Mid-Season FPI All Stars

 

Good morning everybody. In the spirit of the upcoming MLB All Star festivities in San Francisco, today we will take a look at our own versions of All Star teams. Except there won't be any favoritism, fan voting, player voting, ballot stuffing, one-player-from-each-team nonsense. We will strictly abide by our proprietary indicator, FPI (click here for a reference article on FPI). Basically, these are the guys that have had the best seasons so far in 2007 (according to FPI). The timing on this is nice as well, because although the All Star game is generally used as a dividing point between the fist and second halves of a season, the true halfway mark occurred this past Sunday, when week 13 completed (there are 26 weeks total). So...we got that goin' for us too.

 

The method to the madness here is simple. I established minimums for at-bats (200) for batters, innings pitched (75) for starting pitchers, and innings pitched (25) for relievers. An asterisk (*) indicates that the batter was also profiled as a Second Half Performer in our Second Half Rankings for Hitters.

 

 

National League Mid-Season FPI All-Star Team - 2007

 

Catcher:	Russell Martin	0.75
First Base:	Derek Lee	0.78
Second Base:	Chase Utley	0.83
Third Base:	Chipper Jones	0.87*
Shortstop:	Jose Reyes	0.88
Outfield:	Corey Hart	0.87*
Outfield:	Matt Holliday	0.84
Outfield:	Hunter Pence	0.82
Starter:	Chris Young	2.50
Starter:	Jake Peavy	2.47
Starter:	Brad Penny	2.32
Starter:	John Maine	2.16
Starter:	Derek Lowe	2.15
Reliever:	Jason Isringhausen	3.02
Reliever:	Trevor Hoffman	2.87

 

Honorable Mention: 1B Albert Pujols (0.77), 1B Prince Fielder (0.75), 1B Todd Helton (0.75)*, SS Hanley Ramirez (0.82), OF Ken Griffey Jr. (0.79), OF Eric Byrnes (0.77), Alfonso Soriano (0.76), SP Tim Hudson (2.08), SP Oliver Perez (2.05).

 

I would be remiss if I did not mention that B*rry B*nds actually leads all batters with an FPI of 0.99, but missed the AB minimum by a few. Is it me, or is the FPI production level from the first base position lagging this year? This is true in the NL and in the AL. On the NL team, only the catcher (Martin) has a lower FPI than the firstbaseman (Lee). In the AL, all batters have a higher FPI than the 1B (Teixeira), including the catcher (Posada). There are certainly a few names here that no one would have predicted before the season started. Corey Hart? John Maine?

 

 

American League Mid-Season FPI All-Star Team - 2007

 

Catcher:	Jorge Posada	0.79
First Base:	Mark Teixeira	0.75*
Second Base:	B.J. Upton	0.85
Third Base:	Alex Rodriguez	0.97
Shortstop:	Carlos Guillen	0.81
Outfield:	Magglio Ordonez	0.95
Outfield:	Ichiro Suzuki	0.89
Outfield:	Reggie Willits	0.85
DH:	David Ortiz	0.83*
Starter:	Dan Haren	2.42
Starter:	Josh Beckett	2.21
Starter:	Justin Verlander	2.16
Starter:	Johan Santana	2.07
Starter:	Kelvim Escobar	2.07
Reliever:	J.J. Putz	3.14
Reliever:	Pat Neshek	3.10

 

 

Honorable Mention: C Victor Martinez (0.76), 1B Carlos Pena (0.77)*, 2B Brian Roberts (0.85), OF Vlad Guerrero (0.83), DH Gary Sheffield (0.80), SP Joe Blanton (2.01), RP Hideki Okajima (2.95), RP Eric Gagne (2.94).

 

Arod and Magglio are leading the way in FPI for batters in the American League, and they are almost in a class unto themselves. There are a couple of surprises on this team as well. B.J. Upton had just about reached the "failed prospect" stage in the court of public opinion, and yet here he is on our All Star team. And I don't know about you, but I had never heard of Reggie Willits before this season. To me, the other very interesting name on this list is Pat Neshek. His performance this season has been dominant, and he makes a good speculative pickup (especially if you need help in ERA/WHIP, or if you are a Joe Nathan owner, just don't expect him to get any save chances unless Nathan gets hurt, and realize Nathan is signed through this year but Minnesota has a club option on him for $6 mil for 2008, which they'd be crazy not to exercise).