My UMEBA Burt League All-Star BallotRamblings and Rumblings, Issue 6, 2042 Season
Because I’m not a prolific enough writer and didn’t dedicate as much time to the project as I should have, I ran out of time to give all of my candidates for all-star voting. So, I move on and I’ll disclose who I voted for on my UMEBA Burt League All-Star ballot. If I have time, I’ll do one for the Bancroft League as well. This one took me longer than I was expecting.
Some of my choices may be unpopular, I’m not sure, but regardless, I’ll try my best to give thoughtful reasons for all of my voting choices.
Position Players
Catcher
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Hedde Veenman, Manama | .279 | .423 | .492 | 310 | 13 | 136 | 2.8 |
Call me a slave to on base percentage, and you’d be right. I don’t love
Hedde Veenman’s batting average, especially when compared to
Anibal Garcia’s .315, but Veenman’s OBP is better than anyone else and his slugging percentage is way higher than any other Burt League catcher. Plus he’s created more runs and has a far and away higher WAR than any other catcher on the ballot. Like I profiled on my all-star outlook for catchers, I felt it was between Veenman and Istanbul’s Garcia, but Veenman wins out for me. Is it also weird that I am partial to Hedde’s first name because it reminds me of
Blazing Saddles and Harvey Korman repeatedly saying “It is Hedley, not Hedy!”?
First Base
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Alejandro Gutierrez, Manama | .293 | .359 | .449 | 373 | 9 | 105 | 1.6 |
I was very close to voting for Istanbul’s
Bucky Dornster but I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for a player whose main position is not first base, but instead third base. Dornster has played 57 games at the hot corner, but just 18 at first base. Plus, he’s not a better fielder at first than who I voted for, Manama’s
Alejandro Gutierrez who has the highest batting average of any first baseman on the ballot, including Dornster.
There were a bunch of good first basemen on the ballot such as Baghdad’s
Ron Mosley who has 20 homers, Cairo’s
Mauro Garcia with 21 and Kuwait City’s
Drew Hair. All would have been good choices, so really, this is a photo finish. I mean, after all, Mosley has the best on base percentage of any true first baseman on the ballot, Hair is likely the best fielding first baseman and his 16 homers in over 100 less plate appearances than Gutierrez says a lot. And Hair has about the same WAR as Gutierrez. I don’t think you could go wrong here.
Second Base
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Felipe Sanchez, Cairo | .253 | .334 | .429 | 314 | 11 | 92 | 0.6 |
One of the reasons why I wanted to write this piece was to keep myself honest and accountable. That said, with a bunch of lackluster choices, is it bad that I chose to vote for a Chariot Archer in
Felipe Sanchez? Let me try to explain. Istanbul’s
William Belcham is the best player on the ballot at second, but he’s played much more in center field. On top of that, he has significantly less plate appearances than most of the others on this list. Other than him, Sanchez has the highest OBP as well as slugging percentage on this list, albeit barely. The only other player I’d vote for on the list is Baghdad’s
Antonio Cruz who, I’ll admit, is a better fielder. He’s also a better base stealer with 15 swipes and only one caught stealing. Cruz’s and Sanchez’s power numbers are pretty identical though Cruz does have a higher WAR. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for saying I’m biased, but I’m going to go with my guy with no other clear choices.
Third Base
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Felix Torres, Cairo | .306 | .345 | .451 | 351 | 10 | 100 | 1.1 |
Ok, yes! I admit it! I’m voting for another Cairo player. But here, I don’t think anyone will blast me for voting for
Felix Torres. He has the highest OBP, batting average and WAR of any other player on the ballot for third base and the most plate appearances. I didn’t think too hard with this vote.
Shortstop
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Piero Richelmi, Cairo | .291 | .374 | .427 | 372 | 12 | 107 | 2.0 |
Oh no, I did it again! I voted for yet another Cairo player! But I have my reasons.
Piero Richelmi is having a very good season, first of all. A deserving all-star season at that. In addition, he leads every shortstop in every offensive category except for WAR where he’s second barely. He also has just one error in 85 games and has the most plate appearances of any shortstop on the ballot. I’m going with the Chariot Archer mainstay, and when the other choices are considered, I think more often than not Richelmi will be the one who garners the all-star vote at shortstop.
Outfield
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Elijah Curry, Cairo | .349 | .374 | .622 | 366 | 20 | 145 | 3.3 |
| Raul Castrejon, Cairo | .300 | .351 | .431 | 390 | 8 | 98 | 1.2 |
| Henry Rectenberg, Kuwait City | .309 | .383 | .461 | 337 | 10 | 116 | 1.5 |
Right away, I like how Stats+ lays out the outfield vote, by just generic outfielder and not by specific spot. I mean, this is an exhibition after all, no need to split hairs, even though I’m fully aware center field is a premium position. Still, I was surprised that there weren’t many overwhelming choices. Which is simply a way of saying that I did it again - I voted for two Cairo outfielders out of the three spots. But even though there weren’t a ton of legitimate choices for my vote, there were a number of players that I liked.
Let’s get into the players I voted for first. I always knew I was going to be voting for
Elijah Curry. I put him on the trade block right away at the start of the season, and that lit a fire under him. He’s got the highest batting average of any outfielder on the ballot and has simply had a wonderful first half, right down to stealing 15 bases and only getting caught twice. I have watched
Raul Castrejon all season and he’s been steady all season. I just don’t see a weakness in his game and I really believe he is all-star worthy.
Now, the third spot I had a great deal of difficulty with and I don’t have a ton of confidence I’m right. It came down to a number of players, but
Henry Rectenberg has had a good season so far. I’m just not sure it is any better than a few other players that are on the ballot. Kuwait City deserves to have something good happen this season though. And interestingly, I was close to voting for Rectenberg’s teammate
John Ginn (.327 BA, 11 HR, .539 SLG) instead and I could go either way on them. Istanbul’s
John Garcia (.296 BA, .361 OBP, 23 HR) has had a nice year too. Same goes for Baghdad’s
Hector Gomez (.270 BA, 20 HR, .509 SLG) too. Baghdad’s
Griff Tannen (.293 BA, 19 HR, .326 OBP) deserves mention too, and he would make the all-star game of great names.
Designated Hitter
| Player | BA | OBP% | SLG% | PA | HR | wRC+ | WAR |
|---|
| Raul Hernandez, Baghdad | .363 | .425 | .761 | 285 | 28 | 187 | 3.4 |
While I’d love to vote for my boy
Trevor Clarke (.302 BA, 13 HR, .366 OBP) as an all-star, he doesn’t compare with Baghdad’s
Raul Hernandez who is leaps and bounds among the rest on the ballot for DH. Hernandez is the meal ticket for the Kings and now that he’s back healthy, the Kings look tough to beat in the Burt.
Pitchers
Starting Pitcher
| Player | W-L | ERA | IP | WHIP | K | WAR |
|---|
| Mei-shan Ngui, Baghdad | 9-3 | 2.29 | 106.0 | 1.09 | 65 | 2.4 |
| Fraser Pond, Cairo | 9-3 | 4.01 | 112.1 | 1.10 | 100 | 2.7 |
| Jose Zamora, Baghdad | 10-3 | 2.85 | 123.1 | 0.89 | 91 | 2.6 |
| Brendon Carr, Istanbul | 9-7 | 4.22 | 117.1 | 0.95 | 107 | 3.1 |
| Frances Wiles, Istanbul | 8-4 | 3.63 | 111.2 | 1.11 | 82 | 2.3 |
I had a harder time than I thought with voting for the five starters. There are a couple of other starters that I probably could have voted for, but settled on these. If I looked again though, I’d probably vote for one or two others! One guy that wouldn’t be going anywhere from my ballot is stud
Mei-shan Ngui. With an ace like this, there’s good reason why Baghdad is in first place in the Burt. He may not strike a lot of hitters out and doesn’t have an ultra low WHIP, but he simply gets hitters out and that’s the whole object.
What do you know, I voted for a Chariot Archer! But I challenge anyone to show me how Cairo ace
Fraser Pond is not All-Star caliber. Want more evidence why Baghdad is in first place?
Jose Zamora would be an ace on almost any other pitching staff, and he may not even be behind Ngui on the Kings’s staff. And sure, Istanbul may have lost its grip on first place in the Burt, but they have a wonderful pitching staff and I voted for two of their pitchers. I’m a fan of
Brendon Carr and I realize he may have a slightly high ERA, but that low WHIP and high WAR sells me. I may be a bigger fan of
Frances Wiles though. This guy is in his prime at 30 years old.
Relief Pitcher
| Player | W-L | ERA | IP | WHIP | K | WAR | SAVES |
|---|
| Jose Perez, Baghdad | 6-1 | 2.15 | 58.2 | 0.92 | 53 | 1.5 | 1 |
| Charlie Simmons, Istanbul | 3-3 | 3.10 | 40.2 | 1.13 | 49 | 0.5 | 15 |
| Tristan Alfama, Baghdad | 3-1 | 3.02 | 53.2 | 1.04 | 54 | 0.4 | 2 |
| Netuno Markert, Manama | 1-1 | 2.59 | 31.1 | 1.12 | 29 | 0.8 | 21 |
| Bras Gesteiras, Istanbul | 1-2 | 2.50 | 39.2 | 1.34 | 48 | 0.4 | 3 |
This was more challenging than I was expecting and I fully admit, I feel like a bum for leaving Baghdad’s
Ruben Frias (3.10 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 58 IP) off. There were only five spots though and I think Frias was the only guy I wish I could have included.
Jose Perez, in my opinion, is the best reliever in the league and he is a guy I wish the Chariot Archers had. Every other reliever is having a decent season but nothing otherworldly. I wasn’t a huge fan of
Gesteiras’s high WHIP or
Markert’s low innings pitched, but they are having very nice first halves, so I felt their inclusion was warranted.
