I just posted about how Reds 1B Joey Votto was inexplicably left off the NL All Star team by Phillies manager Charlie Manuel.
Well, Votto wasn’t the only player with Midwest ties who got bent over when the rosters were announced today. Paul Konerko and Alex Rios of the Chicago White Sox also have legitimate beef with Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
At least Konerko still has a shot to make the team; Rios, however, will see perhaps the greatest half season of his career go unrecognized. That’s BS.
First, take a look at the outstanding seasons being turned in by Konerko and Rios, the two players who have carried an otherwise underperforming White Sox offense.
- Konerko: .297/.386/.564, .950 OPS, 20 HR, 57 RBI, 45 R, 0 SB
- Rios: .307/.362/.516, .878 OPS, 13 HR, 45 RBI, 49 R, 22 SB, 5.3 UZR
Outstanding all around numbers for both, with Rios’ excellent defense in center being an underrated quality he’s brought to the White Sox this year.
Now, the question is which players Girardi selected should Konerko and Rios have made it over. I hate it when people say “So-and-so should be an All Star” but then don’t say who should be taken off the team.
In Konerko’s case, I say David Ortiz. Here are Big Papi’s numbers on the season:
- Ortiz: .263/.369/.566, .935 OPS, 17 HR, 54 RBI, 43 R, 0 SB
Update: An astute commenter point out that in my zeal to defend Paul Konerko from this terrible injustice I failed to realize that players vote for a portion of the reserves. David Ortiz was voted in by the players, so Joe Girardi did not screw him in this instance (more on this below). Still, it doesn’t change the fact that Konerko is more deserving of a spot in this year’s All Star game than Ortiz.
After a woeful start (.143, 1 HR in April) Ortiz caught fire in May (.363, 10 HR) before cooling off somewhat in June (.238, 6 HR). Ortiz also should be given credit for helping to keep the Red Sox afloat despite a rash of injuries.
However, Konerko leads Ortiz in every category but slugging percentage, with Ortiz holding a .002 advantage. Plus, as any White Sox fan knows, Konerko has not just been padding his stats with meaningless homeruns. Paulie has been hitting a lot of late-inning, game-deciding taters all year long…and I do mean all year long.
Unlike Ortiz, Konerko’s great numbers are not a product of one hot month. While he did struggle somewhat in May (.233, 3 HRs), Konerko was outstanding in both April (.297, 11 HRs) and June (.351, 6 HRs).
Just based on numbers alone, Konerko should be in over Ortiz. Add in the fact that Konerko has played very solid defense (just one error on the year) and has been more consistent, and there is simply no way Paulie should be on the outside looking in with Big Papi getting the nod.
You could actually make a pretty good case that Kevin Youkilis (.986 OPS, 16 HR, 53 RBI) should be in over Ortiz also. Things actually get pretty tight between Youkilis and Konerko, though I’d side with Konerko because of how clutch he has been this year. I’ll admit that I’m biased though; if you want to say Youkilis is more deserving, I won’t argue. It’s a toss up.
What is not a toss up, however, is that both are more deserving than Ortiz.
I guess Girardi thought he needed to bring a full-time DH. That is the only possible reason I can find for why Ortiz made the team.
Now let’s turn our attention to Alex Rios, who really got shafted. He deserves to be in the All Star game, yet he’s not even among the players up for the fan vote! That is outrageous.
Here are the numbers for Blue Jays OFs Vernon Wells and Jose Bautista, both of whom made the All Star team as reserves:
- Wells: .274/.328/.544, .872 OPS, 19 HR, 48 RBI, 45 R, 4 SB, -2.0 UZR
- Bautistia: .229/.356/.530, .887 OPS, 21 HR, 52 RBI, 50 BB, 3 SB, -1.7 UZR
And here are Rios’ numbers again for your convenience:
Wells and Bautista have the edge in power…but that’s it. Rios has killed them on the basepaths and is far superior as a defensive player. He also gets on base on more. I guess we are back in the mid-90s now and all that matters are HRs. Apparently Joe Girardi, like chicks, just digs the long ball.
What would have been so wrong with picking one of the two carbon copy Blue Jays OFs and balancing it with the much more well-rounded skill set of Rios? It certainly would have been the most sound baseball decision for Girardi.
In Girardi’s defense, perhaps his judgment is clouded after watching Rios underperform for so many years in the AL East. Still, that’s no excuse. This is 2010. Girardi should have picked Wells or Bautista and had Rios on the team.
Leaving Rios off the final vote, however, just compounds the error. And look at who Girardi left him off for: Delmon Young. Delmon Young!
Look, Young is quietly having a really nice season up in Minnesota this year. I know this because I have him on a few fantasy teams. I also know that it would take me all of about two seconds to say yes if someone offered me Alex Rios for him straight up.
Here are Young’s good ,but nowhere near great, numbers:
Do I even need to explain why Rios is more deserving? I didn’t think so.
Finally, let’s look at one more way that Joe Girardi screwed Paulie and Rios: that time-honored tradition of All Star managers giving preferential treatment to their own players. Honestly, I really don’t have a problem with this, if it comes down to breaking a tie between two relatively even players.
However, just as with Charlie Manuel choosing Ryan Howard over Joey Votto, Joe Girardi adding Alex Rodriguez to the All Star team over Konerko, Youkilis, and even Michael Young, and Nick Swisher to the fan vote over Rios, is simply indefensible.
Here are the numbers for ARod and Swisher:
- ARod: .278/.351/.489, .840 OPS, 12 HR, 62 RBI, 43 R, 2 SB
- Swisher: .287/.370/.504, .873 OPS, 13 HR, 47 RBI, 49 R, 1 SB, -1.2 UZR
Konerko is better than ARod in everything but RBIs, and Girardi did not have to take ARod as a backup 3B because he has Adrian Beltre as a backup to starter Evan Longoria. Why not carry two backup 1B, considering the fact that Konerko is so clearly better? And if you want someone who can play third, then at least take Youkilis instead of ARod.
Oh wait, never mind, I forgot. Girardi needs to keep A Rod – the narcissistic delicate genius – happy and confident. I guess it just means screwing more deserving players in the process.
Whatever.
What really gets me steamed is the choice of Swisher. Rios is clearly having a better overall season and is virtually even with Swisher in terms of power. Yet, Girardi has effectively named Swisher to the All Star team because we know that the Yankee fan machine will vote Swisher in.
I know that none of this should really surprise me, and it doesn’t. Year after year there are deserving players not selected to the All Star team while managers play politics with the rosters. It is what it is.
I just wanted to write this post to let out my frustration, to make sure you know not to vote for Delmon Young or Nick Swisher, and to highlight yet another example of the White Sox getting screwed and being disrespected.
Paulie, Alex…you’re both All Stars in my book, and I assume in the book of most objective observers. Let’s just get to the World Series this year so that next year Ozzie can be the one screwing other teams over. The Yankees get to do that enough; they don’t need to do it with the All Star rosters too.
Update: As I mentioned above, a couple of commenters pointed out, correctly, that I am an idiot…and failed to mention that a portion of the reserves for both the AL and NL are chosen by the players. This is no defense for Charlie Manuel, who picked Ryan Howard over the clearly more deserving Joey Votto, but it does excuse Girardi from a portion of the vitriol I expressed in this post.
According to Bryan Hock of MLB.com, Girardi actually chosen seven All Star reserves, with five of them filling the requirement of one player per team. The two players he chose were ARod and CC Sabathia (who will not play and be replaced by Andy Pettitte).
The reasoning given for choosing ARod is that he is third in the AL in RBIs. Well, seeing as how Paul Konerko has eight more home runs and is slugging about .070 higher than ARod, I’m going to assume that his RBI total would be pretty close to 61 if he had table setters like ARod has in New York. Yes, it is important to be able to drive in runs, but RBI is a stat based so much on the lineup one is in that it is not a good one for comparing the relative strength of two players’ numbers.
The real reason Girardi chose ARod was because he’s his guy and he wants to keep him happy and he wants to thank him for helping Girardi win a World Series. And like I said, I’m fine with that…when it’s a tie-breaking situation. Paul Konerko and others in the AL are having much better seasons than ARod though and deserve to go this year.
So, in conclusion, I shouldn’t have jumped quite so hard on Girardi as I did, seeing as how he had less spots to play with than I’d implied, but the spirit of my feelings and argument remains.
About Jerod Morris
