Who's the Best Player to Never Make the All-Star Team?: Aaron Cross says it's the Angels' own Tim Salmon, and I'm inclined to agree. Colby Cosh says maybe, but leans toward Tony Phillips. I think Kirk Gibson and Hal Trosky also deserve consideration. Any thoughts out there? (Must be a player who spent most of his productive career playing after the 1933 introduction of the All-Star game.) Seems logical to me that the list would be loaded with recent players with a history of starting slow, since there are so many teams nowadays, and you have to choose a representative from each based on first-half stats....
Posted by at October 28, 2002 10:01 PMI don't know for sure, but it seems to me that Dave Henderson was never an all-star, yet he was one of those incredible money players (the home run against the Angels yes, but mostly his career with the A's '88 through '92) and was central to championship teams. How about Sal Bando? I'll need to find a site that lists all the players who have been all-stars... Joe Rudi? (I'm A's-centric, but they had alot of those medium-great players in the early 70's that you would suspect weren't all-stars yet deserved to be...)
Posted by: A's fan at October 28, 2002 10:54 PMAlright, so you actually have 'links' in your blog entries. (I don't know about those same-color-font links...) I found that baseball site...it's a great site. Dave Henderson was an all-star in '91. Bando about three years. Rudi was one too. I was thinking Carney Lansford, but he was one in '88. Here's a sleeper - Gene Nelson. One of the best set-up relievers ever. Now I'll go check...
Posted by: A's fan at October 28, 2002 11:09 PMGene Nelson apparently was never an all-star...but neither was any other set-up reliever probably... Maybe M. Rivera in '96...
Posted by: A's fan at October 28, 2002 11:16 PMEric Karros' never been an all-star. Though, I'm not a fan of his or anything, he has put up decent numbers over the last 10-12 years, and his numbers overall are better than Salmon's.
Posted by: Basileus at October 29, 2002 07:02 AMty cobb is the most obvious choice, but a cheapie.
Posted by: pj at October 30, 2002 08:24 PMPJ -- I said "Must be a player who spent most of his productive career playing after the 1933 introduction of the All-Star game."
Basileus -- Karros plays first base, the least demanding defensive position, and is no wizard over there. Salmon plays right field, the *third* least demanding defensive position, and played it wonderfully until leg injuries & weight have slowed him down in the last year or two.
But mostly, Salmon's numbers are better:
Batting Average
EK: .268
TS: .285
On-base Percentage
EK: .325 (ouch!)
TS: .390
Slugging Percentage
EK: .457
TS: .511
Despite playing in 213 fewer games, Salmon has:
* scored 111 more runs
* hit eight more triples, just 1 less home run, and just 13 fewer doubles
Karros has hit into 166 double plays. Salmon has hit into 76.
Through the 2001 season, Salmon had been among his league's top 10 in:
On-base percentage (3 times)
Slugging percentage (2 times)
On-base plus slugging (2 times)
RBI (2 times)
Runs (2 times)
Home runs (4 times)
Doubles (1 time)
Total Bases (2 times)
Hits (1 time)
Walks (5 times)
He had twice finished 7th in MVP voting.
Through the 2001 season, Karros had been among his league's top 10 in:
Slugging Percentage (1 time)
On-base plus Slugging (1 time)
Hits (1 time)
Total Bases (1 time)
RBI (1 time)
(each of the previous achievements came in the same year, 1995)
Home runs (2 times)
Doubles (1 time)
Karros finished 5th one year in the MVP voting. Both men were rookies of the year.
I think Salmon's got Karros smoked.
Posted by: Matt Welch at October 31, 2002 02:37 PMMatt's right. Karros's offensive stats suffer some from Dodger Stadium, but they sure don't suffer that much. Karros has pretty much sucked the proverbial rope, what, five out of the last six years?
Posted by: Colby Cosh at November 3, 2002 10:01 PM