Ken Griffey Jr, undoubtedly is one of the best center fielders of all time, and this year he was selected (again) to be the starting center fielder for the All-Star team. Now this may be home-town bias, but come on! It’s knee-jerk rection voting that put him there this year. Look at the stats and you can see that Edmonds is doing far better this year.
[Paraphrased from the St Louis Post-Dispatch]
Edmonds has a .342 average, 24 homers, 56 RBIs, a .455 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .658. Edmonds and Griffey both came to the NL from the AL this season. Unlike Griffey, Edmonds is tearing up NL pitching. Griffey’s apologists keep saying he needs time to make a transition to NL pitching; Edmonds seems to have conquered the transition on the flight that carried him to St. Louis.
No need to go into a lengthy dissertation on statistics, but Edmonds is hitting 105 points higher than Griffey. Junior has more homers (26-24) and RBIs (64-56). But Edmonds rates among the top 10 league leaders in eight categories - Griffey three.
[/paraphrase]
Fernando Tatis had an outstanding year last year (34 HR, 107 RBIs, 21 stolen bases, .553 slugging %, .298 average) at 3rd base for the Cards as wasn’t even a backup on 1999’s All-Star team. So exactly what does a guy have to do to be recognized from this town? Not everyone from St Louis can knock out 70 homers, I love Big Mac and all, but even Todd Helton or Andres Gallaraga could easily be just as valid choices for the 1st Base starter this year.
Don’t fans vote based on performance and not name recognition anymore? This isn’t a Congress election, for crying out loud, it’s the All-Star game, let’s pay attention to who we’re putting in there!
I agree whole-heatedly, put keep this in perspective. 95% of the time, the all-star Game is about name recognition. And it’s Joe Six-pack who votes here. What do you expect to happen?
I seem to remember that the year after Mike Schmidt retired (but for some reason, his name was still on the AS ballots) he was the #1 vote getter for 3rd Base in the N.L.
This is the reason i don’t even watch the All-Star Popularity Prom-Queen Game anymore. They always leave out some guy/guys who are having career years and really should be there. Did i hear that Frank Thomas (who looks like the Big Hurt of years ago) didn’t get voted on, or even picked as a replacement? Oh well, i’ll watch the Homerun Derby, then sit back and wait for the season to start up again, watch where my First-to-Worst BoSox finish.
Well I gotta take the opportunity to join the bitch about Helton not being selected as a starter. He’s hitting .390 with serious home runs and RBIs. If you talk Mcguire into stepping down as 1st base starter I’ll be happy to support your Edmonds case. I’d be amazed if any one beats Mcquire for a starting spot until the day he retires, he got so much coverage of the 70 season, no one will beat his name recognition.
…and Jim’s weren’t nearly up to Griffey’s. Also, at some positions, it’s some luck - there are several NL 2B that are having better years than ANY AL 2b - Castillo leads the league in SB, hitting .360, and isn’t picked - gotta take Kent and Alfonzo first. Likewise, Jeter is better than any NL SS, and he’s third best SS in the AL (but Torre will take care of his own). Gotta disagree on doubting Mac;'s stats - missed a dozen games and still leads the majors in HR, good glove, hitting .300 or so. Helton is a Coors creation - check the H/A splits.
And Jones’ stats at the plate are noticeably worse than Edmonds’, who has a few gold gloves of his own.
I already stated in the OP that Helton or Galarraga could easily replace Big Mac this year. But at least Mac’s batting for average and leading in the HR race again. He’s also good defensively, so I think he’s as valid a choice as the other two. Edmonds, however, is statistically kicking ass, but has to play the role of backup because his name isn’t Griffey.
Like JBurton99 said, it’s a popularity contest, and Edmonds hasn’t endeared himself to fans.
I did find it interesting, though that Fernando Tatis finished 3rd in the voting for 3rd baseman, even though he missed most of the first half due to a groin injury:
Chipper Jones, ATL 1,553,944
Robin Ventura, NY 745,120
Fernando Tatis, STL 603,752
I guess some people noticed his performance (and 2 grand slams in the same inning vs the Dodgers) last year after all.
Lets face it, Brat- most baseball fans are just now getting to know who Jimmy Edmonds is, and that’s because he has played for the Anaheim (ne California) Angels his whole career. This of course dooms any player to total oblivion as far as sports writers and fans are concerned. The exception would be the year Tim Salmon won ROTY while an Angel, but it was only because he so outshone the other rookies that they had no choice but to give it to him.
Jimmy is a fantastic outfielder with great hands, and he gets the best jump on the ball I have ever seen. The moment the ball comes off the bat, he is moving into position for the catch, similar to Wayne Gretzky moving to where the puck WILL BE, not where it is right now. Jim also has an incredible throw home, head high and straight all the way from center field to the plate without a cutoff man. This is because he was a pitcher at the beginning of his career.
Enjoy the show, St. Louis- we really miss him in So Cal. At least he is now in a market where someone might actually notice him…
Yes, they are a bit lower than Edmonds, but he definately makes up for it with his defense. To say that Edmonds is a better centerfielder than Edmonds is ludicrus. Don’t forget that he is the only player in the majors to play every inning this year and he is only 23.
He will be greater than Junior Griffey, this I predict
Sorry, I can’t get too upset, as Jeff Kent was rightfully voted on to the team. (He’s only leading the NL in RBI!) Hey, you can’t expect the fans to get two people right in one year, can you?
But this reminds me of the semi-bizarre story I heard related by Dan Patrick yesterday on the radio. According to Patrick, Griffey, Jr. recently called ESPN to complain that they were showing too many Edmonds highlights! And no, he wasn’t joking. He went on to say that he regularly calls ESPN to complain about the way he’s portrayed. Give me a break.
With all due respect to Edmonds (I am an Angels fan, remember, and I have him on two of my fantasy leagues as well), I’ll second this. I’m not completely sure of the Griffey comparison, but Jones is a better defensive CF than Edmonds (or anyone else currently playing).
Edmonds is a valuable player. Jones might be hall of fame caliber (granted, there’s a long way to go). In fifteen or so years, no one will seriously be arguing that Edmonds was a better player than Jones (barring drugs or a catastrophic injury).
The scary thing is, Vladimir Guerrero might be every bit as good as Jones, possibly better. (Right now he’s more advanced as a hitter, but Jones has better defense and is one year younger).
Fan voting for the All-Star Teams is like the weather: everyone loves to gripe about it and no two people are likely to agree on how things should be. Some people think the best players (based solely on current season performance) should always be the starters, while others believe that it’s the fans’ prerogative to vote into the starting lineup their favorites, regardless of whether they’ve slipped from the pinnacle (or indeed whether they ever occupied it). Partly, the heat that’s generated on the subject these days is a function of the general decline of graciousness and the increasing sense of entitlement people have: if I deserve something on objective grounds then I’m going to raise holy hell about not getting it, even if there are others with equally solid claims and there’s not enough to go around. You take someone with an extremely competitive personality (as most major league players by definition have) and add contractual incentive clauses for being selected to the All-Star team and the problem’s even worse.
There are always justifiable complaints about the 1B and OF positions, because there are always more players at those positions with All-Star-caliber numbers than there are All-Star Team slots, and lately the same thing’s been true at SS in the AL (and at 2B in the NL this year). There also have no doubt been instances in which a deserving player is slighted out of malice or a personal grudge on the part of the manager or others involved in the decision. But as long as the fans vote for the starters, name recoginition is going to be a huge part of the process, and as long as there has to be at least one representative from each team, there are going to be deserving players omitted in favor of inferiorly performing players from otherwise unrepresented teams.
