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The 2009 MLB Big Market vs. Small Market All-Star Game


I made an off-hand comment in the ASG game thread about how I'd like to see the ASG be a game between the big-market and small-market teams, and billybeingbilly challenged me to come up with the rosters.

So, I did.

Star-divide

First, I took everything into account as it was; everyone who got elected got elected, and if the starters for both leagues both happened to be from the same market section, then I got creative; mostly due to laziness and a wonky internet, I used CBS Sportsline's player ratings in cases where I needed to pluck a player out of the pool of players who didn't actually get selected to the All-Star game.  Same thing with the player balloting (players got in based on their final player vote totals until I ran out of spaces), and the final five vote.

The breakdown of the markets was based on some older info, but still close enough for government work.  The big-market teams are NYY, NYM, LAA, LAD, BOS, PHI, DET, HOU, CHC, CHW, TEX, BAL, WAS, ATL, and TOR; the small-markets are FLA, SEA, OAK, SFG, CLE, STL, ARI, SDP, MIN, TBY, COL, PIT, CIN, KCR, and MIL.

* - injured
ITALICS: wasn't on either real ASG roster

Big-Market All-Star Roster:

MGR: Charlie Manuel, PHI
Coaches: Joe Torre, LAD; Cito Gaston, TOR (I'd guess)

Starters:
C: Brian McCann, ATL
1B: Mark Teixiera, NYY
2B: Dustin Pedroia, BOS*
3B: David Wright, NYM
SS: Derek Jeter, NYY
LF: Jason Bay, BOS
CF: Carlos Beltran, NYM*
RF: Raul Ibanez, PHI

Player Balloting:
C: Jason Varitek, BOS (yes, really; best big-market catcher not already on the roster)
1B: Kevin Youkilis, BOS
2B: Chase Utley, PHI (NL starter, so he gets the nod here, and would start in place of the injured Pedroia)
3B: Ryan Zimmerman, WAS
SS: Miguel Tejada, HOU
OF: Josh Hamilton, TEX (AL starter, bumped by Beltran, and would start in place of Beltran)
OF: Torii Hunter, LAA*
OF: Curtis Granderson, DET
SP: Roy Halladay, TOR
SP: Johan Santana, NYM
SP: Justin Verlander, DET
SP: Chad Billingsley, LAD
SP: Edwin Jackson, DET
RP: Francisco Rodriguez, NYM
RP: Jonathan Papelbon, BOS
RP: Jonathan Broxton, LAD*

Manager/MLB Selections:
P: Ted Lilly, CHC (gotta have a Cub)
P: Mark Buehrle, CHW (gotta have a Chisux)
P: Josh Beckett, BOS
P: Mariano Rivera, NYY
1B: Ryan Howard, PHI (as much flack as Manuel got, he actually was the next-best 1B among big-market teams)
2B: Aaron Hill, TOR
OF: Hunter Pence, HOU
OF: Adam Jones, BAL (gotta have an Oriole)

Final Vote:
OF: Shane Victorino, PHI

Injury Replacements:
3B: Brandon Inge, DET (AL winner, so we'll have him replace Pedroia rather than Figgins, who replaced Longoria)
OF: Nelson Cruz, TEX (replaces Torii Hunter)
OF: Jayson Werth, PHI (replaces Beltran)
RP: Brian Fuentes, LAA (replaces Broxton)

Small-Market All-Star Roster:

Manager: Joe Maddon, TBY
Coaches: Don Wakamatsu, SEA; Tony LaRussa, STL (obviously would get the nod over Trey, and we're all happier that way anyway)

Starters:
C: Joe Mauer, MIN
1B: Albert Pujols, STL
2B: Freddy Sanchez, PIT (next-best small-market 2B, plus we need a Pirate, although we'll get another one after the fact)
3B: Evan Longoria, TBY*
SS: Hanley Ramirez, FLA
LF: Ryan Braun, MIL
CF: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
RF: Brad Hawpe, COL (top small-market votegetter among OF)

Player Ballot:
C: Yadier Molina, STL (no, really; he got five more votes than Victor Martinez, mostly because the NL has no catchers.  We can put Martinez here and I'm fine with it, just following my own rules.)
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SDP (beat Morneau by two votes, and I'm perfectly okay with that.)
2B: Ben Zobrist, TBY (god only knows who led small-market 2B in the balloting since the top two in both leagues were from big-market teams.  Zobrist is the 2nd highest-rated small-market 2B in CBS's ratings.)
3B: Pablo Sandoval, SFG (really! and he gets to START with Longoria hurt!)
SS: Jason Bartlett, TBY
OF: Carl Crawford, TBY
OF: Justin Upton, ARI
OF: Shin-Soo Choo, CLE (highest-rated OF not on the roster, plus we need an Indian if we don't have V-Mart anyway.)
SP: Zack Greinke, KCR (he's still the only Royal.)
SP: Tim Lincecum, SFG
SP: Matt Cain, SFG*
SP: Josh Johnson, FLA
SP: Felix Hernandez, SEA
RP: Joe Nathan, MIN
RP: Heath Bell, SDP
RP: Francisco Cordero, CIN

Manager/MLB Selections:
P: Andrew Bailey, OAK
P: Dan Haren, ARI (hey, better him than Wakefield)
P: Jason Marquis, COL
P: Ryan Franklin, STL
1B: Justin Morneau, MIN
2B: Brandon Phillips, CIN (there really weren't many other IF options here)
OF: Justin Upton, ARI
OF: Matt Holliday, OAK (next-best OF by CBS ratings)

Final Vote:
1B: Carlos Pena, TBY (I can only guess here, of course.)

Injury Replacements:
3B: Mark Reynolds (replaces Longoria)
P: Zach Duke, PIT (replaces Cain)

Who got knocked off the rosters?

Wakefield
Victor Martinez (or Molina, take your pick)
Michael Young (too bad, so sad)
Prince Fielder (victim of numbers)

Arguments and accusations of snubbery may now commence!

1 recs  |  Comment 13 comments

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i think small market does....

and good work…thanks for doing this…i was going to if it didnt show up tonite.

Fire Everyone

by billybeingbilly on Jul 15, 2009 1:39 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

By the way:

If you were to keep the 16-14 split…

If the big-market teams had 16 teams, the small-market roster would lose Florida and Seattle’s contingent: Hanley (Bartlett starts, and Troy Tulowitzki makes the team), Ichiro (Crawford starts, and Cody Ross (FLA) makes the team), and Josh Johnson and King Felix (replaced by… shit, I dunno, Adam Wainwright and Yovani Gallardo, I guess). The big-market roster would lose either Tejada or Pence (can’t lose both). You’d probably end up having to keep Tejada, with Aaron Hill losing out. Meanwhile, Johnson and Felix would end up costing Beckett his spot… as well as Mariano Rivera, which should just blow everyone’s mind.

Other way around, and the small-market squad picks up the Baltimore and Washington gang, which would result in Zimmerman instead of Reynolds and Jones instead of Choo. The big-market roster would gain Matt Kemp, and Chone Figgins would weasel his way back into the game.

This space for rent.

by jonfmorse on Jul 15, 2009 2:03 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

San Francisco is a small market?

I also question Seattle being one as they have a $100 million payroll.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jul 15, 2009 11:08 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Answers

If you take the Bay Area market and divide it by two, you get two numbers which would be ranked tied for 18th. That’s why SF and OAK were on the small-market squad.

Seattle is 16th, hence they land on the small-market roster. Their payroll is completely irrelevant, just as it would be if the Mets chose to dick around with a $45M payroll.

This space for rent.

by jonfmorse on Jul 15, 2009 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Thanks for the work, it is interesting

not sure how the game would pan out, perhaps tie??

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jul 15, 2009 4:49 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

About Molina

You said:

C: Yadier Molina, STL (no, really; he got five more votes than Victor Martinez, mostly because the NL has no catchers. We can put Martinez here and I’m fine with it, just following my own rules.)

I’d have to disagree with the statement “because the NL has no catchers.” Yadi is very good behind the plate. VEB has a good article up about Catcher Defense (although the numbers self-admittedly not perfect because it’s 1) defensive #s and 2) at the catcher position. They come to the conclusion that not only has Molina been worth 1.8 WAR offensively, but he’s been worth about 2 WAR defensively already this season. That means he’s about a 4 WAR player at the ASB in 2009. Not too shabby.

by stlfan on Jul 16, 2009 9:19 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I did similar catcher defense for myself earlier this season

for all of MLB, and Yadier came out very good, but I’ll have to check it again when I get back into that stuff.

But for the record, Brian Cartwright’s WOWY analysis projected Molina as the best defensive catcher in baseball pre-season at about +11 runs.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 16, 2009 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I'd like to see a mid-season projection

from him for the rest of this season…

by stlfan on Jul 16, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yeah

it’s just really hard to do a WOWY in the middle of the season, since all the people I know of who have done them use Retrosheet, which doesn’t come out untli after the season

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 16, 2009 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, but

he’s a MOLINA, which I’m pretty sure is Spanish for “slow and average”.

Joking aside, when I said “the NL has no catchers,” I wasn’t really referring to Molina being bad; I was referring to the fact that there just aren’t many good NL catchers.

This space for rent.

by jonfmorse on Jul 16, 2009 9:18 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

(addendum)

And since most people (especially here, on an AL-leaning site) would question “Why Molina and not Victor,” I needed to explain it.

This space for rent.

by jonfmorse on Jul 16, 2009 9:19 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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