Not surprisingly I voted straight Cubs, and wrote in Reed Johnson as my 3rd outfielder. Didn’t even touch the AL, because they don’t play real baseball.
Edmonds hasn’t shed enough red feathers for me to be voting on him yet, but he was close.
So my NL looks like:
1B: D. Lee
2B M. DeRosa
3B A. Ramirez
SS: R. Theriot
OF: R. Johnson, A. Soriano, K. Fukudome.
I know it’s biased by my Cubbie love, but none of those guys is much of a slouch with a couple of truly legit All Stars in there.
Reed Johnson’s a great guy but he’s an awful hitter for a corner outfielder. He’s a “slouch” by any reasonable standards when you’re voting for All-Stars. And I like Aramis Ramirez too, but the guy Atlanta’s got is hitting .409.
I just don’t understand the “vote for all my team’s players” thing, I guess.
Sure, but Reed’s got him some vicious defensive skills, so that’s what got him the nod from me. I live in a small baseball world most of the time that only consists of the NL Central, so I’m hard pressed to vote for rivals. Honestly though the only players from the Cubs that I would swear by are Fukudome, Theriot, Soriano, and Lee.
Catcher: Brian McCann
First base: Lance Berkman
Second Base: Chase Utley
Third Base: Chipper Jones
Shortstop: Miguel Tejada
Outfield: Ryan Braun, Xavier Nady, Ryan Church
Dude, how are you sleeping on Soto?!?!. He’s absolutely deserves that C spot, he’s probably the most valid All-Star on the Cubbies roster. He’s the top catcher in baseball by just about every measure.
Lee deserves to be on the team but with Berkman off to an insane start and the typical Pujols numbers and love to compete with there’s no way he’s the starter. Aramis also deserves to be on the roster at 3B but RickJay is right that it’ll take a historic slump for Chipper to not get the nod considering he’s so damn popular and chasing .400. Theriot is my 2nd favorite Cub and he’s having a great year but there’s no way he beats out Furcal and Hanley Ramirez, SS is loaded in the NL this year. There are some no-names having huge years in the OF so it will be interesting to see who gets the nod there, Soriano has a good shot if he continues heating up with the weather but Fukudome simply hasn’t had the power numbers to have a chance.
Not sleeping, just forgot to list him here. I totally voted for Geo, and I’d be hard pressed to put anyone else in the catchers position over him. The kid is a gem of our minor league system, just like Theriot.
I haven’t voted for years. Until they come up with a way to stop people from voting hundreds of times I’m not going to bother. You can vote up to 25 times on line now. What sense is that? Go to the ballpark and people grab stacks of them and stuff the ballot box. The game is fun and the home run derby is fun, but that balloting needs a major overhaul to have any credibility.
It is too early for me to vote as I will not and have never done the straight Yankee vote. I will wait until part way through June. I will however be voting for Jeter, A-Rod and Melky Cabrera baring unforeseen happenstance. This is the extant of my homerism.
I don’t vote, since I’m an unabashed homer, and I don’t know enough about the other players. But isn’t it time for Yadier Molina to get some love? Great defensive catcher, and he’s got his batting average up to .301 this season. Earlier in the season he seemed to have lost a little zip on his legendary throw-to-second, but he seems to have gotten back on track now. I ask this non-rhetorically: is there a better all-around catcher in the NL?
Yes. There is actually a pretty nice crop of young catchers in the NL now. Molina avg is up, but that probably just fluky, and he doesn’t have much speed/power to go with it. Russell Martin, Brian McCann, and Soto all have better all around games.
Right now? Geovany Soto certainly is. There doesn’t seem to be an objective measure by which Molina has been a significantly better defensive player in 2008. They have, oddly enough, both thrown out 10 runners in 28 steal attempts; Molina has two passed balls and four errors while Soto has three passed balls and only one error; FRAR, for those who are interested in such things, are essentially the same.
And of course, Soto is a much, much better hitter. Brian McCann is a better hitter than Molina, too, and while he’s a poorer defender (in particular, his arm is not as good), it’s not that big a differential.
I guess my NL ballot looks like this, if it’s based only on 2008 performance to date:
C: Geovany Soto, CHC
1B: Lance Berkman, HOU
2B: Chase Utley, PHI
SS: Rafael Furcal, LAD
3B: Larry Jones, ATL
OF: Ryan Braun, MIL
Nate McLouth, PIT
Matt Holliday, COL
Ryan Ludwick has better numbers then Holliday or McLouth, but I’m arbitrarily disqualifying him for having more than fifty fewer at-bats than any of the other outfielders on the ballot.
No Mets, although Santana and Wagner almost certainly make the team, so that’s a consolation of sorts.
It was really difficult to find an alternate to Jeter on the ballot. The AL shortstop crop is really weak. I don’t go overboard on homerism on my ballot, but I just can’t pick Jeter.
