{"id":1511,"date":"2021-07-30T09:33:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T14:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2021-09-07T21:17:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T02:17:33","slug":"twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-preview-shortstops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/2021\/07\/30\/twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-preview-shortstops\/","title":{"rendered":"TWIWBL Special Edition: All Star Preview – Shortstops"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

{ The All-Star game is about a month away. We\u2019ll post occasional articles about the contenders for participation in the mid-season classic. These are written “as of now,” so the final selections may vary dramatically, but hopefully these will add to the ongoing flavor of the league. }<\/em> <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

#AL Shortstops – Bill James & Cum Posey Divisions<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It’s a two man race for the starting position between Los Angeles’ George Wright<\/strong> (290\/342\/500) and Baltimore’s Bobby Wallace <\/strong>(314\/412\/436). Both of them should make it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Behind them, it gets trickier. The pool probably contains Memphis’ Vern Stephens<\/strong> (273\/349\/439), the House of David’s Ernie Banks<\/strong> (289\/306\/440), and Ottawa’s Freddy Parent<\/strong> (263\/336\/432). Banks has 27 RBIs, which leads the group by quite a bit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Eugenio Suarez<\/strong> of the New York Gothams is slashing 338\/378\/574, but has probably not played enough to warrant an all-star selection.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But, these are shortstops, so their defensive performance should count for something. Here, Parent has the clear edge, with Wright and Kansas City’s Ozzie Smith<\/strong> (who at 265\/349\/325 just hasn’t hit enough to force his way into the conversation) being the dominant fielders in the AL.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, let’s call it Wright, Wallace, and Parent. The AI agrees, but avoids the difficult question by selecting Wright and Wallace.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

#NL Shortstops – Effa Manley & Marvin Miller Divisions<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Portland’s Jim Fregosi<\/strong> (275\/350\/450) is the only clear selection, and therefore the starter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Offensively, you could argue for the Black Yankees’ Derek Jeter<\/strong> (289\/338\/407). But he’s really the only other candidate with a decent OPS.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Defensively, Homestead’s Arky Vaughan<\/strong> has probably been the best shortstop in the WBL to date (it’s either him or Detroit’s George Davis<\/strong>), so in this weak of a division, he could get a nod.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I’ll go with Fregosi, Jeter, and Vaughan at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if San Francisco’s Dick Lundy<\/strong> or Birmingham’s Troy Tulowitzki<\/strong> forced their way into the conversation by the end.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The AI punted on this one, selecting not a single shortstop to the NL squad.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ The All-Star game is about a month away. We\u2019ll post occasional articles about the contenders for participation in the mid-season classic. These are written “as of now,” so the final selections may vary dramatically, but hopefully these will add to the ongoing flavor of the league. } #AL Shortstops – Bill James & Cum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1000,416],"tags":[15,35,918,109,110,555,202,311,62,593,75,796,329],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-games","category-twiwbl","tag-arky-vaughan","tag-bobby-wallace","tag-derek-jeter","tag-dick-lundy","tag-ernie-banks","tag-eugenio-suarez","tag-freddy-parent","tag-george-davis","tag-george-wright","tag-jim-fregosi","tag-ozzie-smith","tag-troy-tulowitzki","tag-vern-stephens"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}