{"id":478,"date":"2008-06-28T17:23:07","date_gmt":"2008-06-28T16:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=478"},"modified":"2009-09-26T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T10:47:49","slug":"all-star-game-2008-third-basemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=478","title":{"rendered":"All Star Game 2008 – Third basemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ASG nomination process is always fun because it allows every fan to make up their own mind on who they believe to be a star and how exactly they define such a thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Although fans may have strong opinions about who should be a Hall of Famer, we don’t get any say in the final decision.\u00c2\u00a0 With the ASG, the majority rules.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

If I had to condense my All Star requirement list down to three key questions, they would be the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Have they been one of the best performers in the Majors in the past few seasons?<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Are they having a good year so far this season?<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Do they possess a certain ‘star’ quality (which is a very subjective thing, but it would take into account whether they are an exciting player – home runs, stolen bases, great fielding plays etc – and whether they have a reputation as something of a ‘fan favourite’).\u00c2\u00a0 This would also be the tie breaker if needed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With those questions in mind, let’s look at the contenders for the third base slots in each league this year.<\/p>\n

    American League<\/strong> – Has A-Rod been one of the best performers in the Majors over the past few seasons?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.\u00c2\u00a0 Is A-Rod having a good year this season?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.\u00c2\u00a0 Can he be considered a ‘star’ of the game?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

    We have a winner.<\/p>\n

    While some of the other contenders have had decent seasons so far, none have put a strong enough case forward to challenge A-Rod.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Lowell has put up some good numbers despite missing a few weeks in April due to a sprained thumb.\u00c2\u00a0 Carlos Guillen has performed well, but he’s only being playing third since switching positions with Miguel Cabrera.\u00c2\u00a0 Although Evan Longoria isn’t really in the running this year, he has showed that he has the potential to make the All Star lineup on several occasions in the future<\/p>\n

    National League<\/strong> – Has Chipper Jones been one of the best performers in the Majors over the past few seasons?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.\u00c2\u00a0 Is Chipper having a good year this season?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.\u00c2\u00a0 Can he be considered a ‘star’ of the game?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

    This is what Americans like to call a ‘no-brainer’.<\/p>\n

    To be fair to both Aramis Ramirez and David Wright, they’ve not exactly played poorly over the first three months.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe Wright hasn’t quite hit his own extremely high standards, but both are having strong seasons for the Cubs and the Mets respectively.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, neither can match the way Jones is performing in 2008 and his track record speaks for itself.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The ASG nomination process is always fun because it allows every fan to make up their own mind on who they believe to be a star and how exactly they define such a thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Although fans may have strong opinions about who should be a Hall of Famer, we don’t get any say in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,553],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-all-star-game","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4599,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/4599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}