Friday, October 10, 2014

bdj610’s 2014 End of Year MLB All-Star Teams…The Final Rosters

I was a bit busy yesterday, so I'm sorry if you were waiting for this post (sure you were, right??!)

After going over stats and arguing with myself as to who deserves to be on the team, I have finally finished completing my 36-man teams. I think I can say with confidence that the players who made my All-Star Teams were worthy of inclusion, not just because many of them are major superstars, but because their statistics were high enough above their peers that made them stand out from the rest. And believe me, it was tough to choose. Certain players were left off (I'll list them at the bottom for honorable mentions...and a possible twist.

So, without further ado, here are the players who made my 2014 MLB End of Year All-Star Teams (in alphabetical order by position):

American League

First Basemen
  • Jose Abreu, White Sox
  • Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
  • Albert Pujols, Angels
Second Basemen
  • Jose Altuve, Astros
  • Robinson Cano, Mariners
  • Brian Dozier, Twins
Third Basemen
  • Adrian Beltre, Rangers
  • Josh Donaldson, Athletics
  • Evan Longoria, Rays
Shortstops
  • Erick Aybar, Angels
  • Alexei Ramirez, White Sox
  • Jose Reyes, Blue Jays
Outfielders
  • Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
  • Michael Brantley, Indians
  • Yoenis Cespedes, Red Sox
  • Nelson Cruz, Orioles
  • Jacoby Ellsbury, Yankees
  • Torii Hunter, Tigers
  • Adam Jones, Orioles
  • J. D. Martinez, Tigers
  • Mike Trout, Angels
Catchers
  • Yan Gomes, Indians
  • Brian McCann, Yankees
  • Salvador Perez, Royals
Designated Hitter
  • Victor Martinez, Tigers
Pitchers
  • Zach Britton, Orioles
  • Wade Davis, Royals
  • Felix Hernandez, Mariners
  • Greg Holland, Royals
  • Corey Kluber, Indians
  • Jon Lester, Athletics
  • David Robertson, Yankees
  • Fernando Rodney, Mariners
  • Chris Sale, White Sox
  • Max Scherzer, Tigers
  • Jered Weaver, Angels

National League

First Basemen
  • Lucas Duda, Mets
  • Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers
  • Anthony Rizzo, Cubs
Second Basemen
  • Dee Gordon, Dodgers
  • Daniel Murphy, Mets
  • Chase Utley, Phillies
Third Basemen
  • Todd Frazier, Reds
  • Casey McGehee, Marlins
  • Anthony Rendon, Nationals
Shortstops
  • Starlin Castro, Cubs
  • Ian Desmond, Nationals
  • Johnny Peralta, Cardinals
Outfielders
  • Carlos Gomez, Brewers
  • Matt Holliday, Cardinals
  • Andrew McCutchen, Pirates
  • Hunter Pence, Giants
  • Seth Smith, Padres
  • Denard Span, Nationals
  • Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins
  • Justin Upton, Braves
  • Jayson Werth, Nationals
Catchers
  • Jonathan Lucroy, Brewers
  • Miguel Montero, Diamondbacks
  • Buster Posey, Giants
Designated Hitter
  • Justin Morneau, Rockies
Pitchers
  • Madison Bumgarner, Giants
  • Aroldis Chapman, Reds
  • Johnny Cueto, Reds
  • Zack Greinke, Dodgers
  • Kenley Jansen, Dodgers
  • Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers
  • Craig Kimbrel, Braves
  • Trevor Rosenthal, Cardinals
  • Adam Wainwright, Cardinals
  • Tony Watson, Pirates
  • Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals
Most of the position players were chosen based on statistics comparing the top eight position players in each league (hits, runs, home runs, rbi's, walks, strikeouts, stolen bases, caught stealing, and batting average). In most cases, the players I had chosen earlier due to the one person per team rule made the top three.

In previous years, I tended to show a little more bias to Chicago players (on both sides) in cases where if I thought I could choose them over another person, I would (hey, I'm from Chicago, what can I say). But since I'm now announcing these publicly (compared to doing this privately in my mind), I thought I'd try to be as open minded as I can and pick the proper deserving players. Although both Chicago teams didn't fare very well this season (heck, even the priest of our church said prayers couldn't help them win the division this year, and this was before Opening Day). But all five Cubs or White Sox players who were selected to participate in the game (save the guy who was traded to Oakland) made it onto the teams this year. Sole player reps on teams this year include the Astros (Altuve), Rangers (Beltre), Rays (Longoria), Red Sox (Cespedes), Twins (Dozier), Diamondbacks (Montero), Padres (S. Smith), Phillies (Utley), and Rockies (Morneau). The Tigers send a league-high five players to the AL squad. The Nationals again have five players to the team, most in the NL. The Orioles and Cardinals each send four players onto the All-Star Teams.

There are 22 players on both rosters making my All-Star Teams for the very first time, eleven on each side.

Are there snubs? You bet. On the AL, as mentioned before, the DH spot was an issue, only because I only allow one spot on the roster for it. It was a three-man race between the Astros' Chris Carter, the Red Sox' David Ortiz, and the Tigers' Victor Martinez. Although MLB makes the AL add two DH's to their team (a starter voted by the fans, and then a backup voted by the players), with all of the great hitters already on the team, I see no need to add more than one DH to the teams, especially when I actually run simulations. Second base was also very contentious. Because I picked Brian Dozier of the Twins during my "every team needs a rep" portion in selecting the teams, it knocked out the Tigers' Ian Kinsler. It was a toss-up either way between Kinsler and Cano, for the last second base position.

On the NL side, I decided to place NL batting champion Justin Morneau as the DH. That left one first baseman spot open. It was also a tossup between the Braves' Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez, with Gonzalez eventually being my pick. Second base was a tough call between Dee Gordon of the Dodgers and the Pirates' Neil Walker. Because I'm taking into consideration that I am actually simulating games, I decided to add the speedy Gordon rather than the Walker as there are enough sluggers on the NL side. The NL outfield started with Stanton, Smith, and Gomez. I actually wound up picking two more RF's (Pence/Werth), CF's (McCutchen/Span), and LF's (Holliday/Upton). But those picks left out players like Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies, Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, and Marcell Ozuna of the Marlins.

Now it's time to add a poll to this website, something I haven't done in quite a while, and will leave it up and running for a while. This is also the first time I'm going to let the readers (if I have any out there) have a say on who makes these teams, so if this works (meaning I get enough people voting), it may be something I'll do every year.

Just like MLB's Final Man Vote, I am going to list five players for each league. Tell me which snub should have been added to the team. The players are:

American League

  • RP Dellin Betances, Yankees
  • DH Chris Carter, Astros
  • SP Wei-Yin Chen, Orioles
  • 2B Ian Kinsler, Tigers
  • DH David Ortiz, Red Sox


National League

  • OF Charlie Blackmon, Rockies
  • 1B Freddie Freeman, Braves
  • OF Matt Kemp, Dodgers
  • RP Francisco Rodriguez, Brewers
  • 2B Neil Walker, Pirates
I'll give this a go for two-weeks. The players with the most votes (and you will only be allowed to pick one player, unless you go on multiple computers and continually vote) will be added to the above teams in what I will call the "HBC Final-Man selection." They will be added to the rosters when I run my simulations next year. Again, if there are enough votes for this, I will make this a yearly thing. Otherwise, this might just be a one-hit wonder and will be scrapped.

So ends the presentation for my 2014 End of Year MLB All-Star Teams. Please feel free to comment, debate, tell me that I did a good job, or that I don't know what I'm talking about and should have put in this person for another.

I promise I will get to running the simulations (thanks to SBS baseball) once the stats are uploaded onto the website next year. This way, we can see which of the above squads would win if they faced each other. I will also make sure images of all the cards of the players (if I have to, I'll try and make some) once the Cyber Museum uploads images of the 2014 Update Series cards on their site.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2 comments:

RAZ said...

My head told me that I should vote for Dallin Betances because he was super-good, but I went with my team and voted for Chris Carter. Betances is more deserving, but I can't let that get in the way of blind fandom.

It looks like Kemp might run away with the other race pretty handily. I like lists and fantasy rosters, so this was a fun series of posts to read.

Anonymous said...

I went Betances and Kemp. That said - I think your biggest snub is actually Cole Hamels.