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Filling out an NL All-Star team ballot
- Updated: June 1, 2016
10:13 AM ET
The initial All-Star Game voting results have been announced in the AL and will be announced in the NL on Wednesday — oh, you wacky Kansas City Royals fans — so let’s have some fun and fill out the potential National League All-Star team. My personal guidelines:
1. It’s the All-STAR Game, not the Best Two Months of His Career Game.
2. I do weigh current season performance, but thus heavily factor in past performance.
3. We’ll stick to the one player per team rule and the current 34-man roster, which usually breaks out as 21 position players and 13 pitchers.
My team
C — Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants: Jonathan Lucroy has the slight edge in the batting numbers and WAR, but I’ll go with the guy who has become the best all-around catcher in the game.
1B — Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks: With Joey Votto off to a slow start and Anthony Rizzo putting up good but not dominant numbers, the two-time MVP runner-up gets my vote over Brandon Belt. Goldschmidt hasn’t had much support due to the season-ending injury to A.J. Pollock and the DL stint for David Peralta, so he’s drawing a ton of walks as teams pitch around him. The power numbers have been climbing back into Goldschmidt territory, however, and with an OBP north of .400 and his usual great defense, he leads NL first basemen in WAR.
2B — Daniel Murphy, Washington Nationals: Tough call between Murphy and Ben Zobrist. Murphy became a different hitter last season and he’s carried over the power spike he showed in the second half and postseason. With a .395 average and 25 extra-base hits entering Tuesday, he leads the NL in OPS.
SS — Brandon Crawford, San Francisco Giants: Yes, Trevor Story has the more impressive power numbers. But Crawford is the better player once you adjust for home park and factor in his Gold Glove-caliber defense.
3B — Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies: He’d be a solid MVP candidate on a better team. I like that he’s walked almost as often as he’s struck out, and I expect that average to …
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