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Free Agent All-Stars: Hitters

By Tim Dierkes [June 30, 2008 at 4:30pm CST]

Today I will attempt to assemble an All-Star team using only players signed as free agents last winter. Argue away in the comments!

C: Rod Barajas. Barajas is hitting a surprising .290/.349/.490 in 169 plate appearances, and he's only making $1.2MM. Jorge Posada is catching up though.
1B: Sean Casey. He's done a nice job in limited duty.
2B: Alexei Ramirez. One of the unheralded signings of last winter - Kenny Williams got Ramirez on a four year, $4.75MM deal. That's less than one year of Luis Castillo or Kaz Matsui, and Ramirez can play shortstop and center field.
SS: Jerry Hairston Jr. Many of us regarded this as Dusty just helping out one of his guys, but Hairston was excellent prior to a broken thumb.
3B: Alex Rodriguez. It's not a big deal when A-Rod hits .322/.404/.591 - that is expected of him.
LF: Luis Gonzalez. Not a big offseason for free agent left fielders.
CF: Aaron Rowand. We're only 10% into this $60MM investment, but so far so good. Torii Hunter has been solid too.
RF: Kosuke Fukudome. A .405 OBP and strong defense gets him the nod over Eric Hinske. Jose Guillen is coming on fast.
DH: Milton Bradley. Even Jon Daniels couldn't have expected him to be this good.
Total guaranteed money spent: $397.5MM (69% on A-Rod)
2008 salaries, not including signing bonuses: $51.7MM (52% on A-Rod)
My free agent agent All-Star lineup would score over six runs per game based on their performances this year! Looks like Casey's batting leadoff (link takes a while to load).

Full Story | Comments (23) | Categories: Free Agent All-Stars

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Comments

Casey is probably the best back up first baseman in the league, with Robb Quinlan close behind and more versatile.

I don't really consider A-Rod a free agent signing, because he resigned with the same team.

Posted by: AA | June 30, 2008 at 04:40 PM

If you want to strike A-Rod and Lowell I guess I'd go with Russell Branyan. But now my defense on the left side of the field is looking suspect.

Posted by: Tim Dierkes | June 30, 2008 at 04:52 PM

How many runs per game is your 5 man free agent "All-Star" rotation giving up?

Posted by: Laputian | June 30, 2008 at 05:02 PM

Haven't given that any thought yet, should be up tomorrow or Wednesday. It'll be solid though.

Posted by: Tim Dierkes | June 30, 2008 at 05:09 PM

Just curious why Guillen is listed in RF? I understand he has played the majority of his career there, but when is the last time he played there this year? I sure do with he would be switched, considering Teahen is looking like a bust as each day passes.

Posted by: PJH | June 30, 2008 at 05:17 PM

I realize he is not an everyday second baseman (he plays 4-5 times a week), but what about Aaron Miles. His .320 batting average seems like a steal at $1million.

Posted by: Matt Siegel | June 30, 2008 at 05:24 PM

Would it get stomped by an all pre-arbitration non-long term deal team? Figure all rookie would be too hard.

Posted by: ArodSucksAtLife | June 30, 2008 at 05:26 PM

I guess I could probably put Guillen in left for this, couldn't I.

Posted by: Tim Dierkes | June 30, 2008 at 05:40 PM

I'll take a stab at it.

1. Greg Maddux
2. Andy Pettitte
3. Kyle Lohse
4. Hiroki Kuroda
5. Odalis Perez

Maybe Randy Wolf or Joel Pineiro fit in there somewhere.

1. Mariano Rivera
2. Scott Linebrink
3. Ron Mahay
4. Troy Percival
5. Doug Brocail
6. Masa Kobayashi
7. Rudy Seanez

Maybe fit Jorge Campillo somewhere on one of the lists.

Posted by: Grant77 | June 30, 2008 at 05:49 PM

Pretty well covers it. That rotation has an ERA under 4.00.

Posted by: Tim Dierkes | June 30, 2008 at 06:41 PM

Grant, maybe when his ERA is under 1, you'll remember a guy named Scott Downs... from the team you cheer for.

Posted by: juiced | June 30, 2008 at 06:42 PM

Okay, maybe not good example.

Posted by: juiced | June 30, 2008 at 06:46 PM

Blah, I don't know what his situation was, but did sign for 3 years.

Posted by: juiced | June 30, 2008 at 06:47 PM

Brian Moehler has to get some consideration, no?

Posted by: Darin | June 30, 2008 at 08:51 PM

haha ohhh Tim. i used to make teams just like these with my baseball cards. i would organize all the guys onto their teams and create lineups and rotations and such for all the teams in the league, but i never knew what to do with the guys that hadn't signed anywhere. so i made an "all star free agent" team. this really makes me laugh and its a good way to highlight some of the great and (with the exception of a-rod, rowand, and maybe fukudome) fairly cheap free agent signings.

Posted by: jacklaf | June 30, 2008 at 09:38 PM

How about an “all-trade” team for them to play against? Would probably look something like:

OF/DH ~ Hamilton, Quentin, Swisher, Church (or maybe Kotsay)
1B ~ Miguel Cabrera
2B ~ Scutaro (too bad Roberts wasn’t dealt…)
SS ~ Orlando Cabrera or Renteria
3B ~ Rolen (or maybe Glaus)
and I guess Brian Schneider behind the plate

Then the rotation would probably look something like:
Johan, Haren, Volquez, and some combination of Jurrjens / Garza / Bedard / Garland with Sherrill to close it out.

…And that’s off the top of my head; could even be better names to include that are just escaping me at the moment…

Posted by: darkstar1661 | June 30, 2008 at 09:44 PM

darkstar,

you'd rather have renteria or cabrera and their 80is OPS+ instead of Tejada?

Posted by: Darin | June 30, 2008 at 10:24 PM

Downs was signed to an extension Juicy :)...

I contemplated putting Moehler on the list...he just didn't have many innings. He'd be next in line.

Posted by: Grant77 | June 30, 2008 at 11:15 PM

Catcher has to be Jason Kendall.

He is hitter around .270 and has thrown out 22 guys trying to steal this year.

Posted by: ELCABALLO_45 | June 30, 2008 at 11:36 PM

I'll take a stab at it.

1. Greg Maddux
2. Andy Pettitte
3. Kyle Lohse
4. Hiroki Kuroda
5. Odalis Perez

Maybe Randy Wolf or Joel Pineiro fit in there somewhere.

1. Mariano Rivera
2. Scott Linebrink
3. Ron Mahay
4. Troy Percival
5. Doug Brocail
6. Masa Kobayashi
7. Rudy Seanez

Thats pretty good.
You forgot about Shawn Chacon he's been outstanding.........
at being a complete d- bag.
( Is this going to get me in trouble with MLBTR?)

Posted by: CUBBIES2008 | July 01, 2008 at 12:35 AM

I agree, Darin, I'd take Tejada over those two.

Posted by: studio179 | July 01, 2008 at 04:54 AM

How the hell is the best scoring line-up the one with Luis Gonzalez batting third and Jerry Hairston batting fifth with Sean Casey at leadoff?

Does it tell you how much this line-up would score?

1 - Hairston Jr (R)
2 - Fukudome (L)
3 - Bradley (S)
4 - Rodriguez (R)
5 - Gonzalez (L)
6 - Rowand (R)
7 - Casey (L)
8 - Barajas (R)
9 - Ramirez (R)

Posted by: jza1218 | July 01, 2008 at 08:30 AM

jza1218, that lineup should produce 6.149 per game (vs 6.385)

“darkstar, you'd rather have renteria or cabrera and their 80is OPS+ instead of Tejada?”

…Humm, apparently I wasn’t clear enough about the possibility some names escaped my mind when I said “could even be better names to include that are just escaping me at the moment…”

Anyway, the All-Trade team would be scoring about 5.675 per Game with a lineup of:
Rolen, Quentin, Swisher, Hamilton, Church, Tejada, M.Cabrera, Schneider, Scutaro

Then Haren / Santana / Volquez / Jurrjens / Garza would have a 2.90 ERA / 1.179 WHIP in 80 starts.

Posted by: darkstar1661 | July 01, 2008 at 11:15 AM

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