The Has-Been All Stars

The Has-Been All-Stars

  The All Stars Games rosters have been announced. We are celebrating the best in baseball. Should Puig make the team? Eh. Who cares about the stars? What about the has-beens? Those who used to be good but now suck and can barely even hold onto a major league roster spot anymore, let alone make an All-Star team. Of course let’s not be mean – even these rubbish players are still great ballplayers, but not what they used to be.

 Let’s limit the Has-Been All Stars to guys who are still in the Majors – the guys who are in AAA can play in the Triple-A Has-Been All-Star Game, and guys who are in Japan like Andruw Jones aren’t eligible. Also I’ll only pick a starting nine plus a couple of extra pitchers – unlike the 80-man rosters of the real ASG. Let’s ignore players who’ve fallen off the age cliff – Paul Konerko is a has-been but in his defence he is 37 years old. Also I’ll look for a more defined trend and try to avoid guys who’ve just had one bad year.

 Some positions have more depth than other – first base is loaded while catcher is weak (which means strong I suppose).

AL Has-Beens:

C: Geovany Soto (Tex): Soto burst onto the scene in 2008 with a 3.6 WAR season (Fangraphs) and had some more good Cub seasons and while he’s only 30 those days are behind him as the bat is gone.

1B: Albert Pujols (LAA): As a big fan of Pujols it pains me to see him like this, although it probably pains Angels fans more considering the 33-year-old has 8 years left on his mega contract. There were warning signs his last year in St. Louis and it’s gotten worse this year as he’s hobbled, slow and struggling to be above replacement level. The power’s down, the K’s are up and the walks are down. If you miss the old Pujols go watch Miguel Cabrera – he is basically the new Pujols.

2B: Dustin Ackley (Sea): I’m struggling to find someone here so I’ll take Ackley. He burst onto the scene with a great debut second half in 2011 but took a step back in 2012 but at least managed 1.1 WAR. This year he was below replacement and got himself dropped.

SS: Alexei Ramirez (CWS): The thin-looking Ramirez put up some good power numbers in 2010 and 2011 but that power is gone and his walk rate has dropped accordingly. But his good fielding at a premium position still makes him a good player.

3B: Kevin Youkilis (NYY): While A-Rod is on the downslide at least he is old (almost 38), but Youk is younger (34) and he is no longer the force he was on those Red Sox squads of the late noughties. His brittle body hasn’t held up well and everything and every facet of his game has suffered.

LF: Vernon Wells (NYY): Great player and signed to a big contract, Wells deteriorated big time. But somehow the Blue Jays managed to get out of that contract and the Angels learned Wells had to learn he was not good the hard way. He had a great start for the Yankees this year but that was a dead cat bounce. At best he is a bench player.

CF: Josh Hamilton (LAA): This time last year Hamilton was a superstar – it’s incredible how far he’s dropped in such a short amount of time. The end of last year his swinging at everything got him booed by Ranger’s fans. He signed the big contract with the Angels but has managed to be barely above replacement level this year.

RF: Jeff Francouer (KC): The Natural burst onto the scene with hype and backed it up to a certain degree but was hardly a superstar. But he was young. Then he regressed into rubbish – his fielding was bad and he struggled to post an OBP over .300. A rebound year in Kansas got him a new contract but he returned to being even suckier than before – he is ‘Mr Negative WAR’.

P: Ubaldo Jimenez (Cle): Jimenez was very good in the Rockies’ rotation from 2008-2010 – in 2010 he had 2.88 ERA while pitching half his games at Coors Field. But his velocity declined and so did his overall performance.

P: Scott Kazmir (Cle): Another Indian Kazmir was a great young fireballer for the Devil Rays but fell so far he spent 2012 in an independent league. His fastball velocity has bounced back and he’s back in the majors but still a shadow of what he was.

P: John Lackey (Bos): Lackey signed a big contract but 2 years in when he had Tommy john surgery Red Sox were probably glad to get rid of him for the year although he’s bounced back so far this season.

NL Has-Beens:

C: Kurt Suzuki (Was): Suzuki had some decent years in Oakland but the bat has weakened losing average and power. He’s still a decent backup but his days as a first-string guy are already over at the age of 29.

1B: Ryan Howard (Phi): A selection to have sabermetrics types feel vindicated, Howard was a valuable, if overrated, major leaguer for a while, winning an MVP in 2006 with a .313/.425/.659. But that year was an outlier as his average dipped to a .250-.270 range and the power went down from that super high level and nowadays he walks half as often. His OPS has declined below .800 which is bad for a slow, bad fielding 1B. The torn Achilles didn’t help but he was on the decline anyway and is signed for another 3 years at 25mil/yr. Ouch!

2B: Rickie Weeks (Mil): Weeks is on the wrong side of 30 and already on the downslide – a low average is bringing his bat down from good to average and the fielding is declining.

SS: Hanley Ramirez (LAD): While Starlin Castro is having a season that’s putting some scares into Cubs fans, Hanley Ramirez gets the pick to give us two has-been Ramirez shortstops. Hanley was a superstar for the Marlins for a while, putting up seasons of 4.3, 5.3, 7.2, 7.1, 4.2 WAR. He wasn’t a great fielder, but provided everything with the bat and stole bases to boot. Injuries, concerns about attitude and a massive drop in production saw his stock fall but since being traded to the Dodgers he’s shown some signs of coming back.

3B: Ryan Zimmerman (Was): As a Nats fan it pains me to have him here but he’s no longer an elite guy. Earlier in his career he was as good as Evan Longoria but he’s no longer at that level, though he’s still a great player. He hasn’t missed a lot of games but he’s had a bunch of niggling injuries even though he’s still under 30. Tinkering with his throwing mechanics led to the throwing yips, reducing his great defense but he has been throwing better lately.

LF: Alfonso Soriano (CHC): Another case of a bad monster contract, Soriano actually was great in his first season for the Cubbies. Then he declined and by 2009 he was below replacement level. Since then he’s recovered a bit and actually had some decent season, although held back by a low OBP. If he wasn’t on such a big contract he probably wouldn’t seem so bad.

CF: Carl Crawford (LAD): He’s not really a CF, but I’ll play him a bit out of position. The long-time Ray signed a juicy contract with the Sawx … and then tanked big time. This looked like a bad contract a month into the first season. He had Tommy John surgery last year and got traded to the Dodgers where, like Hanley Ramirez, has shown some sides of rebounding.

RF: Jayson Werth (Was): Completing our trifecta of bad OF contracts is Werth. Hitting .232 in the first year of his contract wasn’t a good start and recent years have seen some injuries and combined with a loss of speed in the outfield making me worried about the last 4 years of this contract.

P: Barry Zito (SF): Barry is my favourite player – but he sucks. Slowest fastball in the majors. Zito won the Cy Young in the Oakland Moneyball year of 2002 (although he was ignored in the movie – scandalous). He had declined a bit since then but he was under 30 and durable so the Giants gave him a huge contract (7-year, 126 million) and despite pitching in a pitcher’s park has never had an ERA under 4. At least his performance in last years’ postseason gave Giants fans some nice memories of him.

P: Tim Lincecum (SF): He won two Cy Youngs but now he’s lost speed, the walks are up and he doesn’t have the command anymore – he’s starting to get hit hard even though he’s still striking guys out. He’s 29 and off contract but I’m not sure he’s a starter anymore – he showed promise as a reliever last year and could be great as a 2-inning reliever.

P: Carlos Marmol (CHC): Marmol had some decent years as a closer walking heaps of guys but striking out heaps too. But walking that many people is not a good formula and the Cubs run out of patience with him and got rid of him.