2021 All-Star Game Rosters

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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Sep 6, 2004
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WHOOOOOO!!!! WE BACK!!!!

Ahem.

As I like to do every year (goddamn Covid), it's time to predict the All-Star Game rosters. Now you might be saying, "But Laddie, the ballot isn't even out yet!", and to that I say, "Kick rocks, nerd. We're roster building."

A few notes:

- Until the actual voting numbers come out, I'm just putting the best guy at each position in starting. That's going to change. Some shitty Cardinal or Yankee will end up in the first few rounds of voting and we'll all get angry and usually they don't make it all the way. The fans are generally pretty good at voting these days, and MLB is good at... stopping fraud (aka stopping shenanigans like in 2015 when EIGHT Royals were leading at the time before the final tally was taken).
- These are just my predictions. I'm okay at this but not perfect. Again, once the actual votes are announced, it'll be a lot more interesting. This is an early, early first draft, and I'll update it one more time right before the first round of voting results come out. After that, I'll update it after every round.

Okay, this is where I am as of two nights ago:

40878

That's right. 5 Red Sox, 5 Dodgers, no Mookie Betts (I suspect this changes). Right now so many spots are just 50/50s or 55/45s, it's really easy to pick nits at the roster, but this is where I am.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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The only player you have listed with the White Sox plays for the Tigers. Carlos Rodon has only pitched 4 games, but if the game was held right now, he'd still be a lock for the team.
 

scottyno

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Not that I'd be surprised, but if things keep current pace I'd be pretty upset with Aaron Judge and Mark (not Mike) Canha making it over Verdugo. Not exactly sure what your list is supposed to be, it seems to be a mix of what you think will happen and what should, but Verdugo has been much better than Judge.
 
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Red(s)HawksFan

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The only player you have listed with the White Sox plays for the Tigers. Carlos Rodon has only pitched 4 games, but if the game was held right now, he'd still be a lock for the team.
Rodon is sporting a 0.58 ERA (1.82 FIP) in five starts. I'd bump Eovaldi for him. If the game was this week, he'd probably be the starter.
 

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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where the darn libs live
Not that I'd be surprised, but if things keep current pace I'd be pretty upset with Aaron Judge and Mark (not Mike) Canha making it over Verdugo. Not exactly sure what your list is supposed to be, it seems to be a mix of what you think will happen and what should, but Verdugo has been much better than Judge.
As you said, it's a mix of what I think will happen and what should. Verdugo has been better than Judge, but... here we are.
 

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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where the darn libs live
The only player you have listed with the White Sox plays for the Tigers. Carlos Rodon has only pitched 4 games, but if the game was held right now, he'd still be a lock for the team.
Yeah, not sure how that happened with Ramos.

As for Rodon, I honestly missed him because of the "qualified" innings limit at the point of my making this. And you're right, he should be on there. As I said, an early first draft!
 

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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Oh, what was that? We have ballots out? Mofrackies can vote?!

My current rosters reflect the current vote leaders (except DH in the NL, where I'm selecting someone).

Major roster changes, obviously.

41960

- Carson Kelly over Will Smith in the NL at C because Arizona needs a guy.
- Glasnow might be done for the year.
- Ohtani can start the game as the DH AND be the SP. This should happen (not saying it will).
- Picking a Mariner is not fun. What a bad team. I Guess it could have been Yusei Kikuchi, but are there only going to be 3 relievers on the roster? Haniger in the OF Has been good, but he's certainly not been better than Laureano, Mullens, or Canha -- it would be brutal to have him there instead of one of those guys who have been awesome.
- Tough to leave Jared Walsh off, but putting him on means leaving off Jose Ramirez. Not worth it.

Tell me why I'm wrong (because I know I've messed something up here).
 

Yelling At Clouds

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I do think Haniger makes the real team but I think the larger miss is not having Casey Mize on there as Detroit’s representative. Boyd is on the IL.
 

E5 Yaz

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I know we're a Red Sox site, but I don't see how they get the most players in the game
 

Sad Sam Jones

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I'm not sure if you're going for who gets named to the roster or who actually ends up on the team. There's a good chance Bieber will get the official All-Star honor, but even if he pitches again in the first half, he won't participate in the All-Star Game.
 

Ale Xander

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They really need some sort of pitching accuracy competition to go along with the HRD
Although probably too much of an injury risk
 

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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where the darn libs live
I know we're a Red Sox site, but I don't see how they get the most players in the game
I guess you could leave Eovaldi off, but the rest of the guys are more or less locks.

I do think Haniger makes the real team but I think the larger miss is not having Casey Mize on there as Detroit’s representative. Boyd is on the IL.
Mize is a fine replacement for Boyd, but Boyd has 2x the WAR, and a FIP that's almost a full run lower.

I'm not sure if you're going for who gets named to the roster or who actually ends up on the team. There's a good chance Bieber will get the official All-Star honor, but even if he pitches again in the first half, he won't participate in the All-Star Game.
Well, the lineups are the official lineups, and then I'm going for who gets named to the roster. I'm not going to guess around with replacements and things of that nature. With Bieber's injury, I guess we'll see how that goes.
 

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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Sep 6, 2004
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where the darn libs live
Whew. Too much travel.

Anyway, here's my next predictions.

42332

There are some guys I *hated* to leave off -- Canha, Realmuto, JD Martinez -- but the numbers are the numbers. Now, final starters could still change, so I'll do another round after the starting lineups come in, but it feels like those guys in the lead should all win (even if Trout and Buxton probably shouldn't, they're both popular guys).
 

RedOctober3829

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Starters being announced now

NL
C—Buster Posey
1B—Freddie Freeman
2B—Adam Frazier
SS—Fernando Tatis Jr.
3B—Nolan Arenado
OF—Acuna, Castellanos, Winkler

AL
C-Perez
1B-Vlad
2B-Semien
Ss-X
3B-Devers
DH-Ohtani
OF-Trout, Judge, Teoscar Hernandez

I’ll take a stab at the lineups
AL
1. Bogaerts
2. Ohtani
3. Trout
4. Vlad
5. Judge
6. Devers
7. Semien
8. Hernandez
9. Perez

NL(picking Muncy as my DH)
1. Acuna
2. Tatis
3. Arenado
4. Freeman
5. Posey
6. Muncy
7. Castellanos
8. Frazier
9. Winkler
 
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glennhoffmania

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Yeah I know who he is. I was asking how the hell he was chosen to be a starter. My bad for not elaborating.
 

jon abbey

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Chapman is going to have to back out gracefully or something, the game is nine days away and if he was a rookie, he'd be back in AAA. If he stays on the roster, he is unusable in the game.
 

terrynever

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Chapman is going to have to back out gracefully or something, the game is nine days away and if he was a rookie, he'd be back in AAA. If he stays on the roster, he is unusable in the game.
The game is an exhibition. After Boone screwed his mind up, Chapman could use time with his fellow stars, just to boost his ego. If the Yankees try to talk him out of going, that’s not going to get his mind right.

I would suggest that the Yanks need to get Chapman fixed if they want to make a run at third place in September. This road trip far from the blinding spotlight might give Chapman a chance to restore his confidence. And work on pitch sequences. It looked like Alonso correctly guessed slider on that 1-2 pitch yesterday. Maybe Cashman’s quants have some data on his pitch sequences. Or maybe Chapman needs to throw a second off-speed pitch occasionally. Didn’t he flash a changeup recently?
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Chapman's last 9 games:

0.0 ip, 4 h, 4 r, 4 er, 0 bb
0.1 ip, 1 h, 1 r, 0 er, 0 bb
1.0 ip, 0 h, 0 r, 0 er, 0 bb
1.0 ip, 2 h, 0 r, 0 er, 0 bb
1.0 ip, 2 h, 1 r, 1 er, 1 bb
1.0 ip, 0 h, 0 r, 0 er, 2 bb
1.0 ip, 3 h, 2 r, 2 er, 2 bb
0.1 ip, 1 h, 4 r, 4 er, 3 bb
0.0 ip, 1 h, 3 r, 3 er, 1 bb

Totals: 5.2 ip, 14 h, 15 r, 14 er, 9 bb, 22.24 era, 4.24 whip

It's not just been one blow up either. It's been four. Only three of the last nine games has he been unscathed. And even in those three, he's given up 4 baserunners in three scoreless innings, which is acceptable but not *great* (1.33 whip).
 

jon abbey

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One of those three he put the first two runners on and then got a triple play, it's been consistently ugly.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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One of those three he put the first two runners on and then got a triple play, it's been consistently ugly.
Yeah I totally forgot about that one. It's bizarre. He's consistently been a great pitcher. Just a rough stretch here or something mechanical or what? Because he's suddenly turned into a complete disaster - odd to see such a good pitcher do this.
 

E5 Yaz

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The last time the Red Sox led MLB teams with ASG representation was 2009, when they had six

Jason Bay
Josh Beckett
Jonathan Papelbon
Dustin Pedroia (named starter, replaced for family matters)
Tim Wakefield
Kevin Youkilis
 

nocode51

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So Ohtani is picked as a hitter and a pitcher.... but how does that work? If they let him hit they would lose the DH correct? Do they make an exception for him? Am I just missing something about the rule?
 

E5 Yaz

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So Ohtani is picked as a hitter and a pitcher.... but how does that work? If they let him hit they would lose the DH correct? Do they make an exception for him? Am I just missing something about the rule?
He's the starting DH. After a couple of at-bats, they'll put him on the mound and it will be pinch-hitters for the pitchers the rest of the way
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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He's the starting DH. After a couple of at-bats, they'll put him on the mound and it will be pinch-hitters for the pitchers the rest of the way
They've got two back-up DHs on the roster, so as long as they're good with JD and Nellie Cruz getting just the one PA each, that plan should work fine.
 

nocode51

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He's the starting DH. After a couple of at-bats, they'll put him on the mound and it will be pinch-hitters for the pitchers the rest of the way
Oh right, that makes sense. It was bugging me that it wasn't being mentioned when I read about it, thanks.
 

Red Sox Physicist

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Actually I read today they expanded the rosters this year to 32, up from 30 last season.
Huh? It decreased from 34 to 32 in 2017 and has been at 32 since. The increase from 30 to 32 happened in 2003 after the tie game, and the increase to 34 in 2010.

The MLB announcement this year had 34 AL players and 33 NL players because of the injury replacements.