Was the 2004 National League All-Star team selected well by the fans?
By
John Dewan
December 7, 2004
OPS is an acronym for On-base Plus Slugging. Two of the best individual statistics for measuring offensive performance are on-base percentage and slugging average. On-base percentage measures how often a player gets on base. Slugging average measures how often a hitter turns his hits into extra bases. Each of these two statistics taken by itself are a better measure of a player’s offensive ability than the most commonly known baseball statistic, batting average (hits divided by official at bats). When added together to form OPS, it becomes the single best easily-calculated offensive statistic.
Based on their OPS at the all-star break, the National League team should have been:
C Mike Piazza (.894 OPS)
1B Jim Thome (1.124)
2B Todd Walker (.872)
3B Scott Rolen (1.037)
SS Jack Wilson (.847)
OF Barry Bonds (1.381)
OFLance Berkman (1.064)
OF Bobby Abreu (1.007)
The team voted by the fans actually was:
C Piazza
1B Albert Pujols (.987, ranked 4th at 1B)
2B Jeff Kent (.855, ranked 2nd)
3B Rolen
SS Edgar Renteria (.723, ranked 4th)
OF Bonds
OFSammy Sosa (.927, ranked 6th)
OF Ken Griffey Jr. (.851, ranked 14th)
As in the American League that year, the OPS leader was picked at only three positions. Jeff Kent was not a bad pick at second base; he ranked second and was quite close to the leader, Todd Walker. However, the other positions showed a clear popularity bias especially Sosa, Griffey and Pujols.
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