0   0   0   0   0
 Alex Rodriguez      2   2   0  0  0  0   1   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0
 Brett Tomko         3   2   0  0  0  0   0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     1   0   0   0   0
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---
Total              22  17   7  4  0  0   2   4   3  .412  .524  .647   1.171     1   0   0   0   0


Not much of a sample size, but pretty good success, especially since Tomko really doesn't count.

Of course, none of that will matter when they play tonight. Looking forward to it (as long as the weather holds up)

Breaking the MT Curse

It seems that Red Sox owner John Henry created a bit of controversy when he blamed the Yankees' losses against the Red Sox on the "MT Curse" meaning the curse of Mark Teixeira. Well Tex took exception to it before the game, proved during the game that he's not the reason this team is losing games, and then actually won it for the Yankees.

Let's for a second throw out the fact that Castillo should have caught that ball (did it get caught in the famed "wind tunnel"?). Throw out the fact that Girardi made a horrible decision bringing in Mariano Rivera in the 8th inning (Coke had gotten two easy outs and not only is Rivera bad getting 4 outs, he's even worse in tie games).

Let's throw out the fact that Joba allowed one hit but only lasted 4 innings (I'm still a huge supporter of him in the rotation, but I'll make no excuses for him. He refused to go after batters and he paid for it. Bad job by him), that the bullpen is tired, and that they're going to need a complete game from Pettitte tomorrow because the entire pitching staff is now gassed.

Let's forget that the Yankees were again bad with RISP (2-9) and that Robinson Cano, who inexplicably is still batting 5th, is now 0 for his last 13 ABs and 0 for his last 9 games with runners in scoring position (let me repeat that: the #5 batter in the Yankees lineup has not gotten one hit his last 9 games or 13 times up with runners in scoring position).

Let's also, for a second, forget that A-Rod should have lost the Yankees that game (will get back to that).

Let's give Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter credit. They ran their asses off with two outs. They didn't stop running. And that's why the Yankees won. He scored from first base on a pop up. The Yankees aren't losing games because of Tex. He works hard, he plays great defense, he hits homeruns and he always, always runs the ball out. That cannot be understated.

It also cannot be understated that the Mets walked Tex to get to A-Rod and that A-Rod should have failed. Michael Kay idiotically called A-Rod a hero but he was anything but. He struck out in a horrible at-bat against Sean Green, striking out, and he got ahead against K-Rod and then popped up a very hittable ball. A-Rod should have been the goat. He was anything but a hero. The Mets walked Tex to get to him. So he decides to show his pride by popping out.

And for some reason A-Rod also decided it was a good idea to run to second (watch it again...it made no sense...the Yankee first base coach was going beserk). Imagine if he had been tagged out and the run hadn't scored. I have no clue why Castillo threw it to second (I think he was just panicing) but even stupider was A-Rod RUNNING towards second. What a dumbass.

Amazingly, I was about to storm out of the room and the station was about to be changed when I saw the ball pop out. If we were playing at Citi Field, I could see the exact same thing happening to Robinson Cano with how the Yankees have been playing. But the Mets are having just as bad luck and it came back to bite them in the worst way in this one.

Gotta give the rest of the Mets credit, especially David Wright who should have had the game winning hit in a big spot. I still have no clue why Wright and his league-leading OBP is hitting BEHIND Carlos Beltran (you can't make this stupidity up), but he came up huge in that situation for the Mets--a situation that he had failed in the past.

I feel for Mets fans there. Ari wrote to me: "And the Mets announce Luis Castillo has been traded to the Yankees whom it was determined he was playing for all along". While I laughed at that, I have to feel bad. I know what it's like to be there. These are two teams who don't want to seem to want to make it easy for themselves or their fans.

But I also feel good for Mark Teixeira who showed John Henry that the Yankees aren't doomed to fail under the "MT Curse".

Update: forgot to post Dave Pinto of Baseball Musing's recap, but well worth reading. A lot more clear a concise just in case you aren't by a TV