Are any of this year's All Stars on the All-Time All-Mandatory Rep All Star team? Read on for the answer to this annoying teaser.

>> Sunday

Ahh, MLB All Star selection day. I love it. The day when people like me get all worked up over who gets to play in a game that most fans of the sport won't even watch--a day bested only perhaps by Pro Bowl seclection day.

Every year, one of the biggest reasons for the griping is the at-least-one-rep-per-club rule and its obvious beneficiaries, or as I like to call them (as of today), "the Asostorfetes"--that is, the All Stars Only Selected Thanks to the One Reprepsentative From Each Team Edict (a brilliant forced acronymn if I've ever seen one). To celebrate this year's All Star selection day, I thought it would be fun to compile one of those fictitious rosters based around some nebulous theme--in this case, a team composed entirely of such players throughout the history of the All Star Game.

(Aside: Coming up with this roster was much more annoying and not nearly as fun as I'd hoped, so you miserable ingrates of YCSNation had better freaking appreciate this triviality, espcially seeing as it's one of our rare posts requiring research and effort and such.)

Unfortunately, having neither access to huge databases of MLB data nor the capacity to use said databases, I had to limit myself to recent history. I set my semi-arbitrary cut-off to 1987, or as I call it (again, as of today), the "Post-RBI Baseball Era."

Without further set-up, I give you the All-Time All-Mandatory Rep a.k.a. Asostorfetes All Star team.

Starters

SP - Mark Redman, Kansas City Royals, 2006

Redman is the no-brainer ace of this team. He is arguably the greatest asostorfete of all. In '06, the Royals were woefully devoid of any reasonable all-star candidate, and Redman was the guy who took the bullet. He entered the break with a 5.27 ERA and as many walks as strikeouts (32) in 82 innings. However, as the only Royals pitcher with a winning record (6-4), he was Ozzie Guillen's choice. His ERA would rise to 5.71 by season's end, with his K/BB ratio only modestly improved.

C - Greg Olson, Atlanta Braves, 1990

Before there were the '90s Braves, there were the '90 Braves--a last-place outfit of promising young guys and mediocre veterans. Despite break-out seasons by Ron Gant and David Justice, it was the rookie catcher Olson who got the call to represent the ATL. To his credit, Olson was hitting .289 with a .370 OBP at the break but in only 166 ABs. Olson would finish the year with a more modest .262 and .332 in 298 ABs.

1B - Ron Coomer, Minnesota Twins, 1999

The '99 Twins were bad, but their all-star selection, Ron Coomer, was just a bit worse. Playing the corner positions of 1B and 3B, the Coomdog managed just a .263 average, .307 OBP, and 16 dingers that season, good for an 82 OPS+.

2B - Carlos Garcia, Pittsburgh Pirates, 1994

The great lasting image in mandatory rep lore (at least for me) was watching the hometown Pittsburgh fans go nuts during the player introductions for their .267-hitting, .307 OBP-ing, 3 HR slugging second baseman in the 1994 All Star Game. It was perhaps the only highlight for the Pirate faithful that season and one of the few for Garcia in his career. By 1997, the all-star with the 75 OPS+ would be irrelevant and on his way out.

3B - Scott Cooper, Boston Red Sox, 1993

As hard as it is to imagine, there was once a time when the AL All-Star team wasn't loaded with Yankees and Red Sox. 1993 was one of those years, and the Red Sox lone representative was the young 3B Cooper. Cooper entered the break hitting .282 with just 6 HR and would finish at .279 with 9 HR and a 98 OPS+, numbers that might make a fringe all-star out of a slick-fielding shortstop but not a 3B. Cooper would repeat his all-star trick the next July, with a resume only scarcely better.

SS - Ozzie Guillen, Chicago White Sox, 1988

Before Ozzie Guillen was selecting undeserving White Sox all-star representatives, OzzieBeingOzzie was himself an undeserving White Sox all-star representative. In '88, Ozzie hit .261 with a .294 OBP and a 65% stolen base success rate. Of the 1.1 million fans to watch the 71-win juggernaut at Comiskey that year, not a one walked away with an Ozzie Guillen homerun ball, as Oswaldo was shut out in the dinger department for the only time in his career.

OF - Robert Fick, Detroit Tigers, 2002

Fick had a perfectly acceptable first half of the 2002 season--.290 average, .352 OBP, 11 HR--but in the words of Mr. October, they don't boo acceptable guys. The Fickmeister would finish the season hitting .270 with 17 HR for the 55-win Tigers.

OF - Rondell White, San Diego Padres, 2003

Rondell White hit just .275 with 16 HR and a .328 OBP in the first half of the 2003 season. Though his production did come in a pitchers' ballpark, he has his 64-win Padres teammates to thank for his opportunity to play in the '03 midsummer classic. He would finish the season at .289 with 22 HR, playing for the Royals after a trade.

OF - Roberto Kelly, New York Yankees, 1992

As hard as it is to imagine, there was once a time when... oh wait, already said that. The 76-win Yanks had more qualified candidates in Melido Perez and Danny Tartabull, but when AL manager Tom Kelly went a-combin' over their roster, he stopped at his namesake, who was hitting just .281 with 7 HR. Roberto would finish the year at just .272 with 10 HR and a .322 OBP before temporarily changing his name to "Bobby."

DH - Ken Harvey, Kansas City Royals, 2004

If not for careful discretion, this fictional team may have ended up being called "Royals All Stars from the '90s and Aughts" given their wealth of candidates. Harvey was hitting .305 with 10 HR at the break, which would have made him very deserving were he a second baseman in the Deadball Era. But as a 1B/DH in the '04 American League, his only qualification was the KC on his hat. Harvey would end up hitting just three more dingers that year, finishing with a .287 average and .338 OBP. A mere 45 ABs later, Harvey would see his MLB career come to an end.

RP - Mike Henneman, Detroit Tigers, 1989

Mike Henneman was a bizarre choice for the 1989 All-Star team. Coming off a spectacular '88 season, Henneman struggled to a 4.17 ERA with 33 Ks and 26 BBs in 45 innings through the '89 break. What makes his selection as the only rep from the 59-win Tigers so puzzling was that he didn't even have the save total to dupe the public, finishing the year with just eight, and that Sweet Lou Whitaker had banged out 18 bombs by the break. To Henneman's credit, he would log 90 innings by season's end but floundered to a 1.50 WHIP and just 67 Ks.

Reserves

SP: Jose Rosado, Kansas City Royals, 1997
SP: Ted Lilly, Toronto Blue Jays, 2004
SP: Jason Dickson, Anaheim Angels, 1997
SP: Shane Reynolds, Houston Astros, 2000
SP: Esteban Loaiza, Chicago White Sox, 2004
RP: Lance Carter, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 2003
RP: Jeff Montgomery, Kansas City Royals, 1996
RP: Mike Williams, Pittsburgh Pirates, 2003
RP: Todd Jones, Detroit Tigers, 2000
C: Brad Ausmus, Detroit Tigers, 1999
1B: Pat Tabler, Cleveland Indians, 1987
2B: Harold Reynolds, Seattle Mariners, 1988
3B: Aaron Boone, Cincinnati Reds, 2003
SS: Alex Gonzalez, Florida Marlins, 1999
OF: Jeffrey Leonard, Seattle Mariners, 1989
OF: Devon White, Arizona Diamondbacks, 1998
OF: Luis Gonzalez, Arizona Diamondbacks, 2005

3 comments:

Unknown 2:58 PM  

I remember the Loaiza selection in 2004 being even more bizarre considering guys like Buehrle, Carlos Lee, Big Frank and Shingo Takatsu having worthy seasons. Having a fake guy as our lone rep combined with Joe Torre choosing approximately 28 Yankees led me to boycotting the All-Star Game for a season.

Unknown 3:55 PM  

Agreed, Loaiza was awkward very awkward at that. I feel like the selection is harder than people realize and alot of people wind up getting in that shouldnt as well....anyway what do I know I'm just a cubs fan praying on it being that year.

mike
http://meetusatkinnick.com

Vinnie 10:09 PM  

Canadin... You're kidding me.

Anyway... Thanks to the editor(s) and all the readers at the Baseball Think Factory (and a big thanks to the super-gracioius Keith Law, who always responds to the ridiculous baseball- [and in Matt's case, Kurt Vonnegut-] related emails Matt and I send him, for submitting this story to BBTF) for reading and commenting on (in the BBTF thread) this topic.

And my sincerest apologies for all the parantheses in this comment and all my other posts. (I really need to find a more efficient way to express the undertones of my written thoughts... starting... now!)

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