Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Congrats to Wiggy, Nick Snubbed?

Your 2010 Orioles All-Star representative is none other than Ty Wigginton. Unfortunately, some talking heads feel that Ty is the A.L.'s super-utility player who will only get in the game if it goes in to extra innings. Great, so we have one player in the game who likely won't even play. It reminds me of the 08 All-Star Game, when George Sherrill didn't appear in the game until the 12th inning.

While I would agree that Ty was the only Oriole who was "hot" at the plate for the beginning of the season, he has really cooled off lately. Before yesterday's 2-3 performance in Detroit, he was mired in a 1-28 slump. And while he does have 14 HR on the year, only 1 of those have come since May 23.

Kalina and I feel like Nick Markakis would've been a better representative. Kakes has been hitting around .300 all year and also gets on base about 40% of the time, mainly due to his 25 doubles (tied for 2nd in the AL) and 49 walks. He was likely not selected due to the position he plays, rather than his stats on the year. Juan Samuel did mention that he would've endorsed Kakes if Joe Giradi had been respectful enough to ask him.

I got this card signed at a game recently and Ty used another guy's marker to sign it. The marker is much thicker than the sharpie I normally use but it still looks decent. While neither Ty nor Nick are good autograph signers, I have gotten Ty's autograph 3 times at Camden Yards while I'm still waiting for my first Markakis game autograph...so Ty's an autograph All-Star at least.

3 comments:

Dion's IP Autos only said...

Nick with 4 HR's and 27 RBI not an all-star sorry the O's are lucky they have the rule of every team has to have an all-star or they would and should have none! just my opinion. Thanks, Dion

Orioles Magic said...

I know that Nick's power numbers are part of the reason he wasn't selected, but then again look at Ichiro's numbers. He has 3 HR and 24 RBI this year. I know that Nick isn't Ichiro, but using the HR/RBI argument doesn't work there.

I do agree with you that the O's should be lucky that every team gets a representative. There's not a single Oriole player who is the top 3 or 4 at their position this season.

kasliwi said...

I won't debate that there are guys in the AL that have more RBI and homers, but it's hard to have a ton of RBI when you're the only guy on your team that is on base consistently. And getting on base is just as important as hitting homers. Nick Markakis has the 5th highest OBP in the AL, and is 13th in BA. Of the guys above him in BA, 6 are outfielders. I think that's what Ryan meant by "not selected due to the position he plays". Of those 6 guys, only 3 have significantly more homers and/or RBI: Josh Hamilton, Magglio Ordonez, and Carl Crawford. If homers and RBI were all we cared about, Ichiro Suzuki wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of making the All-Star Team...

I'm not arguing that Markakis should've been voted in over any of these guys, or that the 2010 Orioles particularly deserve an All-Star, but the fact remains that there IS the rule that states that all teams send a rep. My only points are that Markakis deserved an All-Star spot over any other Oriole, and guys don't have to hit homers to be an integral part of their team and the league.