Lisa, at least you didn't vote for Derek Jeter, who is closing in on the "honorary All-Star captain" phase of his career. And you acknowledged that, while Russell may have muscle, as John Sterling likes to say, he also has a .230 batting average. But you've got to give the Red Sox their due.
Mark Teixeira beats Adrian Gonzalez in homers, 25-16, but that's it. And Teixeira hit 16 of them at homer-happy Yankee Stadium. Otherwise, Gonzalez is hitting .352 with 71 RBI, while Teixeira is hitting just .243 with with 63 RBI.
Travis Hafner may be hitting .336, but he missed a month of the season and has just seven homers. Meanwhile, David Ortiz, everyone else's All-Star DH, is hitting .305 with 17 homers.
We agree on Alex Avila, Robinson Cano, Asdrubal Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson. But your last outfielder is Nelson Cruz, who has 18 homers, but is hitting just .237. I voted instead for Jacoby Ellsbury, who could end up with a 20-50 year - he has nine homers and 25 steals to go along with a .300 batting average.
In the National League, we agree on seven of the eight picks. We both voted for Brian McCann, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks (though I nearly split my ballot with Brandon Phillips), Jose Jose Jose, Aramis Ramirez (thanks to his hitting five homers in the last week, he does have the best stats in this weak category), Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun.
Oddly enough, the only place we disagree is that you voted for Carlos Beltran and I didn't. Don't get me wrong - Beltran's been so valuable to the Mets that I don't want him to be traded even though it's in the best long-term interests of the team. But hitting .281 with 12 homers and 54 RBI in the first half might get you comeback player of the year, but there's another NL outfielder with 20 homers , 58 RBI and a .296 batting average. So my choice was Lance Berkman. The fact that the Yankees let him go at the end of last season is just icing on the cake.
Other NL outfielders who have put up stats equal to or better than Beltran, particularly because he doesn't run much anymore, are Carlos Gonzalez and Andrew McCutcheon. (There's also some guy named Shane that I refuse to include - I have my own biases. I will vote for Phillies, just not Victorino.)
So while I'd like to see Beltran named to the team, I don't hold out much hope (Hunter Pence is another good candidate, and he could end up being the Astros' representative). At one point, Dillon Gee and Francisco Rodriguez looked like possibilities, but now it appears that the only Met at the All-Star Game will be Reyes, making it that crazier for the Mets to allow their one All-Star to leave.
1 comment:
Jon, I realize that Met fans hate the entire American League, not just its greatest and currently best franchise, the New York Yankees. But that’s no reason to be ignorant about the superior circuit. You claim that Mark Teixeira benefits from “homer-happy Yankee Stadium” and favor Adrian Gonzalez over him. That is absurd, because Gonzalez plays in Fenway Park, the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay. Moreover, Teixeira spends a good deal of time batting righthanded, hitting into Death Valley. His 300th homer yesterday was in, and over, that area.
Yes, we DO have to give the Red Sox their due, but their due isn’t nearly what you and the Yankee-hating national media think it is. As New York’s own Harvey Keitel would say, just because you ARE a character doesn’t mean you HAVE character. They are, once again, into an epic fold, something your Mets know a lot about. Travis Hafner is better than David Ortiz – always was, especially when you take away the pharmaceutical enhancements. I also find it laughable that a Met fan, or a fan of any National League team, is publicly expressing judgments about the relative merits of designated hitters. It's like a priest, who chose a profession that denied him the same right, commenting on who should be allowed to get married.
Yes, the Yankees let Lance Berkman go. They are in first place, so, clearly, they don't need him. I realize both first place and a transaction that works are foreign territory for a Met fan, but if Berkman was so good, how come the Mets didn’t pick him up? They COULD afford him, right?
Am I just being snippy because this is another intracity series? Maybe. But at least, unlike the NYC TV stations, I know better than to call it a Subway Series.
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