Billy Paultz Reconsidered

Random thoughts on the “mid-summer classic”… 

• Steel yourself for unctous video montages of ballplayers on cable cars. Suggested drinking game: Have one every time you hear “McCovey Cove.” …
• The game is a sort of wan experience these days not because “the players don’t care anymore, etc.” but because it’s one of the many things in sports that’s been killed by media overexposure.

Nobody looks forward to seeing anybody play, or play against anybody, because we’ve seen everybody, over and over, on Sportscenter if nowhere else. Interleague play, which I’m generally OK with, has undeniably hurt the all-star game. There’s just no novelty to it…

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  • Of the three Phillies in the game, Cole Hamels is the most questionable choice, it says here.

Utley is a no-brainer, of course. I don’t know why he’s batting eighth, but that’s an extreme nit-pick.

The Aaron Rowand pick has been criticized, but I don’t have a problem with it. He’s 11th in OPS among outfielders, seventh among the eight outfielders on the NL team (only Carlos Beltran, a “five-tool,” guy who’s a bit overrated, is lower).

The four non-all-star OFs ahead of Rowand in OPS are Corey Hart, Brad Hawpe, Hunter Pence and Adam Dunn. Of those, only Pence, the Houston rookie CF who can run, approaches Rowand’s defensive value.

Hamels is 20th in the league in ERA (3.72) among starters. His strikeout-walk numbers (142-29) are phenomenal.

The ERA may be inflated by the home ballpark, since Hamels does give up some homers. But on the other hand, he’s probably in San Fran because of his 10-4 record, which is likely helped by the best offense in the league. True, the Phillies’ bullpen isn’t helping Hamels, but it likely has only cost him one win.

Consider the Mets’ John Maine, also 10-4, with an ERA more than a run a game lower in one fewer start and nine fewer innings.

Not saying Hamels isn’t excellent. This won’t be his last all-star game. But Maine, Derek Lowe of the Dodgers, the Pirates Ian Snell, even Cincinnati’s Aaron Harang (9-2, 3.67 for a bad team in a more severe hitter’s park than Philly’s) probably deserve it more…

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  • You hear it said that you can pencil Utley into the all-star game at 2B for the next 10 years. Don’t be so sure.

Jimmy Rollins, for example, made a couple all-star games because there weren’t any other shortstops in the NL. You could have said as recently as two years ago. Now there’s like five - Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez and J.J. Hardy and (back from the AL) Edgar Rentaria and, in a year when Rollins is probably a legit all-star, he’s sitting at home.