Your F-league All-Stars

Though it’s likely my least interesting blog of the year, my annual fantasy baseball/MLB All-Star mashup is now in its third year.

The concept is pretty basic: I create charts outlining the year’s All-Stars and their relative fantasy impact in my league. Then I comment, hopefully in entertaining ways, on each player.

NL Roster

Starters

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
C	Brian McCann	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	462	McCann was killing my team early in the year – enough so that I picked up fellow All-Star Matt Wieters. McCann’s had a good batting average all season, but he was only getting two types of hits: the occasional HR and singles. But he’s finally starting finding gaps and is the highest scoring F-catcher in our league (total).
1B	Prince Fielder	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	660	For a fourth-round 1B, Fielder is putting up some very good numbers. There were six 1Bs selected before Fielder; only one (Adrian Gonzalez) is outscoring him (total) in the F-league.
2B	Rickie Weeks	Byron’s Wang	453	For some reason (^), Rickie Weeks is in the Home Run Derby this year. Fortunately for Byron, he is hitting home runs (leading MLB 2B with 17), but that’s only good enough to tie for 16th on the overall leaderboard. Not exactly HR derby potential.
3B	Placido Polanco	Byron’s Wang	367	Polanco always seems to be an F-factor, even though he’s never hit more than 17 HRs in a season. Random fact: Polanco has played for the Phillies in four different stints, even though he’s only played for three different teams (Philly, St. Louis, and Detroit).
SS	Jose Reyes	Byron’s Wang	571	Reyes won’t be playing in the All-Star game, since he’s on the DL for at least a few weeks, but By still gets credit for this since he’s on the roster and is technically an All-Star. Reyes, who is getting a lot of MVP love (don’t see it), is leading all shortstops in F-points (both total and average), and he’s doing it without much power (only 3 HRs).
OF	Ryan Braun	Dallas RoughRiders	681	By most projections, Braun slipped a little in our draft (8 overall), but nobody who is outscoring him in our league was drafted ahead of him (only J. Bautista, A. Gonzalez, Justin Verlander, M. Kemp, and C. Granderson).
OF	Lance Berkman	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	656	Of the non-drafted players this season, Berkman may only be rivaled by Asdrubal Cabrera – whose positional value is insane – in terms of value. Berkman is fourth in the league in HRs, eighth in RBIs, and first in Matthew’s heart. F-points? Just eighth overall.
OF	Matt Kemp	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	689	Unlike with Reyes, I can understand the MVP talk surrounding Kemp, who is batting .320 (8th in MLB) with 22 HRs (5th), 26 SBs (4th), 66 RBIs (5th), and 55 Rs (18th).

Pitchers

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
CL	Heath Bell	Byron’s Wang	248	Remember when Byron drafted three closers in a row? Well, the two that are still on his team are All-Stars. More on this later.
SP	Matt Cain	Byron’s Wang	340	Oh, Bruce Bochy. There are 25 SPs ahead of Cain in total F-points this season, including one who isn’t on anybody’s team. Cain has a respectable ERA (3.22), but that’s only good for 15th among qualified NL pitchers. Just one quick (completely biased) comparison: Cain is 7-5 with a 3.22 ERA and 101 Ks over 120.1 IPs; Jaime Garcia is 8-3 with a 3.23 ERA and 95 Ks over 111.1 IPs. One’s an All-Star.
SU	Tyler Clippard	Free Agent	176	There was a brief stint in June when Clippard was on a roster (Jerkin’ Shirks), but setup men don’t have a whole lot of value in our F-league. He is one of the best; more importantly, Ryan Zimmerman has only played 32 games this season.
SP	Roy Halladay	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	612	Halladay is having a typical Halladay year with a sub-three ERA over an MLB-leading 143.1 IPs. He’s fifth among SPs in average F-points (32.2)
SP	Cole Hamels	Saratoga Redsox	449	Remember when Bucky drafted four SPs in the first eight rounds? Well, the two that aren’t on the DL are All-Stars.
CL	Joel Hanrahan	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	281	Hanrahan, who I’d never heard of before this season, has a 1.34 ERA and 26 saves with no BSs.
SP	Jair Jurrjens	Saratoga Redsox	418	Jurrjens, who was undrafted, has the fewest Ks (65) among the top 40 total scoring SPs, which, for my money, suggests he’s not liable to maintain his #10 ranking. He’s there primarily because of his 12 Ws and 23 ERs.
SP	Clayton Kershaw	Byron’s Wang	601	Kershaw leads the Majors in strikeouts (147) and is sixth on the SP rater (average).
SP	Cliff Lee	Jerkin’ Shirks	616	Lee leads the league in shutouts (4), and his fantasy numbers reflect that, as he’s second only to Verlander for starters (both total and average). Despite that, three of his shutouts have come since June 16, and Lee’s only 9-6 on the best team in baseball.
SP	Tim Lincecum	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	390	I don’t know if anything validates Holly’s drafting strategy more than this blog, and Lincecum is a great example. Here’s a guy who probably doesn’t deserve to be selected ahead of other guys, but he is anyway because he’s well-known and plays for the manager’s favorite team. At 6-7, Lincecum has about the same win percentage as Colorado, a team that is in third place in Lincecum’s division.
SU	Jonny Venters	Jerkin’ Shirks	235	Setup men are All-Stars, too! Venters has a 1.49 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. He’s also second in the majors with 19 holds. Exciting stuff.
SP	Ryan Vogelsong	BS’s THE BENIS	317	Vogelsong is 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA, but has only pitched 91.1 innings, which doesn’t even crack the top 100 across the league. At least he’s a San Francisco Giant. Also, he’s from Charlotte.
CL	Brian Wilson	Byron’s Wang	326	Among CLs in our F-league, Wilson has the third highest average score at 7.8, and he’s second in total score. But, in both, he’s behind ROY candidate Craig Kimbrel (371 total), who averages 8.1, based on a ML-leading 27 saves, a 2.40 ERA, and a gargantuan 70 Ks in just 45 IPs (14.0 K/9). Kimbrel may yet make the team, but it seems like he shouldn’t have to wait.

Reserves

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
C	Yadier Molina	Free Agent	273	For the past three years, Yadier and McCann have been the only NL All-Star catchers. Molina – who is known as a defensive catcher – isn’t currently on an F-roster, but he’s scored more F-points this season than three catchers who are.
1B	Gaby Sanchez	Saratoga Redsox	486	I don’t know much about Gaby Sanchez, and I really don’t want to, so I’m just going to say this: if you’re on Twitter, you should follow Sanchez’s teammate Logan Morrison.
1B	Joey Votto	Byron’s Wang	525	Votto is following up his “MVP season” with a reasonable year (.321 BA, 13 HRs, 53 RBIs, 59 Rs). But his F-numbers are only good enough to put this 13th overall pick at #43 on the batter rater for average (5.9).
2B	Brandon Phillips	Dallas RoughRiders	442	This guy’s a douche, just so you know. But he’s a decent secondbaseman (#9 in total F-points for 2B-eligible players – one behind starting 2B Rickie Weeks). Despite that, he’s probably only an All-Star because he’s hitting about 40 points above Neil Walker and Danny Espinosa (and/or because he’s a name). Phillips is currently averaging 0.1 F-points per game more than Dustin Ackley (5.2 to 5.1).
3B	Chipper Jones	Jerkin’ Shirks	434	Chipper, who is quickly approaching 40, only has one more All-Star appearance (7 to 6) than teammate Brian McCann, who is only 27. This is hardly Chipper’s best season, but he’s only behind Aramis Ramirez in total F-points for NL 3B.
SS	Starlin Castro	Saratoga RedSox	402	I wouldn’t have expected Starlin Castro to be a viable fantasy shortstop, especially not in our league, but he’s tied for #7 in total F-points (but only 12 in average).
SS	Troy Tulowitzki	BS’s THE BENIS	554	Despite his first-round draft status, Tulo is not the highest scoring SS in the league (behind Reyes and Asdrubal in total score and Reyes in average). He does lead all shortstops with 17 HRs, which is tied for 16 across all positions with current #2 overall scorer Adrian Gonzalez and perennial top scorer Albert Pujols.
OF	Carlos Beltran	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	618	Yesterday (7/8), I stopped writing this blog at this point to run a couple of errands. I never got back to it, and of course, everything’s changed (except Yankees and Rays, who were rained out). So, I spent the last 45 minutes this morning retconning the blogging above to sync with today’s numbers. Now I have to rush to finish this before those same Yankees and Rays start a non-double-header at 1:05.
OF	Jay Bruce	Saratoga RedSox	490	When I started this blog, Bruce was outscoring Holliday in total F-points (475 to 471). Both hit HRs last night, but Holliday hit a double, and Bruce struck out, leading to their flip-flop.
OF	Matt Holliday	Jerkin’ Shirks	492	Holliday is another questionable selection to the Home Run Derby. He only has 14 HRs, tied for 32 in the Majors. But, his swing is really fun to watch. It’s very violent, though, so I wonder if he’ll be able to maintain throughout the derby.
OF	Hunter Pence	Dallas RoughRiders	515	Pence leads all major league outfielders with 112 hits, which is good for fifth overall. His .325 BA is as well.
OF	Justin Upton	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	581	I am personally disappointed in Major League Baseball for not including more Arizona Diamondbacks. Upton is their only representative, but you could clearly make a good case for OF Chris Young (16 HRs, 49 RBIs, 57 Rs, 11 SBs), SP Ian Kennedy (9-3, 3.44 ERA, 106 Ks), SP Daniel Hudson (9-5, 3.75 ERA, 95 Ks), or CL J.J. Putz (21 saves, 3.12 ERA, 8.57 K/9)
OF	Shane Victorino	Jerkin’ Shirks	497	Victorino was voted in by the fans as the final All-Star, but isn’t playing. So take that fans. He’s actually pretty deserving, as he’s only one of nine OFs to average more than seven F-points per game.

AL Roster

Starters

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
C	Alex Avila	Jerkin’ Shirks	375	Halfway through. Bryan has owned five of the AL starters (Avila, A-Rod, Granderson, Hamilton, and Ortiz) at one point or another. If James Shields gets the start, it’ll be six. Avila, who was undrafted, is fifth among catchers for total F-points.
1B	Adrian Gonzalez	Dallas RoughRiders	730	Gonzalez, who is second in the league in both total and average F-points, has a league-leading 14 GWRBIs. In our league, this is one of those stats that can skew averages. Even so, I’d expect Gonzalez to maintain, at least, top-five form.
2B	Robinson Cano	Saratoga Redsox	547	Cano is, once again, proving that he is the best fantasy 2B, leading the position with 547 total F-points. Despite that, he actually has the second smallest lead over the second-place player at any individual position (40 points over Pedroia). Jose Reyes has the smallest lead with a 9-point lead over Asdrubal Cabrera.
3B	Alex Rodriguez	BS’s THE BENIS	546	I saw a segment on ESPN asking if A-Rod would clear 30 HRs and 100 RBIs this season, something that he’s done 14 times and 13 straight seasons. He’s hit exactly 30 HRs the past two seasons, though, and he needs to pick up the pace if he wants to get there again.
SS	Derek Jeter	Free Agent	255	Unless Jeter’s 3,000th hit is worth bonus points, he’s likely to be the lowest scoring batter going into All-Star weekend (currently 7 behind teammate Russell Martin). Admittedly, he’s missed a few games (20 of the Yankees' 86), but I think even Holly would agree that he was a wasted seventh-round draft pick. Incidentally, he’s not going to the All-Star game anyway.
OF	Jose Bautista	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	749	Hey! It’s the best player in the league. Bautista – my fourth-round draft pick – isn’t just a power hitter; he also leads the Majors in walks (73) and OBP (.466). Bautista’s OPS (1.150) is 0.141 above second-place Lance Berkman’s (1.009), which is 0.141 above the 25th player on the list. Side note, which I suppose all of these are, Bautista’s 3B/OF eligibility really screws up some of these “best of” lists and numbers.
OF	Curtis Granderson	BS’s THE BENIS	685	Granderson is having probably his best season ever. He’s fifth in total F-points and fifth in average among batters. His 25 HRs is tied for second in the league, and he only weighs 185 pounds. Quite a steal in the 10th round for Bryan.
OF	Josh Hamilton	BS’s THE BENIS	419	Speaking of steals for Bryan, his trade with Bucky for Hamilton is the most one-side thing since babies learned there were things on the other sides of walls. Bucky ultimately lost Hamilton (419 total, 8.1 average) and (the dropped) Pablo Sandoval (277 total, 5.8 average) and got Ichiro (385 total, 4.4 average) and about two months of Adam Dunn (134 total, 1.8 average, and standing ovations for hitting singles). That’s about a 50-point-per-matchup swing against Bucky.
DH	David Ortiz	Jerkin’ Shirks	540	In the one trade this season that didn’t go Bryan’s way, he gave up All-Star and Home Run Derby captain (for some reason) Ortiz and Alfonso Soriano, who nobody cares about, for former All-Star Jason Heyward. Heyward (3.7) is averaging less than Soriano (3.9), who is a free agent. Ortiz is destroying the ball.

Pitchers

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
SP	Josh Beckett	Jerkin’ Shirks	404	I think a lot of people avoided Beckett in the draft because he’s been inconsistent throughout his career. This is evidently one of his good years, and he’s the 13th highest scoring SP in the league as a 17th-round draft pick.
SU	Aaron Crow	Free Agent	73	Crow is the lowest-scoring All-Star selection. KC definitely has better players, who are having better seasons, so this one’s a bit of a head scratcher. Crow immediately blew a save upon hearing of his selection to the team.
SP	Gio Gonzalez	Dallas RoughRiders	343	Gonzalez had a lot of buzz leading up to the F-draft. I haven’t confirmed this, but I’m guessing Matthew thought no one else knew that and now thinks he was a genius for drafting him. Regardless, he is at least performing at level.
SP	Felix Hernandez	BS’s THE BENIS	402	King Felix was the second pitcher selected in our draft and is now the second best pitcher on his team (average F-points: Felix, 21.2; Michael Pineda, 21.9).
CL	Brandon League	BS’s THE BENIS	185	League has slightly more strikeouts than he does saves (25 to 23). He was also undrafted.
CL	Chris Perez	BS’s THE BENIS	205	Perez doesn’t have more strikeouts than he does saves (21 to 21). He’s also involved in some sort of mafia.
SP	David Price	Saratoga Redsox	371	I didn’t really think Tampa Bay starters were a good idea because their offense sucks (more on that in a minute). Price is a good example, with a 20.6 F-point average and an 8-7 overall record. He’s also striking more people out this season (8.86 K/9 compared to a career 8.03, which includes this season).
CL	Mariano Rivera	Jerkin’ Shirks	221	Rivera is almost outscoring Jeter this season. Like Jeter (and A-Rod), he also won’t be playing in the All-Star game.
SP	James Shields	BS’s THE BENIS	604	The other trade that worked well for Bryan saw me send James Shields to him for Phil Hughes – mostly because I needed to clear a roster spot for Brandon Morrow. At the time, I had to really convince Bryan to do this trade. Now Shields has the third highest average score for F-pitchers (33.6). If I still had Shields, Matthew and I would each have two of the top five SPs in that category. Hughes, freshly off the DL, has -52 F-points this season. Thank goodness I’m so convincing.
SP	Justin Verlander	Dallas RoughRiders	709	As I just mentioned, Matthew has two of the best SPs in the league. One of them is Verlander; he is the best SP in the league so far. In fact, he’s third in total scoring, behind only Bautista and Adrian Gonzalez. In fairness, he threw a no-hitter, which is another of those stats that can really skew these F-numbers.
CL	Jose Valverde	Saratoga Redsox	237	The best closers are in the National League. But, among AL closers, Valverde has the third highest total score. The two ahead of him (Jonathan Papelbon and Sergio Santos) aren’t All-Stars.
CL	Jordan Walden	BS’s THE BENIS	218	After Valverde, it goes Rivera then Walden in the AL. Walden is replacing Rivera, who probably decided against playing in this All-Star game when MLB announced that it would be in Arizona two and a half years ago.
SP	Jered Weaver	Dallas RoughRiders	615	This is Matthew’s other best pitcher, who is third in total scoring and fourth in average for SPs.
SP	C.J. Wilson	Byron’s Wang	406	Wilson’s 3.20 ERA matches Bartolo Colon’s. He’s tied for tenth in the league with 117 Ks. But he’s tied with CC Sabathia, who has a 2.90 ERA and three more wins than Wilson.

Reserves

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
C	Russell Martin	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	262	Martin’s 262 F-points are only ahead of teammate Jeter for batters. He does have 10 HRs, but is only batting .220.
C	Matt Wieters	Free Agent	301	Wieters is the best available catcher in our league who hasn’t had his F-numbers inflated by a grand slam. Incidentally, catchers have more grand slams than any position other than OF, and there are three of those per team.
1B	Miguel Cabrera	What?What? In the butt….	621	Finally, we get to one of Matt’s players. Admittedly, that’s only because I started with the NL, but even so, you were starting to get a little worried, weren’t you? Cabrera has the highest total score of any player not to average at least 7 (6.9).
1B	Paul Konerko	Dallas RoughRiders	610	Just looking back over the draft recap: I passed on Konerko in round nine to take Justin Morneau. Dammit.
2B	Howard Kendrick	What?What? In the butt….	314	Does anybody really call him Howard? We’re almost at the end here.
3B	Adrian Beltre	Jerkin’ Shirks	637	Beltre is the highest scoring 3B not named Jose Bautista, and it’s not even close. Beltre’s 91-point lead over A-Rod is the biggest lead over the next best player at his position, excluding – of course – Bautista’s 112-point lead over Beltre.
SS	Asdrubal Cabrera	Jerkin’ Shirks	562	Asdrubal’s complete transaction log (in reverse order): Added from Free Agency by Jerkin’ Shirks: Apr 12, 10:35 PM Dropped by What?What? In the Butt….: Apr 12, 9:06 AM Added from Free Agency by What?What? In the Butt….: Apr 12, 9:02 AM
OF	Michael Cuddyer	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	427	Cuddyer’s on my team, and this is a shock to me. I guess he’s the Twins’ one All-Star, but he’s only really hit over the past six weeks (April/May: .262 BA, 5 HRs, 13 RBIs; June/July: .352 BA, 8 HRs, 29 RBIs).
OF	Jacoby Ellsbury	What?What? In the butt….	594	I didn’t realize Ellsbury was having this good of a season until I started writing this blog. He’s #5 on the (outfielder-only) player rater this season but has never finished higher than #26 in his career.
OF	Matt Joyce	BS’s THE BENIS	412	This is the Rays offense I mentioned earlier. Joyce leads the team in batting average (.287) and OPS (.851) and is tied for second in HRs (11). Not great numbers, but he’s still averaging 5.2 F-points.
OF	Carlos Quentin	Byron’s Wang	482	Quentin leads the league with 19 HBP. That alone is worth an All-Star appearance.
DH	Michael Young	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	489	I’m not sure why the AL is considering Young a DH considering (a) he can play just about any position and (b) the game is in a National League park. Maybe the Rangers suggested it?

Since I started this blog, at least 24 hours ago, MLB has announced three replacement players. One of them is on my team, so I’m including them:

Pos.	Player	F-team	F-points	Notes
OF	Andre Ethier	Sherwood Forest Sherricks	459	My two favorite stats for Ethier: 0 errors, 9 GWRBI. He was on my team a couple years ago and won me at least a couple of matchups with GWRBI. He may not be Adrian Gonzalez, but dude is clutch.
SS/3B	Jhonny Peralta	Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin	499	Ja-honny Peralta never made the All-Star team with the Cleveland Indians or hit better than .300. He’s doing both now. Byron, feel free to cry.
1B/3B	Kevin Youkilis	What?What? In the Butt….	499	How random is it that two of the replacements have exactly 499 total points and a 6.2 average? Surprisingly, Youkilis has more stolen bases.

Here are the final numbers, in order of division standings, which I’ve never done before:

The Dub Alumni Division

Sherwood Forest Sherricks: 7 All-Stars (3 starters)

BS’s THE BENIS: 11 All-Stars (3 starters) – tied for all-time high with BS’s THE BENIS in ’09, Byron’s Wang in ’10, and Jerkin’ Shirks in ‘11

What?What? In the Butt….: 4 All-Stars (0 starters)

Take On Me, Suck it MacKlin: 8 All-Stars (2 starters)

Non Dub Alumni Division

Dallas RoughRiders: 8 All-Stars (2 starters)

Jerkin’ Shirks: 11 All-Stars (2 starters) – tied for all-time high

Byron’s Wang: 10 All-Stars (3 starters)

Saratoga Redsox: 8 All-Stars (1 starter)

Free Agents: 5 All-Stars (1 starter)

Question of the Day:

Biggest snub?

My take: Based on the F-numbers it should be Ryan Howard (613) followed by Chris Young (594) for batters, Dan Haren (498) and CC Sabathia (455) for starters, and Craig Kimbrel (371) and Drew Storen (286) for relievers. I’d vote for Young, Kimbrel, and then selfishly for Jaime Garcia, who is rated 11 for SPs with 412 F-points.