NL All-Star Shortstops, no shortage of viable candidates, but one stands taller

♦ June 27, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Most Dodger fans feel that Corey Seager was getting shortchanged in the all-star balloting but a late push has Corey in 3rd place after barely making a dent in the previous ballot updates.

MLB columnist Anthony Castrovince feels that Seager should be the choice, but the position is not lacking in talent this year.  When you peruse the list of shortstops who wouldn’t embarrass the game by getting selected this is what I find.

NL Shortstops with minimum 100 at-bats sorted by OPS+

Player Age wRC+ BA OBP SLG OPS
Corey Seager 22 139 0.298 0.356 0.528 0.884
Aledmys Diaz 25 135 0.312 0.371 0.514 0.885
Jonathan Villar 25 117 0.298 0.38 0.434 0.814
Trevor Story 23 119 0.271 0.339 0.559 0.898
Zack Cozart 30 107 0.273 0.316 0.486 0.803
Brandon Crawford 29 100 0.262 0.336 0.4 0.736
Player R H 2B HR RBI SB
Corey Seager 50 89 19 16 38 1
Aledmys Diaz 49 79 19 10 40 2
Jonathan Villar 38 81 17 6 30 26
Trevor Story 47 78 18 19 50 5
Zack Cozart 41 69 19 11 31 1
Brandon Crawford 29 68 12 6 44 3

Even with the historical start by Trevor Story, the offense at SS is being led by Seager and Aledmys Diaz.  Diaz is also being ignored by the voters.

One name you won’t find on the offensive leaderboard is current top vote receiver, Addison Russell. That is because his offense has been less than adequate and he’s only going to be an all-star in 2016 because Cub fans have stuffed the ballot. Which is too bad, because multiple shortstops deserve an all-star appearance this year, and if Addison wins, someone is going get left off that deserves to go.

Brandon Crawford is not having the offensive year that others on the list are having but he’s such a defensive dynamo I’d have little problem if Crawford made the team.

My preference would be a trio of Seager / Story / Crawford and would have no problem if Diaz snuck in.  Villar is having a career season but his offense still isn’t quite up to par with Seager/Diaz, and his defense has always been sub par at short.

Either way,  if Seager does not overtake Addison Russell in the voting,  I think he’s a shoo-in to be selected for the team. Seager should be the only LAD on the all-star team besides Clayton Kershaw.  If you want to make a case for Kenley Jansen, that would also work but I’m not going to make that case.

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