Ballot Box Bums

Dave Paisley

So here we are with the National league rundown. As with the American league, I'll take a look at catchers and outfielders in part one, then infielders in part two. No DH voting in the NL, of course, as they have no idea who that would be.

As with the AL, I'm showing most of the contenders for each position, their OPS as a measure of how well they're doing, plus OPS times plate appearances to get a measure of how much raw performance they've contributed. It helps to weed out the guys who have an OPS of 2.000 in about five at bats. After that, I show their vote totals as of mid-June and also their Votes divided by Performance, a rough idea of how deserved their votes are.

Note that zero votes is an indication that the player wasn't in the top ten, or in the case of outfielders, the top twenty.

Catcher
The runaway vote winner here is Mike Piazza, but it's not entirely deserved. This is one of those gray areas where name recognition and past performance boost his votes far beyond his actual worth. Normally, there aren't too many challengers, but this year, Jason Kendall is finally getting some recognition for the sterling work he's been doing in the obscurity of Pittsburgh.

Name	Team	OPS	Performance (OPS*PA)	Votes	Votes/ Performance
J Kendall	Pit	.985	244	161,814	662
M Lieberthal	Phi	1.022	222	96,286	434
D Nilsson	Mil	1.038	199	0	0
M Piazza	NY	.946	193	446,951	2316
J Lopez	Atl	.866	173	135,947	785
B Santiago	Chi	.660	135	60,139	444
E Taubensee	Cin	.855	133	0	0
C Widger	Mon	.888	133	0	0
E Marrero	StL	.655	130	42,688	329
B Mayne	SF	.876	128	0	0
T Hundley	LA	.698	121	38,065	313
J Leyritz	SD	.807	110	60,208	549
T Eusebio	Hou	.707	104	43,086	415
J Fabregas	Fla	.617	85	0	0
K Stinnett	Ari	.680	79	0	0
K Manwaring	Col	.599	25	44,001	1792

Dave Nilsson and Mike Lieberthal are having a couple of exceptional years, but neither of them have enough of a history of great performance to make much of a dent in Piazza's vote total. Javy Lopez is tucked in nicely behind the pack, but isn't doing quite well enough to get past Piazza and Kendall. It'll be interesting to see if his history as an All-Star gets him to the game as the third catcher, or whether Bochy will pick Lieberthal or Nilsson. Other catchers are either playing well but missing a bunch of time, or playing poorly but often.

At the bottom of the table, who knows what's going on in the minds of voters who would punch Kirt Manwaring's ticket rather than anybody else's.

Outfield
Here's a big fat "D'oh!" for the Diamondbacks. When faced with the choice of which outfielder to omit from the ballot between Gilkey, Finley, Gonzalez and Womack, who did they pick? Only this year's Sammy Sosa Memorial breakout player of the year, who just happens to top the performance chart.

So Luis Gonzalez, who has surprisingly torn up the NL so far this year, doesn't even figure on the ballot. He may have a couple of hundred write-ins, but that's about it. We'll just have to hope he gets a manager's selection (Do you think?)

Speaking of the Sammy Sosa Memorial breakout player of the year, the man himself is proving to be the most popular guy in the NL this year. With numbers right behind Gonzalez, it's well deserved, too. As for the rest (see you at the bottom of the table - maybe you should leave a trail of bread crumbs)...

Name	Team	OPS	Performance (OPS*PA)	Votes	Votes/ Performance
L Gonzalez	Ari	1.044	267	0	0
S Sosa	Chi	.996	260	637,740	2453
R Mondesi	LA	.958	254	177,459	699
G Sheffield	LA	.912	239	66,186	277
J Burnitz	Mil	.921	238	0	0
S Finley	Ari	.881	236	0	0
B Jordan	Atl	.901	236	109,601	464
B Giles	Pit	.979	234	118,175	505
V Guerrero	Mon	.921	233	87,490	375
B Abreu	Phi	1.049	231	81,947	355
D Glanville	Phi	.829	225	61,613	274
R White	Mon	.893	211	0	0
L Walker	Col	1.071	209	346,541	1659
D Bichette	Col	.835	205	106,821	520
A Jones	Atl	.799	205	116,154	568
R Hidalgo	Hou	.846	201	0	0
H Rodriguez	Chi	1.064	199	0	0
C Everett	Hou	.803	190	0	0
G Vaughn	Cin	.849	187	64,675	346
R Gant	Phi	.790	183	0	0
D Bell	Hou	.683	180	89,228	495
M Cameron	Cin	.740	177	0	0
S Javier	SF	.814	171	0	0
M Grissom	Mil	.716	168	0	0
R Lankford	StL	1.053	165	58,038	351
E Burks	SF	.806	164	0	0
B McRae	NY	.787	161	0	0
E Davis	StL	.802	155	61,340	396
M Kotsay	Fla	.668	149	0	0
R Sanders	SD	.861	149	0	0
D White	LA	.719	139	0	0
T Gwynn	SD	.847	136	349,103	2560
R Henderson	NY	.768	113	65,734	582
J D Drew	StL	.796	85	76,930	905
B Bonds	SF	1.010	77	223,685	2905
O Nixon	Atl	.461	59	0	0

Well, here we are at the bottom of the table. Filling out the fan choices are the ever-popular Larry Walker and perennial favorite Tony Gwynn. Neither are outstanding choices, as Walker relies on Coors stat inflation, and Gwynn has been on and off the DL, and hasn't played too well anyway. There are a handful of better choices than Walker and more than a dozen better than Gwynn.

While I'm not a big fan of either, Gary Sheffield or Raul Mondesi would be deserving choices from the Dodgers, while I would definitely like to see Brian Giles in the game. Other youngsters who might get to Boston this year are Bob Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero, both better choices than Andruw Jones, who might get a manager's selection based on team recognition.

Other players having decent seasons include Brian Jordan and Steve Finley. The latter is having a career season, but I just can't believe he's managed to keep it up this long. Come to think of it, that holds for the entire Diamondbacks team.

Oh, and if anybody spots Tony Womack, be sure to let me know...

Dave Paisleyhas heard that the All-Star Beanie Baby this season will be Albert the Enraged Bull Elephant, who comes with a petition to boycott your little girl's tea party. Offer those unwanted beanies to Dave at drdjp@strikethree.com, and he'll find a good home for them. Honest.

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