Good
morning everybody. In the spirit of the
upcoming MLB All Star festivities in
Francisco
versions of All Star teams. Except there
won't be any favoritism, fan voting, player voting, ballot stuffing,
one-player-from-each-team nonsense. We
will strictly abide by our proprietary indicator, FPI
reference article on FPI). Basically, these are the guys that have had
the best seasons so far in 2007 (according to FPI). The timing on this is nice as well, because
although the All Star game is generally used as a dividing point between the
fist and second halves of a season, the true halfway mark occurred this past
Sunday, when week 13 completed (there are 26 weeks total). So...we got that goin' for us too.
The method
to the madness here is simple. I
established minimums for at-bats (200) for batters, innings pitched (75) for
starting pitchers, and innings pitched (25) for relievers. An asterisk (*) indicates that the batter was
also profiled as a Second Half Performer in our
Rankings for Hitters.
League Mid-Season FPI
Catcher:
Russell Martin
0.75
First Base:
Derek Lee
0.78
Second Base:
Chase Utley
0.83
Third Base:
Chipper Jones
0.87*
Shortstop:
Jose Reyes
0.88
Outfield:
Corey Hart
0.87*
Outfield:
Matt Holliday
0.84
Outfield:
Hunter Pence
0.82
Young
Peavy
Penny
Maine
Lowe
Isringhausen
Hoffman
Honorable
Mention: 1B Albert Pujols (0.77), 1B Prince Fielder
(0.75), 1B Todd Helton (0.75)*, SS Hanley Ramirez (0.82), OF Ken Griffey Jr.
(0.79), OF Eric Byrnes (0.77), Alfonso Soriano (0.76), SP Tim Hudson (2.08), SP
Oliver Perez (2.05).
I would be
remiss if I did not mention that B*rry B*nds actually leads all batters with an
FPI of 0.99, but missed the AB minimum by a few. Is it me, or is the FPI production level from
the first base position lagging this year? This is true in the NL and in the
a lower FPI than the firstbaseman (Lee). In the
all batters have a higher FPI than the 1B (Teixeira), including the catcher
(Posada). There are certainly a few
names here that no one would have predicted before the season started. Corey Hart? John Maine?
League Mid-Season FPI
Catcher:
Jorge Posada
0.79
First Base:
Mark Teixeira
0.75*
Second Base:
B.J. Upton
0.85
Third Base:
Alex Rodriguez
0.97
Shortstop:
Carlos Guillen
0.81
Outfield:
Magglio Ordonez
0.95
Outfield:
Ichiro Suzuki
0.89
Outfield:
Reggie Willits
0.85
DH:
David Ortiz
0.83*
Starter:
Dan Haren
2.42
Starter:
Josh Beckett
2.21
Starter:
Justin Verlander
2.16
Starter:
Johan Santana
2.07
Starter:
Kelvim Escobar
2.07
Reliever:
J.J. Putz
3.14
Reliever:
Pat Neshek
3.10
Honorable
Mention: C Victor
Martinez (0.76), 1B Carlos Pena (0.77)*, 2B Brian Roberts (0.85), OF Vlad
Guerrero (0.83), DH Gary Sheffield (0.80), SP Joe Blanton (2.01), RP Hideki
Okajima (2.95), RP Eric Gagne (2.94).
Arod and
Magglio are leading the way in FPI for batters in the American League, and they
are almost in a class unto themselves. There are a couple of surprises on this team as well. B.J. Upton had just about reached the "failed
prospect" stage in the court of public opinion, and yet here he is on our
All Star team. And I don't know about
you, but I had never heard of Reggie Willits before this season. To me, the other very interesting name on
this list is Pat Neshek. His performance
this season has been dominant, and he makes a good speculative pickup
(especially if you need help in ERA/WHIP, or if you are a Joe Nathan owner, just don't expect him to get any save chances unless Nathan gets hurt, and
realize Nathan is signed through this year but Minnesota has a club option on
him for $6 mil for 2008, which they'd be crazy not to exercise).
