or John Maine definitely deserved a spot in the All-Star game? Better ERA than both Smoltz and Sheets, and 9 wins to boot. Admittedly, I'm totally biased, but he isn't in simply because of his reputation.
definitely agree. didn't have the reputation, I guess, and the Mets already had wright, reyes, and beltran
You can definitely make the case that Maine deserves it over Smoltz with more innings pitched and a better ERA, at the very minimum Maine should definitely be in the final vote ballot over Oswalt, Gorzelanny and Zambrano
I know how the W stat is flawed, but I still put a lot of stock in ERA. It sounds like you don't. K/BB ratio is good. WHIP is alright, but it's too new school for me. What stats do you feel are most important?
Two complicated sabermetrics. When these stats get accepted and understood by the average fan, maybe I'll pay attention to them. I don't fully agree with all that balls in play stuff, anyway. So I won't be a big DIPS fan.
DIPS is certainly a bit of a controversial stat and for something as banal as AS selections it's probably not necessary to go that deep into it. With the exception of Zambrano being on the ballot for the last spot I don't think there's really all that much to complain about. I do believe in the general premise that avoiding walks, HRs and getting strikeouts are the best measure of a pitcher's skill, and the amount of hits he gives up is largely due to luck and other factors outside his control. In my view Perez and Maine are both borderline All Stars this year and due to the fact they're not big names and don't have eye popping stats its not all that suprising that they didn't make it.
Agreed. When I saw that final ballot, I was a little steamed. I hope he takes it personally and pitches lights out for the rest of the season because of it.
I don't know if you guys will remember during last years post season (before the last board crash) I said Maine was the Guy and said he was your Wildcard. Anyway, He definitely deserves a spot.
Eh, to me, Maine just got caught up in the numbers game. Now, the one pitcher on the roster who's probably least deserving is Brian Fuentes. But the pitcher who didn't make it who's most deserving is definitely Chris Young.
There's a couple weird selections. Maybe everyone forgot that Holliday was on the team and they thought they needed a Rockie. Fuentes seemed to be the old standby for the Rockies the last couple years. Another is the putrid Freddy Sanchez instead of Snell/Gorzelany for the Pirates. It's like they're all "fuck it, I can't be bothered to look at a Pirates roster or stat sheet, just call the guy they picked last year". They really need to get rid of the 1 player from every team rule.
