Teixeira, Jeter voted All Star Game starters

July 5, 2009 by Mike Axisa 31 Comments

After weeks of going back and forth with Kevin Youkilis, Mark Teixeira was announced as the starting first baseman for the American League All Star Team today. Derek Jeter will also start the game at short. Congrats to those two. Mariano Rivera was the only other Yankee elected to the game. Interestingly, the Mets are sending four players to the game, the most of any National League club.

You can see the full rosters here. You can also vote for the Final Man here.

Little Bill

Good to see Teix prevail over Youk. The biggest joke was Wakefield. BUT HE’S TIED FOR THE MOST WINS IN THE AL! What a joke.
- UWS
  
  I think it’s more of a lifetime achievement award for Wake. No biggie. Josh Hamilton being voted in as the starting CFer is the real joke.
  
  Congrats to Teixeira et al.
- ARX
  
  I’m not terribly offended by a 10-win pitcher making the AS team. I’m more pissed that old man Wakefield has 10 fucking wins at the HALFWAY mark, as it ties into my human sacrifice theory as to the Sox’s luck….but such is life.
ARX

On the one hand, HELL FUCKING YES at Tex beating out Youklis. on the other hand….Holy Ballot Stuffing Batman! What a joke this process is. MLB is lucky as all hell that fan efforts are being mostly ‘wasted’ getting their guy starter over a rival’s player (with both being deserving), and that they havent focused on an American Idol-like effort to vote in an embarassingly undeserving player (well, there’s Varitek, but he wasnt going to beat out Mauer).
Praveen

I think the Red Sox propaganda helped get Wakefield the All-Star game selection. The same propaganda that helped get Varitek the All-star game last year. And the same prpaganda that got Jim RIce in the Hall of fame.
- Whitey14
  
  It was probably Red Sox propaganda that got Jeter voted in as a Starter too ;-)
Aaron

Honeslty their are 5-10 players that are more deserving then Wakefeild. Kevin Millwood, Jared Weaver, CC Sabathia, A.J Burnett Matt Garza, James Shields are just SOME players better then Wakefeild.
DSFC

Pedroia has been the fifth-best 2B this year IN HIS OWN DIVISION
- Derby
  
  Yea, Cano beats him in every category except for OBP. He has a slightly lower fielding percentage than Pedroia, but he also has one less error, so go figure. I’m starting to get fed up with having the fans vote in players to the all star game. I really think most people are just stupid when it comes to stuff like this. “Hmmm, well Josh Hamilton did good last year… so he MUST be good this year, right?” ughhhhh
- Charlie
  
  +1
Praveen

I blame ESPN for all this Red Sox Propaganda.
- AndrewYF
  
  It’s that they’ve finally caught up to the rest of the majors and won a couple of championships in the modern era of baseball. Naturally, this makes their organization less of a league-wide joke. Unfortunately, this can also have the effect of retroactively making their other recent history less of a joke than it was. Thus, Jim Rice, one of the weakest Hall of Famers ever. Goes right along with Pedroia’s pretty good year netting him an MVP award.
Charlie

I give myself credit for getting tex ahead of youkilis. Also, can we get an open thread going here (maybe about what to do with 5th starter)?
Tony

How pathetic is it that a “glamour franchise” has Tim Wakefield on top of it’s all-time pitching lists? Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Christy Mathewson Don Sutton… Tim Wakefield.
http://www.retire21.org Mike R. – Retire 21

Kinsler>>>>>>>>>>Pedroia
- Whitey14
  
  Agreed, but,
  
  Red Sox fans diligence (even if it’s wrong) >>>>>>>>>>>> Ranger fans diligence.
  
  Dumb system, dumb results.
  
  Jeter and Pedroia will be winking at each other during the announcement of starting line-ups on the 14th because they know that neither of them should be starting.
Teix is the Man

Mark Teixeira has undeservingly netted the starting first base job from kevin Youkilis. This is thanks to Teixeira’s lucrative contract that he signed this offseason. So the story goes, money speaking louder than grit; MLB clearly has to do something about this.
For Diamond Cutters, I’m Peter Gammons, ESPN
- Charlie
  
  ietc
- Dela G
  
  Ravech- “Thanks Peter. Man, Pedroia is having an MVP year AGAIN, don’t you think? I mean the guy is worlds better than aaron hill, and his shit don’t stink too!”
  
  Gammons- “I couldn’t have said it better myself (wiping his mouth from polishing pedroia’s knob)”
- YankeeScribe
  
  Justin Morneau deserved it more than both Youk and Tex but he plays for a small market team so nobody cares…
  - Tony
    
    Morneau need to get screwed many more times to make up for that MVP he stole
    - Tony
      
      Sometimes I wonder how things would be different if Jeter hadn’t been cockblocked out of two MVPs.
      - YankeeScribe
        
        Pedroia winning the MVP award last season made me angry because it reminded me of Jeter’s getting cockblocked…
        
        ArodMVP217 Retire 51
        
        That, and Alex had better stats than the Boston guys
        
        teh battle b/n tex and youkilis ended quick when the streets of NY got involved
    - YankeeScribe
      
      I think the MVP voting is a joke some years too but not as bad as the all-star game balloting. The fans reward their favorite players. The best players at every position don’t always get recognized at the All-Star game…
vinny-b

i voted:

Texeria, 1b
Brian Roberts, 2b
Jeter, SS
Longoria, 3b
Mauer, C
Granderson, CF
Damon, LF
Ichiro, RF

fair ??
tommy

Teixeira wOBA so far this season is 400, Youkilis is 430, just saying…
Simon B.

Really, Youkilis, Morneau, and Branyan have all had clearly better years than Tex. I would even throw in Miguel Cabrera considering his power hasn’t gotten a boost from Yankee Stadium and he’s played better defense.
jorgie juiced one

Man, those starting AS OFs sure aren’t what they used to be. I think this is where the relative absence of the African-American athlete is pretty evident.

Over just a few years in the 80s, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, Kirby Puckett, Jim Rice, Darryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, Tony Gwynn, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines were AS starters. In 1972, the starting NL OF was Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Willie Stargell.

Re this year, while Longoria is already an excellent player and will get better. The best 3B in the league (and in baseball still) remains the Yankees’ 3B.

While Mauer obviously should be the AS starter, Posada, who’s having another excellent year, gets too little respect (I guess this comment shouldn’t be surprising given my user name).
- Tony
  
  There is absolutely no argument for ARod over Longoria this season
  - jorgie juiced one
    
    I didn’t say there’s an argument for ARod over Longoria for this season. Having said that, I don’t buy into the view that says that the best half-season peformance should be the one to start the game. If a guy has been a great player for a long time or has been the best player at his position, the fact that he hasn’t been the most productive over the season’s first 80+ games doesn’t mean he shouldn’t start.
    
    For example, while Bartlett has undeniably had a great year, the fact that Jeter’s been a great player and is having a good year justifies his selection.
    
    While there’s obviously subjectivity here, the bottom line is for me “best player” trumps “best performance this year.”