BLOG: Which Oriole Deserves A Spot In The All Star Game?
In my opinion the best All Star game in all of professional sports is a little over a month away when baseball's best head to Arizona in the second week of July. The first voting results have started to surface and like every year there is no Oriole on any of the top 5 at any position. But unlike any other sport most of you know every team must be represented whether you like it or hate it that in itself is a topic for another discussion. So since no Oriole is anywhere close to being voted in we have to assume that yet again that only one Oriole will be an All Star, an all to common occurrence for us O's fans. In fact the last time multiple Orioles were in the mid-summer classic was in 2005. Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora and B.J. Ryan all made the team. Believe it or not the O's were 7 games over .500 at that All Star break so the multiple players were warranted. So that brings us back to reality and who will represent the orange and black this season. I got a couple of candidates that I would like to make a case for.
Adam Jones--Jones is most likely to head to Arizona in my opinion for a couple of reasons. One is his stats, AJ is hitting .293 with 7 HR and 31 RBI. They don't really jump out at you but when you look at the rest of the team, his numbers are good. Two is his name recognition, Jones has already won a gold glove and he has already been to an all-star game and he has yet to turn 26. Sometimes people in this city have been very critical of Jones but they have to realize how young he still is. Jones would be my top choice for the Orioles lone all-star.
Matt Wieters--This situation makes me the most furious, especially when you look at who's leading at the catching position. Russell Martin has over 800,000 votes with .236 average 9 HR and 27 RBI. Wieters is hitting .274 with 5 HR and 28 RBI and not to mention hes hitting .512 with RISP. Even worse than Martin being number 1 is somehow Mauer has almost 600,000 votes. How is that even possible, Mauer hasnt played a game since April 12, and has only played in 9 all year. Its official the voters are just stupid. Wieters is not having an MVP season but when you compare him with the current top 5 vote getters at catcher he is by far worthy of being in the conversation, and he should probably be leading the pack.
Vladimir Guerrero--Out of my top three, Vlad probably has the slimmest chance of making the team. But again when you compare his numbers to the rest of the team they are among the best. If you look at his numbers at this point last season you would say Vlad is a disappointment. On June 7 Vlad was hitting .333 with 12 HR and 47 RBI, obviously he's behind that pace. Vlad is however a big name and multiple time all-star and might get a little consideration just for that.
A couple honorable mentions for me would be Zach Britton and Jake Arrieta, however both are honorable mentions for a reason. When the season started Britton wasnt even supposed to be on the big league roster. But because of injuries Britton was forced into the rotation and made an early case for rookie of the year. After April Britton was 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA. Since then the rest of baseball might have caught up to the youngster. Britton's last win was on May 1st and he has given up 11 earned runs in his last 2 starts. As for Arrieta if you just look at his win-loss record (7-3) he would most likely be a lock for the roster. Then you look at his ERA, 4.93. If Jeremy Guthrie got the run support Arrieta does Guthrie might be in the consideration for the All Star Game. As bad as his ERA is his strikeout numbers are nice, he leads the team with 60. It's safe to say if Jake had Brittons ERA of 3.33 he would be a lock for the All Star game.
We still have a month until the game will be played so a lot can change and new candidates might rise and the ones I have listed might completely fall off. But for now these 5 guys are the front-runners to be representing orange and black in Arizona.
Andy Snakovsky - 105.7 The Fan Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AndySnakovsky
