Please, don't ring this Bell
06/28/2001
Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
I'm going to bitch a moan a bit. And you're going to listen.
Sound like a plan?
The Major League Baseball All Star game is fast approaching and I couldn't be any less excited. Why? Because the other day I noticed that no fewer than five Seattle Mariners are primed to start the Mid-Summer Classic on July 10, and one more is only 35,000 votes shy of a starting nod. But what really upsets me isn't technically how many Seattle players will be starters, it's who one of those starters will be.
Below are the numbers for four American League third basemen:
Player A: .253, 19 HR, 48 RBI, .368 OB%, .535 Slug%, 5 steals, 13 errors
Player B: .256, 8 HR, 43 RBI, .347 OB%, .411 Slug%, 10 steals, 6 errors
Player C: .259, 7 HR, 36 RBI, .295 OB%, .404 Slug%, 0 steals, 7 errors
Player D: .245, 11 HR, 39 RBI, .304 OB%, .449 Slug%, 2 steals, 7 errors
Pretty pitiful, huh? Yup, AL third sackers really aren't giving All Star voters many options this year, but somebody has to start the game. Of the four, which player would get your All Star vote? The numbers may look relatively similar, making your choice a tough one, but take a closer look.
Player A leads the group in homers, RBI, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, plus he's second in steals, although he's also accumulated the most errors... by quite a wide margin. Player B is second in RBI, average and OB%, third in homers and first in steals while notching the fewest errors. Player C is leading the group in average but he's last in homers, RBI, OB%, Slug% and steals. Player D has a terrible batting average and his OB% is miserable too, but he's second in the group with 11 homers, third in RBI and second in Slug%. Who gets your vote?
Personally, I'd say Player A is the most deserving with Player B also getting strong consideration. But that's not fair: I know which players go with which numbers. Statistically speaking, though, Player A, Anaheim's Troy Glaus, is a notch or two ahead of Player B, and he's leaps and bounds ahead of Seattle's David Bell and Oakland's Eric Chavez, Players C and D respectively.
Yet even though these numbers seemingly point away from Bell's All Star worthiness, 612,665 people have voted for the Seattle third baseman this year, placing him 33,249 votes ahead of Glaus. Chavez and Player B (whose identity I'll reveal in a little bit) are nowhere to be found in the latest All Star tally. Why is that?
Some people say Bell deserves to be the starter because the Mariners, who have the best record in baseball, are playing so well this season. Huh? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Just because, record-wise, the Mariners are the best team in baseball, their position players are the best at their respective positions and therefore they all deserve to start in the All Star game? Come on. That would mean Seattle catcher Dan Wilson (.273, 4 homers, 19 RBI), shortstop Carlos Guillen (.231/2/34) and outfielder Mike Cameron (.276/13 HR/49 RBI/16 steals) should all be in the starting lineup in two weeks.
But just for argument's sake, let's follow that logic for a minute. I just pointed to player B having a very strong case for making the All Star team. Player B is Corey Koskie, the starting third baseman for the Minnesota Twins, who currently have the second-highest win total in the American League. If people are okay with David Bell starting at third because he's playing for a winner -- even with those atrocious numbers -- then why aren't more people saying Corey Koskie, who has better stats than Bell across the board, deserves the start?
The bottom line here is simple: The Mariners, as a team, are playing fantastic baseball, and the Seattle players are reaping the rewards in the voting. Safeco Field is sold out every night and fans are voting every night. Thousands of times. Apparently for every single Mariner on the damn ballot. Seattle fans are jacked up about their team's success so they're voting online as well, and since MLB allows people to vote up to 25 times per e-mail address, you can bet that's being exploited too.
Then of course there's the Ichiro Craze. With every Mariners game being broadcast in Japan and remembering that MLB distributed five million All Star ballots to Japanese fans this year, you can bet they're pumping up Bell's -- and every Seattle player's -- vote totals overseas.
Overreacting, you say? Check this out: Wilson currently is second in voting for catchers, Guillen is third at short, and Cameron is only 35,000 votes behind Juan Gonzalez for the third and final starting outfield slot. That's silly. Wilson? Second in voting? Ahead of someone like the Yankees' Jorge Posada, who's hitting .307 with 13 homers and 58 RBI? Wilson's only driven in 19 runs this year! Sure, Ivan Rodriguez and his 1.2 million votes will walk away with the fan voting, but it's maddening to see Wilson nearly 200,000 votes ahead of Posada, and while Guillen won't even sniff an All Star berth, it doesn't really justify his current position. But Cameron has a very realistic shot to overtake Gonzalez, and while his overall numbers at the plate and spectacular defense in centerfield present a compelling argument for Cameron's selection, there are several AL outfielders who have comparable numbers and would be more conventional All Star picks. Guys like Magglio Ordonez (.295/18/52/10 steals), Gonzalez (.338/18/67), Raul Mondesi (.287/13/40/12 steals), Bernie Williams (.314/12/39/8 steals), Darrin Erstad (.285/5/37/12 steals) and Ellis Burks (.302/20/53) are not only delivering fantastic numbers this year, but they're all proven run producers who, all things being equal, are more deserving All Stars simply because, as they say, they've been here before. But this is really the first time Cameron's generated these kinds of numbers, and when I fill out my All Star ballot I look at both this season's stats as well as career productivity, and personally, even though their numbers are relatively equal, Cameron just isn't on the same level as Bernie, Mags, Juan Gone and Erstad. Not yet. Now, do it again next year and I may change my mind.
But this is all useless because every fan has his or her own criteria for voting, and obviously most of them don't follow my thought process.
And yes, it pisses me off.
I'm not saying the fans shouldn't be allowed to vote -- in fact, last year I defended our balloting rights. But I guess I just want it both ways: I want the fans to vote but, damnit, can't you guys cast educated votes? Most years it's not even an issue. I can live with legends like Cal Ripken being voted in even though he hasn't been productive since Bush Sr. was in office because he's earned it. Fans want to see him play. Who wants to see David Bell play? If you're not a Mariners fan and your last name isn't Bell, I bet you don't. David Bell is not an All Star, and he's certainly not an All Star starter. The other four Mariners leading in voting -- 1B John Olerud, 2B Bret Boone, OF Ichiro Suzuki and DH Edgar Martinez -- are all worthy candidates. But David Bell... . I just can't handle it. And the worst part is, it's always going to be like this. Every few years certain teams will play better than expected so they'll sell out all their home games, and in turn the fans, who jump onto the loyalty bandwagon faster than Darryl Strawberry violates the terms of his probation, vote for their hometown players. Hundreds-of-thousands of times.
So fans like me have to hope the All Star managers make up for whenever a David Bell is elected by the fans by properly selecting the teams' reserves, but even the managers play favorites, passing over worthy players for their own borderline players. In other words, there's no real solution. It's something that will continue to aggravate me every couple of years but I'll just have to learn to live with it. Oh well.
Like I said, I just wanted to bitch and moan. Thanks for listening.
In the Bullz-Eye
The NBA. It was an interesting draft this year, with four high schoolers, four college freshmen, six sophomores and four international players being selected in the first round. It marked the first time in history that a high school player was taken with the first overall pick, and Spain's Pau Gasol became the highest-drafted international player when the Hawks chose him third overall. With so many teams taking such high risks, in two or three years the NBA could realize that this influx of youngsters really hampers the league's growth. If that's the case, the handful of teams that decided to take a shot or two on these youngsters may find it's hard to make up for mistakes of that magnitude.