One of the game's most astute writers, Jayson Stark of espn.com, marveled this week at the National League's candidates to start the All-Star game at shortstop. Narrowing it down to a statistical analysis of his top five candidates -- J.J. Hardy, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins and Edgar Renteria -- he still found it a difficult choice. No kidding. Here's an even better way to go: Omar Vizquel. He's the greatest defensive shortstop in the history of the game. He may well wind up with 3,000 hits. The game is in San Francisco. And not one of those guys would have a problem with it. They all bow to the master.
First of all, Omar is 40 years old and has 2508 hits. If he gets 3000, I will buy Bruce Jenkins a new car -- his choice of model -- and I will personally chauffeur him to the game when Vizquel reaches the milestone. I will pay for the tickets to the game, all the hot dogs Jenkins can eat, and I will perform a striptease for him after the game. I will then hang myself in the public square of Jenkins' choosing, with "I'm an Idiot" spraypainted across my chest.
But back to the main thesis of this piece of nonsense.
Omar Vizquel has a .213 EqA. .213. His traditional stats are a sparkling .242/.283/.282. And you want him to start the All-Star Game.
I mean, I get that he's a great SS, and his career should be held in very high esteem. But come the fuck on, man.
23 year-old Jose Reyes has a .334 EqA, and is already at 8 FRAA. That translates to an 11.3 WARP3 for the year. He might be the most exciting and talented all-around player in baseball.
23 year-old Hanley Ramirez has a .344 EqA. .344!!!
24 year-old J.J. Hardy has a .319 EqA and a SLG of .601.
28 year-old Jimmy Rollins has a .296 EqA with 9 HR.
Edgar Renteria has a .316 EqA and is pounding the ball.
This is an absolute golden age of NL SS. Baseball should make it mandatory that all of these guys be on the All-Star team. They should make videos of them playing and give them away free at all MLB games. Bud Selig should learn how to play the lyre so he can write paeans to each of these men, who are baseball's best chance to get kids hooked on their product.
And Bruce Jenkins wants 71 year-old Omar Vizquel to start the All-Star Game.
I understand the desire to celebrate the careers of great players. But seriously. Bruce. That's batshit insane.
Labels: all-star game, bruce jenkins, omar vizquel
