The All-Star Game is upon us, which means it’s time for all the stuff that goes along with it: the homerun derby, the battle for homefield advantage, and of course, this year’s edition of the timeless discussion on the snubs and the all-stars who don’t deserve to be (or the Mark Redman Award).
This year’s Midsummer Classic also provides us with something else to enjoy: finally a game in Pittsburgh worth watching.
Rank (Pv) |
Team |
Record |
Comments |
| 1 (1) |  |
57-28 | Justin Verlander is one of the most blatant snubs of this season’s midsummer classic. The young ace is third in the AL in wins (10-4) and second in ERA (3.01). Not only should he be an all-star, he should also garner serious Cy Young consideration. And, although setup men are rarely named as all-stars, Joel Zumaya could legitimately be considered a snub. The 21-year-old flamethrower is 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA and leads the majors with 20 holds. |
| 2 (2) |  |
55-29 | Mark Buehrle’s selection seems to be one of the most blatant incidences of managerial bias that I can remember in recent history. He is having a good season (9-5, 3.86 ERA), but his numbers don’t compare to those of Verlander, Francisco Liriano, Curt Schilling, Joe Nathan, or Mike Mussina. There are 33 starters in the majors who have a lower ERA. |
| 3 (3) |  |
50-32 | Schilling (10-3, 3.63) is one of a handful of solid starters that were left off the AL squad. Maybe the other players just got sick of him running around with that stupid video camera of his. |
| 4 (4) |  |
50-34 | The Mets will be very well represented, with six all-stars (Martinez, Wright, Beltran, LoDuca, Reyes, and Glavine). |
| 5 (5) |  |
47-35 | Giambi was left off the team simply because there were already too many first basemen and designated hitters. He is third in the league in homeruns (26) and fifth in RBI (68). |
| 6 (6) |  |
45-38 | Chris Carpenter is having another stellar year (7-4, 2.88 ERA), but he’ll have to step it up a notch if he’s going to defend his Cy Young Award. |
| 7 (7) |  |
47-37 | Off-season acquisitions BJ Ryan (23/24 saves, 0.86 ERA) and Troy Glaus were two of Jays’ four all-stars in their first season north of the border. |
| 8 (11) |  |
46-37 | How Francisco Liriano gets left off the all-star roster is beyond me. He’s been the most dominant starting pitcher in the game with an ERA of 1.99 and a record of 9-1. His snub is so monumental it’s barely worth mentioning that Joe Nathan is 5-0, with 15 saves and an ERA of 1.80. |
| 9 (8) |  |
44-40 | Barry Zito is having a decent season, but like Buehrle, he is far overshadowed by the league’s young aces. |
| 10 (10) |  |
44-40 | Trevor Hoffman was the obvious selection from the Padres. There is nobody in the National League I’d rather have closing the game than Hoffman. |
| 11 (9) |  |
44-41 | Brandon Phillips wasn’t among the top five vote getters in the National League for second basemen, despite an average of .317, 44 RBI, and success on 16 of 17 stolen base attempts. |
| 12 (13) |  |
44-40 | Nomar was almost left off the team, despite leading the league in hitting at .360. He was added on as the final, fan-voted player. |
| 13 (12) |  |
43-42 | Michael Young is one of the most underrated superstars in the game. He received 2 million votes less than leading SS vote-getter Derek Jeter, despite having more homeruns and RBI. |
| 14 (19) |  |
44-40 | There seems to be a logjam of talent at 3B right now, which prevented Garrett Atkins from making the NL team, despite the fifth best batting average (.307) among MLB 3Bs, and sixth in RBI (57). |
| 15 (14) |  |
43-42 | Jason Schmidt only has 6 wins, but he does lead all qualified starting pitchers in ERA with a 2.69 ERA. |
| 16 (15) |  |
42-43 | Phil Garner resisted the urge to populate the National League all-star team with his own players. Lance Berkman is the only Astro. |
| 17 (17) |  |
42-44 | Jose Lopez was well-deserving of his addition to the team as an injury replacement. He leads all 2B in RBI with 58. |
| 18 (20) |  |
43-43 | Chris Capuano is the big pitching snub in the National League, as his slot was given to teammate Derrick Turnbow. Capuano is 10-4 with a 3.42 ERA. Turnbow, on the other hand, does have 23 saves, but his ERA is almost 5.00 and he’s blown 6 saves. |
| 19 (16) |  |
40-45 | Johnny Estrada was left off the team despite leading NL catchers with a minimum of 200 at-bats in RBI (45) and average (.318). |
| 20 (18) |  |
38-45 | The fans made the right call voting Chase Utley onto the National League team. Utley is not as over-publicized as most of the top vote-getters, but he does lead all second basemen in homeruns (16), RBI (50), hits (101), runs (67), walks (31), and on-base percentage (.373). He beat out Craig Biggio by about 200,000 votes. |
| 21 (25) |  |
40-44 | Not many people are talking about the season John Lackey is having because he’s only won 6 of 11 decisions, but he ranks 4th in the AL in ERA (3.12) and 1st in batting average against (.206). |
| 22 (21) |  |
39-44 | Travis Hafner is the biggest offensive snub of 2006. Hafner leads the AL in four major offensive categories, including runs and OPS, and has hit 24 homeruns, knocked in 70 RBI, while hitting .319. |
| 23 (22) |  |
39-47 | Ramon Hernandez was beaten out by AJ Pierzynski for the final all-star roster spot, despite leading all MLB catchers in homeruns (15) and RBI (56). Pierzynski has only knocked in 28 runs. |
| 24 (23) |  |
36-46 | If the Marlins were competing for the NL East pennant, Miguel Cabrera would be getting some consideration for NL MVP. He’s third in the league in hitting (.342), 9th in RBI (60), and 4th in OPS (1.008). |
| 25 (24) |  |
38-49 | Ryan Zimmerman gets caught in the logjam at 3B, leading all rookies in RBI with 58, to go along with a .285 average and 12 homeruns. |
| 26 (26) |  |
38-47 | Despite playing on the worst team in the AL East, Scott Kazmir has already been able to record 10 wins (2nd in the AL). He also has an ERA of just 3.29 and 118 strikeouts. |
| 27 (27) |  |
37-49 | The Braves have fallen to 12 games below .500 despite three deserving all-stars (Jones, McCann, Renteria), and a distant argument for a fourth (Smoltz). |
| 28 (28) |  |
31-53 | Carlos Zambrano is about the only player that hasn’t been a disappointment for the Cubs this season. The eccentric right-hander leads the National League in strikeouts (118) and batting average against (.199). |
| 29 (30) |  |
29-57 | Mark Redman is the least deserving player to be an all-star this year. His 5-4 record and 5.24 ERA can’t even be considered mediocre. His selection was terrible, regardless of the one all-star per team rule, because Mark Grudzielanek would have been a much more deserving selection. He still hasn’t committed an error at second base, and he’s hitting .289. The next closest player, Jeff Kent, has committed two errors in 50 less chances. |
| 30 (29) |  |
29-54 | Congrats to both Jason Bay, who rightfully got voted on by the fans, and Freddy Sanchez, who was a manager-added reserve. Sanchez is second in the league in hitting, 2 points behind Nomar. |
6 replies on “MLB Power Rankings for July 6th- 2006”
Guillen is an idiot Enough said with some of his selection picks.
You make an interesting point on Schilling. I don’t think he is well-liked by the players and I think that’s why he never got the player votes.
Great comments and breakdown as usual, Garrett.
White sox fans are bigger idiots How could Piersynski win the final vote when the other four were much more deserving? Hafner, Liriano, and Verlander are all huge snubs and actually deserve a spot. By the way, how could the best pitcher on the major league’s best team get left off (Verlander)?
Pierzynski He made the team because the White Sox fans don’t care who the best player is, they just vote for the White Sox. Samething happened last year with Podsednik beating Jeter in the final vote.
Particularly with the starting pitchers Not only leaving off the young guns like Verlander and Liriano, but also the older veterens like Schilling and Mussina.
Partial agreement I agree that the fans made the wrong decision, but for Liriano, Hafner, and Verlander, it never should have come down to a vote between them, they should have been guaranteed spots long before it was left up to the fans.
I even think the Red Sox fans screwed up in stuffing the Big Papi vote, because Hafner is having a better season. Surely I’ll get attacked by the Red Soc Nation for saying, so, but the numbers speak for themselves.
But, Red Sox and Yankees fans can often be accused of doing the same thing.