Post by New York Mets on Jul 9, 2023 8:01:33 GMT -5
Dear fellow fantasy baseball addicts,
time is flying as we have already reached the real life all star break in seemingly record time. Let´s celebrate this date wth our traditional Moneyball All Stars.
Same as every year the players who scored the most points at their position are awarded with a place in their respective All Star team. If a player is eligible for multiple positions he is only considered for the position where he played the most games (e.g. Mookie Bets qualifies at OF and not at 2B or SS (!)).
Rosters are adapted to the original All Star roster sizes: 32 players per team with representatives of every organization – 20 position players and 12 pitchers. If you have no idea what to do with your leisure time you can take an in depth read of how the All Star roster are constructed this year here: www.mlb.com/news/all-star-game-roster-rules-faq-c239654292
So here they are - the best of the best of our loved ones in the first half of the 2023 season:
AMERICAN League Starting Lineup
Catcher
Sean Murphy (Oakland Athletics)
Note: The real life Braves backstop hasn´t skipped a beat after changing teams in the offseason. It´s the second All Star starting nod in a row for Murphy. Fun fact (for Braves fans):The Athletics traded the current NL HR and RBI leader (Olson) and Murphy to Atlanta in separate deals for...Esteury Ruiz, Kyle Muller, Royber Salinas, Freddy Tarnok, Cristian Pache, Shea Langeliers, Ryan Cusick, and Joey Estes.
First Base
Freddie Freeman (Los Angeles Angels)
Note: Who else should take that spot other than this hitting robot? This is Freeman´s third All Star starting team selection in four years. One of the cornerstones of the fake Angels world series winning team.
Second Base
Marcus Semien (Boston Red Sox)
Note: One more player who was a starter for the AL All stars last year. Semien has really cemented his place as one of the elite hitters in all of baseball over the last three years.
Third Base
Jose Ramirez (Minnesota Twins)
Note: Let´s make it four returning All Stars in a row. Ramirez seems to be the lone bright spot on an otherwise underwhelmingIndians Guardians team this year.
Shortstop
Francisco Lindor (Oakland Athletics)
Note: Finally a new face in the AL starting nine albeit a proven veteran player. The real life Mets shortstop had a strange season so far with an uncharacteristically low .239 batting average (career .274). But if he makes contact he often makes it count...19 HR/60 RBI.
Outfield
Ronald Acuna Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays)
Note: Acuna has come back from his achilles heel injury with a bang scoring the most points of all players in Moneyball so far. And it is not even close with the Braves OF scoring 382.46 points compared to runner up Freddie Freman´s 353.36 points. That´s a healthy gap of 8.2%.
Corbin Carroll (Minnesota Twins)
Note: Unbelievable rookie season by the fake Twins OF with him being on pace for a 30/50 campaign. The Twins GM got him and Wilderd Patino this offseason from the fake Braves for Gleyber Torres, Alex Kirillioff and Jose Siri. A win for the Twins if you ask me.
Adolis Garcia (Chicago White Sox)
Note: One more new face after all those boring vets in the AL´s infield. Who would have guessed that Garcia would be MLB´s RBI leader with 73 ribbies heading into the all star break? After two good but not great seasons as a regular starter for the real life Rangers this late bloomer has taken his game to another level in his age 30 season.
Designated Hitter
Jonathan India (Toronto Blue Jays)
Note: One of my favourite players in MLB since seeing this clip of India´s fan encounter in 2021
Not only a great hitter but - much more important - seemingly also a great representative of the human species.
Starting Pitcher
Spencer Strider (Cleveland Indians)
Note: Atlanta´s two pitch fireballer follows 2022 NL starter Sandy Alcantara who has a surprisingly mediocre season. Then again Strider has a season for the ages with 166 strikeouts in 104.2 innings so far.
NATIONAL League Starting Lineup
Catcher
Will Smith (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Note: Smith has scored the most points of any catcher in Moneyball closely followed by his reserve catcher Adley Rutschman. It will be a fierce battle over the all star selection between those two in Moneyball and real life for years to come.
First Base
Matt Olson (St. Louis Cardinals)[/b]
Note: The real life Braves 1B takes the top spot from reigning real life NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt. As a vital part of a scary good Braves lineup he leads all real life NL hitters with 29 homeruns. Note to myself: Three times "real life" in two sentences...do better!
Second Base
Luis Arraez (St. Louis Cardinals)
Note: The Marlins 2B is another representative of our fake Cardinals. I don´t think he will reach the .400 mark at season´s end but his bat control is clearly second to none.
Third Base
Rafael Devers (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Note: Third all star selection in a row for the still fairly young (26) real life Bosox 3B who seems to have traded BA for power this season as he already hit 20 bombs in 2023 compared to 27 HR in all of 2022 while his batting average and OBP check out well below his career averages.
Shortstop
Wander Franco (Philadelphia Phillies)
Note: After years of teasing everone with his talent we see a full fledged breakout this year with Franco showcasing a well rounded skill set. No stat really stands out but - speaking of stand out - we will always have this interesting throw to first base www.mlb.com/video/chase-anderson-in-play-out-s-to-bryan-reynolds-rebasl
Outfield
Mookie Betts (Philadelphia Phillies)
Note: Another year, another all star selection for Mookie Betts. He has been killing my team in Moneyball all by himself this weekend. I hate him. I hate the Philies.
Juan Soto (San Diego Padres)
Note: After a slow start to the season with some experts even questioning Soto´s talentthe young Dominician has stepped up his game and made it to the starting OF in our NL´s outfield easily. Speaking of his slow start and people already questioning Soto´s skills despite his overall career stats I consider this a great example of recency bias (for an in-depth read on this topic and many more flaws in our everyday thinking I higly recommend Daniel Kahneman´s book "Thinking fast and slow"...as far as I know a mandatory read for many front office members in MLB).
Christian Yelich (New York Mets)
Note: Wow...my very own Yelich has made it to the starting nine. Just wonderful comeback season after some injury riddled years for the real life Brewer. Keep it going, Christian!
Designated Hitter
Shohei Ohtani (Atlanta Braves)
Note: The best baseball player of all time who should win the real life AL MVP unanomiously this year. Enough said.
Starting Pitcher
Kevin Gausman (Milwaukee Brewers)
Note: Finally the first representative of the best team in all of Moneyball so far. Gausman has led the Brewers to a 80-30 record and 4.000+ points scored this season. Next in line: The Los Angeles Dodgers with 3.506 points. Have mercy, Jerry!
AMERICAN League Reserves
C – J.T. Realmuto (Minnesota Twins)
1B – Pete Alonso (Tampa Bay Rays)
2B – Ketel Marte (Minnesota Twins)
3B – Alex Bregman (Los Angeles Angels)
SS – Trea Turner (Los Angeles Angels)
OF – Kyle Tucker (Houston Astros)
OF – Luis Robert (Minnesota Twins)
OF – Jorge Soler (Los Angeles Angels)
DH – Spencer Steer (Seattle Mariners)
SP – Mitch Keller (Texas Rangers)
SP – Nathan Eovaldi (Boston Red Sox)
SP – Joe Ryan (Oakland Athletics)
SP – Logan Webb (Toronto Blue Jays)
RP - Tanner Scott (New York Yankees)
RP – Yennier Cano (New York Yankees)
RP – Carlos Estevez (New York Yankees)
NATIONAL League Reserves
C – Adley Rutschman (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1B – Christian Walker (Colorado Rockies)
2B – Ozzie Albies (Chicago Cubs)
3B – Nolan Arenado (Cincinnati Reds)
SS – Bo Bichette (Los Angeles Dodgers)
OF – Alex Verdugo (Milwaukee Brewers)
OF – Masataka Yoshida (Atlanta Braves)
OF – George Springer (Milwaukee Brewers)
DH - Nico Hoerner (San Diego Padres)
SP – Gerritt Cole (Chicago Cubs)
SP - Zac Gallen (Pittsburgh Pirates)
SP – Framber Valdez (New York Mets)
SP – Marcus Stroman (Chicago Cubs)
RP – Felix Bautista (San Francisco Giants)
RP – Alexis Diaz (Chicago Cubs)
RP - Camilo Doval (St. Louis Cardinals)
AMERICAN League MLB Selections
Austin Riley (Baltimore Orioles)
Josh Jung (Detroit Tigers)
Austin Gomber (Kansas City Royals)
Clayton Kershaw (Tampa Bay Rays)
Jesus Luzardo (Minnesota Twins)
Zach Eflin (Houston Astros)
NATIONAL League MLB Selections
Shane McClanahan (Washington Nationals)
Justin Turner (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Nolan Gorman (Miami Marlins)
Pablo Lopez (Colorado Rockies)
George Kirby (Atlanta Braves)
Zack Wheeler (Los Angeles Dodgers)
As always some random notes:
> The fake Twins send the most players to our All Star game (6). Runners up with 4 representatives each are the WS title defending Los Angeles Angels and the historically strong Chicago Cubs. My money is on a Moneyball WS between the Brewers and the Twins with Miwaukee taking home the silverware. Just a guess.
> 38 of our All Stars are also members of the real life squads. 25 players are not. It´s the first time that I look into these numbers so I have no idea if that´s good or bad. Feel free to discuss.
> Midseason Awards go to the following players:
NL MVP: Mookie Betts (Philadelphia Phillies)
AL MVP: Ronald Acuna Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays)
NL CY Young: Kevin Gausman (Milwaukee Brewers)
AL CY Young: Spencer Strider (Cleveland Indians)
NL ROY: Masataka Yoshida (Atlanta Braves)
AL ROY: Corbin Carroll (Minnesota Twins)
> This year our All Star voting ends one day early due to the author (me) heading to a very well deserved holiday on a Greek island named Kos.
> The National League team wins the contest for the third time in a row in a close affair decided by a Christian Yelich home steal - final score: 5-4. Congratulations!
That´s it for 2023. As always I apologize for my German English and look forward to thinking about the defeciencies of my fake organization while sipping on a beer staring at the Aegean sea.
time is flying as we have already reached the real life all star break in seemingly record time. Let´s celebrate this date wth our traditional Moneyball All Stars.
Same as every year the players who scored the most points at their position are awarded with a place in their respective All Star team. If a player is eligible for multiple positions he is only considered for the position where he played the most games (e.g. Mookie Bets qualifies at OF and not at 2B or SS (!)).
Rosters are adapted to the original All Star roster sizes: 32 players per team with representatives of every organization – 20 position players and 12 pitchers. If you have no idea what to do with your leisure time you can take an in depth read of how the All Star roster are constructed this year here: www.mlb.com/news/all-star-game-roster-rules-faq-c239654292
So here they are - the best of the best of our loved ones in the first half of the 2023 season:
AMERICAN League Starting Lineup
Catcher
Sean Murphy (Oakland Athletics)
Note: The real life Braves backstop hasn´t skipped a beat after changing teams in the offseason. It´s the second All Star starting nod in a row for Murphy. Fun fact (for Braves fans):The Athletics traded the current NL HR and RBI leader (Olson) and Murphy to Atlanta in separate deals for...Esteury Ruiz, Kyle Muller, Royber Salinas, Freddy Tarnok, Cristian Pache, Shea Langeliers, Ryan Cusick, and Joey Estes.
First Base
Freddie Freeman (Los Angeles Angels)
Note: Who else should take that spot other than this hitting robot? This is Freeman´s third All Star starting team selection in four years. One of the cornerstones of the fake Angels world series winning team.
Second Base
Marcus Semien (Boston Red Sox)
Note: One more player who was a starter for the AL All stars last year. Semien has really cemented his place as one of the elite hitters in all of baseball over the last three years.
Third Base
Jose Ramirez (Minnesota Twins)
Note: Let´s make it four returning All Stars in a row. Ramirez seems to be the lone bright spot on an otherwise underwhelming
Shortstop
Francisco Lindor (Oakland Athletics)
Note: Finally a new face in the AL starting nine albeit a proven veteran player. The real life Mets shortstop had a strange season so far with an uncharacteristically low .239 batting average (career .274). But if he makes contact he often makes it count...19 HR/60 RBI.
Outfield
Ronald Acuna Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays)
Note: Acuna has come back from his achilles heel injury with a bang scoring the most points of all players in Moneyball so far. And it is not even close with the Braves OF scoring 382.46 points compared to runner up Freddie Freman´s 353.36 points. That´s a healthy gap of 8.2%.
Corbin Carroll (Minnesota Twins)
Note: Unbelievable rookie season by the fake Twins OF with him being on pace for a 30/50 campaign. The Twins GM got him and Wilderd Patino this offseason from the fake Braves for Gleyber Torres, Alex Kirillioff and Jose Siri. A win for the Twins if you ask me.
Adolis Garcia (Chicago White Sox)
Note: One more new face after all those boring vets in the AL´s infield. Who would have guessed that Garcia would be MLB´s RBI leader with 73 ribbies heading into the all star break? After two good but not great seasons as a regular starter for the real life Rangers this late bloomer has taken his game to another level in his age 30 season.
Designated Hitter
Jonathan India (Toronto Blue Jays)
Note: One of my favourite players in MLB since seeing this clip of India´s fan encounter in 2021
Not only a great hitter but - much more important - seemingly also a great representative of the human species.
Starting Pitcher
Spencer Strider (Cleveland Indians)
Note: Atlanta´s two pitch fireballer follows 2022 NL starter Sandy Alcantara who has a surprisingly mediocre season. Then again Strider has a season for the ages with 166 strikeouts in 104.2 innings so far.
NATIONAL League Starting Lineup
Catcher
Will Smith (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Note: Smith has scored the most points of any catcher in Moneyball closely followed by his reserve catcher Adley Rutschman. It will be a fierce battle over the all star selection between those two in Moneyball and real life for years to come.
First Base
Matt Olson (St. Louis Cardinals)[/b]
Note: The real life Braves 1B takes the top spot from reigning real life NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt. As a vital part of a scary good Braves lineup he leads all real life NL hitters with 29 homeruns. Note to myself: Three times "real life" in two sentences...do better!
Second Base
Luis Arraez (St. Louis Cardinals)
Note: The Marlins 2B is another representative of our fake Cardinals. I don´t think he will reach the .400 mark at season´s end but his bat control is clearly second to none.
Third Base
Rafael Devers (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Note: Third all star selection in a row for the still fairly young (26) real life Bosox 3B who seems to have traded BA for power this season as he already hit 20 bombs in 2023 compared to 27 HR in all of 2022 while his batting average and OBP check out well below his career averages.
Shortstop
Wander Franco (Philadelphia Phillies)
Note: After years of teasing everone with his talent we see a full fledged breakout this year with Franco showcasing a well rounded skill set. No stat really stands out but - speaking of stand out - we will always have this interesting throw to first base www.mlb.com/video/chase-anderson-in-play-out-s-to-bryan-reynolds-rebasl
Outfield
Mookie Betts (Philadelphia Phillies)
Note: Another year, another all star selection for Mookie Betts. He has been killing my team in Moneyball all by himself this weekend. I hate him. I hate the Philies.
Juan Soto (San Diego Padres)
Note: After a slow start to the season with some experts even questioning Soto´s talentthe young Dominician has stepped up his game and made it to the starting OF in our NL´s outfield easily. Speaking of his slow start and people already questioning Soto´s skills despite his overall career stats I consider this a great example of recency bias (for an in-depth read on this topic and many more flaws in our everyday thinking I higly recommend Daniel Kahneman´s book "Thinking fast and slow"...as far as I know a mandatory read for many front office members in MLB).
Christian Yelich (New York Mets)
Note: Wow...my very own Yelich has made it to the starting nine. Just wonderful comeback season after some injury riddled years for the real life Brewer. Keep it going, Christian!
Designated Hitter
Shohei Ohtani (Atlanta Braves)
Note: The best baseball player of all time who should win the real life AL MVP unanomiously this year. Enough said.
Starting Pitcher
Kevin Gausman (Milwaukee Brewers)
Note: Finally the first representative of the best team in all of Moneyball so far. Gausman has led the Brewers to a 80-30 record and 4.000+ points scored this season. Next in line: The Los Angeles Dodgers with 3.506 points. Have mercy, Jerry!
AMERICAN League Reserves
C – J.T. Realmuto (Minnesota Twins)
1B – Pete Alonso (Tampa Bay Rays)
2B – Ketel Marte (Minnesota Twins)
3B – Alex Bregman (Los Angeles Angels)
SS – Trea Turner (Los Angeles Angels)
OF – Kyle Tucker (Houston Astros)
OF – Luis Robert (Minnesota Twins)
OF – Jorge Soler (Los Angeles Angels)
DH – Spencer Steer (Seattle Mariners)
SP – Mitch Keller (Texas Rangers)
SP – Nathan Eovaldi (Boston Red Sox)
SP – Joe Ryan (Oakland Athletics)
SP – Logan Webb (Toronto Blue Jays)
RP - Tanner Scott (New York Yankees)
RP – Yennier Cano (New York Yankees)
RP – Carlos Estevez (New York Yankees)
NATIONAL League Reserves
C – Adley Rutschman (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1B – Christian Walker (Colorado Rockies)
2B – Ozzie Albies (Chicago Cubs)
3B – Nolan Arenado (Cincinnati Reds)
SS – Bo Bichette (Los Angeles Dodgers)
OF – Alex Verdugo (Milwaukee Brewers)
OF – Masataka Yoshida (Atlanta Braves)
OF – George Springer (Milwaukee Brewers)
DH - Nico Hoerner (San Diego Padres)
SP – Gerritt Cole (Chicago Cubs)
SP - Zac Gallen (Pittsburgh Pirates)
SP – Framber Valdez (New York Mets)
SP – Marcus Stroman (Chicago Cubs)
RP – Felix Bautista (San Francisco Giants)
RP – Alexis Diaz (Chicago Cubs)
RP - Camilo Doval (St. Louis Cardinals)
AMERICAN League MLB Selections
Austin Riley (Baltimore Orioles)
Josh Jung (Detroit Tigers)
Austin Gomber (Kansas City Royals)
Clayton Kershaw (Tampa Bay Rays)
Jesus Luzardo (Minnesota Twins)
Zach Eflin (Houston Astros)
NATIONAL League MLB Selections
Shane McClanahan (Washington Nationals)
Justin Turner (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Nolan Gorman (Miami Marlins)
Pablo Lopez (Colorado Rockies)
George Kirby (Atlanta Braves)
Zack Wheeler (Los Angeles Dodgers)
As always some random notes:
> The fake Twins send the most players to our All Star game (6). Runners up with 4 representatives each are the WS title defending Los Angeles Angels and the historically strong Chicago Cubs. My money is on a Moneyball WS between the Brewers and the Twins with Miwaukee taking home the silverware. Just a guess.
> 38 of our All Stars are also members of the real life squads. 25 players are not. It´s the first time that I look into these numbers so I have no idea if that´s good or bad. Feel free to discuss.
> Midseason Awards go to the following players:
NL MVP: Mookie Betts (Philadelphia Phillies)
AL MVP: Ronald Acuna Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays)
NL CY Young: Kevin Gausman (Milwaukee Brewers)
AL CY Young: Spencer Strider (Cleveland Indians)
NL ROY: Masataka Yoshida (Atlanta Braves)
AL ROY: Corbin Carroll (Minnesota Twins)
> This year our All Star voting ends one day early due to the author (me) heading to a very well deserved holiday on a Greek island named Kos.
> The National League team wins the contest for the third time in a row in a close affair decided by a Christian Yelich home steal - final score: 5-4. Congratulations!
That´s it for 2023. As always I apologize for my German English and look forward to thinking about the defeciencies of my fake organization while sipping on a beer staring at the Aegean sea.
