Why I Should Pick the MLB All Star Teams

So Martin Prado, Omar Infante, and Evan Meek are National League All Stars. Trevor Cahill, John Buck, Ty Wiggington, and Jose Bautista are American League All Stars.

Wait who???

Is this the AAA All Star Game or the MLB All Star Game?

Unfortunately these players made the MLB All Star Game and could be key components in the 9th inning of the 81st All Star Game being played in Anaheim, CA.

Is this who the fans really want to see? Are these the players the contending teams want deciding who gets home field advantage in the World Series? Yeah I don't think so.

Now these players probably won't even play, but they could, and that is a problem. That's why these players shouldn't be All Stars.

The bad players don't even end there. Look at the National League roster. Yadier Molina is the starting catcher and he hits .229. Look at their outfield reserves. Other than Matt Holliday they consist of Michael Bourn, Marlon Byrd, Corey Hart, and Chris Young. Don't be surprised if all of these players are never all stars ever again. Hart has been an all star once before but the other 3 are first timers for a reason. Arthur Rhodes is one of five NL relief pitchers. So this is saying that at worst Arthur Rhodes is the fifth best relief pitcher out of 16 NL teams. Better than Billy Wagner. Again, I don't think so.

The All Star Teams needs to be selected by me. Players like this should not be selected because the game will become boring and viewers will turn off the game and watch something else after the fourth inning. And the problem is not just that each team needs to be represented. A strong team can be assembled based on players that deserve to go due to their statistics and with each team being represented. To prove that to you I present my 2010 American League AL All Star Team. NL will be posted after.

I kept the rules of having 34 players and that each team must have one player representative just like MLB uses. I selected the batters based on the stats (AVG HR RBI OPS) and how likely they are to help keep viewers (My own secret formula). I selected the pitchers on Wins, ERA, Saves, and again viewership potential.

AL
Catcher: Joe Mauer, Jorge Posada
Mauer is the logical choice for starting catcher. His stats are good and people like him and know him. So he stays there. If Victor Martinez was healthy the backup selection would be easy. But John Buck? Really, who is John Buck? He needs to be good for one more full season before he gets any All Star consideration. He has the stats that deserve it but no one knows who he is, and once he enters the game some mid level baseball fans will turn on Family Guy reruns they've already seen. Trust me I'd rather watch Stewie and Brian do anything than watch John Buck play baseball. Buck's stats are good at (274 13 40 821), he is first in RBI for Catchers and 2nd in HR. Joe Mauer's stats are (303 3 34 808) so a case can be made that Buck should be the starter based on stats. But the fans want to see Mauer because hes Joe Mauer and he's handsome and has nice sideburns. So I will allow that. But no way should John Buck be the backup, we need a more reputable player, so how about Jorge Posada. He played on Sunday but has a sprained left finger and did not catch on Monday, but he's not on the DL yet so he's on my team for now as the backup, because people will stay tuned with him in the lineup. His stats aren't even that bad at (267 9 28 856). He has 6 more HR than Mauer in 95 less at bats.

First Base: Justin Morneau, Miguel Cabrera, Kevin Youkilis, Paul Konerko
I really thought that Mark Teixeria was going to be voted in as the starter with a .243 batting average. But the fans and MLB got this one right. Morneau is the starter and Cabrera is the first backup. But Youkilis and Konerko should be on this team too. Youk's stats are (299 17 55 1002) and Konerko's are (299 20 58 948) They are 3rd and 6th in the AL in OPS, 2nd and 7th in HR's and 7th and 8th in RBI's. I know that having four first basemen is stretching it, but these guys deserve it and one of these guys can play as the second DH and the other three can play 3 innings each. Wow I should manage this team too!

Second Base: Robinson Cano
There was a time when the starters of the All Star game used to play the whole game. Due to Dustin Pedroia's injury and no one else being good enough to make the team Cano will have to do that. This will be an honor of the man he is named after (think of Jackie #42, he really is named after him) and all the old time players who played the full 9. Ian Kinsler and Ty Wiggington are not having good enough years to take spots away from Youkilis or Konerko. Kinslers stats are (299 3 26 814) and Wiggingtons are (251 14 44 790) Kinsler also only has 8 Stolen Bases and has only 214 at bats so far this season. So he has the name recognition, but his stats just aren't good enough to take away someones spot. And more on Ty Wiggington. Really MLB, this is your Baltimore representative? Times really are bad in Baltimore. Now the AL has an end of game lineup featuring John Buck and Ty Wiggington. I bet Joe Buck can't wait to tell people to stay tuned for that. They should have just let Cal Ripken Jr. play as the Orioles Rep.

Third Base: Evan Longoria, Adrian Beltre, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Young
Longira should be the starter. Beltre and Arod are good choices too. Look the AL has A-Rod coming off the bench, thank god the fans have someone to watch after the 6th inning. They AL has someone to hit the HR off Arthur Rhodes in the 8th inning. Beltre's stats are probably better to start than Longoria, but chicks like Longoria and MLB wants them to watch the game rather than Ghost Whisperer. Beltre can pinch hit once and A-Rod can play the rest of the game. Or Beltre can come in the 9th for his defense if the AL has a lead. NEW IDEA: Micheal Young can play 2B after Cano. I'll list him as a 3B but hes gonna play 2nd. His stats are good (306 11 51 835) and honestly can you remember an All Star game without Michael Young? And doesn't he come up big in each one? The guy is the least talked about legit baseball player over the last 10 years. He has five 200+ hit seasons. He has solid numbers and can play SS or 3B, but come next Tuesday, hes playing 2B. This backup lineup is really starting to come together.

Shortstop: Derek Jeter, Elvis Andrus
Great picks here, no comments. Andrus is legit enough to be the backup. People know him and this could be more of a coming out party for him too.

Outfield: Josh Hamilton, Ichiro Suzuki, Carl Crawford, Tori Hunter, Vernon Wells, Magglio Ordonez, Nick Markakis
Pretty good job on this position by the fans and MLB. But what is Jose Bautista's batting average. It's .236. I don't care how many home runs you hit if you bat .236 you do not deserve to be an All Star. Dave Kingman hit 442 career home runs and is not a Hall of Famer, you know why you've never heard of him, because his lifetime batting average was .236. Bautista has 21 home runs right now. Raise your hand if you think he gets 35 for the full season. You didn't raise your hand did you. I knew it. My replacement for him is Magglio Ordonez. Hes having a good year (315 10 51 876) and people know who he is. Plus he has Soul Glow Hair from my favorite movie Coming to America, so thats an added plus. I am adding Nick Markakis to be the Orioles Rep. He has good stats (304 4 27 828) is well known and is the only Oriole player worth sending to the game. Sounds like we just added two one-named World Cup players to the team. Magglio and Markakis. I bet the umps make bad calls when these two players score, just a hunch.

Designated Hitter: Vladimir Guerrero
Remember in the 1B section when I said one of those guys can DH. Well that's is because I am removing Ortiz. Plus I am one spot over now that I added Markakis. Sorry Big Papi but other players have better numbers than you. Wasn't Ortiz hitting like like negative something in early May? And wasn't he worse in April? That doesn't sound like an All Star. And neither does a player with a current average of .261. I don't care how good someone was in June, Papi is not on my All Star team. He's got the name but not the stats.

Starting Pitchers: Cliff Lee, David Price, Jon Lester, Andy Pettite, Jered Weaver, Fausto Carmona
Pretty close here. Pettite is replacing Buchholz on the real team because Clay is now on the real DL. On my team Weaver is replacing Trevor Cahill who you have not heard of. And we are removing Sabathia and Hughes because they have ERA's in the 3.00's. For their replacements see the Relief Pitchers. My starting pitcher would be Cliff Lee. In fact the AL should just let him pitch a complete game shutout to win the home field advantage and rub it into the NL that the Phillies traded him to the AL. Then watch Seattle trade him back to the NL.

Relief Pitchers: Neftali Feliz, Joakim Soria, Mariano Rivera, Jose Valverde, Jon Rauch, Andrew Bailey, Rafeal Soriano
Matt Thornton gets the boot because we don't need a White Sox Rep now that we have Konerko. So we add on Jon Rauch. Then to take the two Yankees starters spot I'll add Andrew Bailey because we need an Oakland Rep and he's having a good year and I'll add on Rafeal Soriano. All of these relievers are good you'll just have to trust me. They have low ERA's and a lot of saves. Hughes ERA is now 3.83. Way too high for an All Star. Plus I like having a lot of relief pitchers over starting pitchers. They are used to pitching one or less innings late in games, when the All Star game can be won. Let the starters pitch one inning each, and then bring in the relief pitchers and mix and match them depending on who is up. I really should be managing this team.

So thats the AL team. The replacements from the MLB team were:
Posada for Buck
Youkils for Kinsler
Konerko for Wiggington
Magglio for Bautista
Markakis for Ortiz
Weaver for Cahill
Rauch for Thornton
Bailey for Hughes
Soriano for Sabathia

The one team Representatives are:
Baltimore: Markakis
Toronto: Wells
Cleveland: Carmona
Kansas City: Soria
Chicago: Konerko
Oakland: Bailey

My 35th player would be the one player regardless of position that is left off this team that deserves to be there. It would be CC Sabathia. His 3.33 ERA kept him off the squad earlier but he has 10 wins and is CC Sabathia. I'd rather have him pitch one inning than see Fausto Carmona. Speaking of Carmona he's really they only one that doesnt really deserve to be on this team. His record is 7-7 and his ERA is 3.69. So you can make a good team stats wise and player name wise even with one player rep from each team. Maybe Nick Markakis isnt having the greatest year but he's got a solid AVG and OPS so I'll that it slide. And if Shin Soo Choo wasn't on the DL he would be on this team from Cleveland instead of Carmona and then this team would be 100% legit.

National League coming soon.

NFL Re-Alignment

The NFL divisions need to be re-aligned so that teams that are closer together by location are in the same division.

Why is Dallas in the NFC East and St. Louis in the NFC West when Dallas is more geographically west than St. Louis?

The reason is because the NFL and TV stations want Dallas to play the other three NFC East teams twice a year because that brings in more revenue because of the stature of the teams.

But shouldn't the NFL want Dallas to play more games against weaker markets to help strengthen the ratings in those markets? There is plenty of revenue coming in from Philadelphia, New York, and Washington that any other team could play in the NFC East. Dallas could play in the NFC West with Arizona, Seattle, and San Francisco. This would improve ratings in NFC West games and maintain high ratings in NFC East games. This would also help the new team joining the NFC East, which would be Detroit as St. Louis would move to the NFC North.

The NFL loves to promote its rivalries and this would create new rivalries and maintain the Dallas rivalries against New York, Philly, and Washington when those teams met in non-divisional games and playoff games. Dallas and San Francisco would play twice a year and that would be a highly watched game as those two teams have storied histories.

The league would also benefit as Dallas would probably make the playoffs more times by coming out of the west division. So there would be more high stature teams in the playoffs as Dallas would come out of the west and the NFC East teams would come out of their division and take up one or even two wild card spots as they usually do.

This would be better for the sport because it would reduce travel distance for fans who want to attend road games. This is going to be better for the future a of the sport as it would make west coast games more appealing on the east coast and central part of the country.

I have not extensively looked into the financial implications of this and how much the NFL benefits by having Dallas in the East, but I just think that common sense wise Dallas should be in the west.

Therefore I propose the following re-alignment structure for the NFL divisions. I kept teams in the same conference as I did not want to go crazy. By the common sense geographical location method the Jets and Giants would be in the same division and that makes no sense, so I left the conferences the same.

New Alignment:

AFC East
Baltimore
Buffalo
New England
New York Jets

AFC North
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Indianapolis
Pittsburgh

AFC South
Houston
Jacksonville
Miami
Tennessee

AFC West
Denver
Kansas City
Oakland
San Diego

NFC East
Detroit
New York Giants
Philadelphia
Washington

NFC North
Chicago
Green Bay
Minnesota
St. Louis

NFC South
Atlanta
Carolina
New Orleans
Tampa Bay

NFC West
Arizona
Dallas
San Francisco
Seattle

Key Moves:
Baltimore to AFC East
Indianapolis to AFC North
Miami to AFC South
Detroit to NFC East
St. Louis to NFC North
Dallas to NFC West

The only other proposal is to switch Seattle with San Diego as it is a pretty far flight from Seattle to Dallas. So if that happened the two West divisions would look like this:

AFC West
Denver
Kansas City
Oakland
Seattle

NFC West
Arizona
Dallas
San Diego
San Francisco

Let me know what you think.