{"id":1802,"date":"2021-10-01T08:44:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2021-10-01T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:44:51","slug":"twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-previews-ii-second-basemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/2021\/10\/01\/twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-previews-ii-second-basemen\/","title":{"rendered":"TWIWBL Special Edition: All Star Previews II – Second Basemen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

{ With under three weeks until the All Star Teams are announced, we’re looking at what’s changed since our original previews. }<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preview I here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Original selections: Eddie Collins<\/strong>, Tim Raines<\/strong>, Larry Gardner<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After struggling briefly on his return from the DL, Chicago’s Collins has resumed being the class of the second basemen in the league with a 309\/431\/517 slash line. He’s the clear starter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after that, it gets awfully muddled. Purely by OPS, you would go with Kansas City’s Rogers Hornsby<\/strong> (309\/390\/500) and Baltimore’s Gardner (288\/419\/464).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ottawa’s Raines certainly deserves strong consideration (and he may be Ottawa’s only representative in the midseason classic). Raines’ OPS is a shade worse at 282\/365\/445, but he leads the group with 7 homeruns and 38 runs scored, and is way ahead with 38 steals, putting him behind only Collins in WAR (2.5 to 1.8). Los Angeles’ Bobby Grich<\/strong> is also at a 1.8 WAR, slashing 300\/374\/485.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grich sits just behind Collins and the New York Gothams’ Cookie Rojas<\/strong> in the defensive rankings. (Houston’s HR Johnson–who has hit well enough to be in the conversation–has been among the worst defensive 2B in the league, moving him clearly out of contention at this point.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what to do …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a position I expect to change a little as the month plays out, but right now, I would go with Raines and Gardner behind Collins. But I could also be convinced to carry four to include Hornsby. And, if Baltimore drops off as a team, that probably weakens Gardner’s argument as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhat inexplicably, the AI goes with Collins, Johnson, and Raines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Original selections: Chase Utley<\/strong>, Jimmy Bloodworth<\/strong>, Tom Herr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooklyn’s Jackie Robinson<\/strong> presents a bit of a conundrum, having split his time almost equally between 1B and 2B. He clearly hasn’t hit well enough to make it as a 1B, but his 291\/350\/511 is pretty spectacular for a middle infielder. For now, I’m going to punt on him though, and perhaps add a utility<\/em> category for each league in the final selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feel-good story of the season so far, Birmingham’s Herr, is not only still performing at an all-star level, he’s likely the starter right now, hitting 338\/381\/455. It doesn’t seem sustainable, but it didn’t at the last update either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco’s Bloodworth sits just behind him in OPS at 288\/328\/488 with 9 homeruns and 25 RBIs. Utley has been in a slump, but he remains the only other candidate with an OPS over .800, and at 263\/335\/481 still would make it, although a surge by Homestead’s Davey Johnson<\/strong> or Indianapolis’ Joe Morgan<\/strong> could remove him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utley and Bloodworth have been the best defensive 2B so far, which helps them here as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I would stick with the same three, just in a different order. The AI selects only <\/em>Herr, which is amusing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ With under three weeks until the All Star Teams are announced, we’re looking at what’s changed since our original previews. } Preview I here. #AL – Bill James & Cum Posey Divisions Original selections: Eddie Collins, Tim Raines, Larry Gardner. After struggling briefly on his return from the DL, Chicago’s Collins has resumed being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1000],"tags":[866,155,222,488,785,277,394,121,885,845,196,965],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-games","tag-bobby-grich","tag-chase-utley","tag-cookie-rojas","tag-davey-johnson","tag-eddie-collins","tag-jackie-robinson","tag-jimmy-bloodworth","tag-joe-morgan","tag-larry-gardner","tag-rogers-hornsby","tag-tim-raines","tag-tommy-herr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","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=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}