Balt Sun: How many Orioles could make the All-Star Game? These players deserve a look.

Question for starters is the starters....

Obviously Gunnar and Adley will be All-Stars....will they get voted in? 

Both are competing with their KC counterparts in Bobby Witt Jr and Salvi Perez.

Gunnar is top SS OPS and has 20 bombs.  Witt is right behind him in OPS and has a popular profile.  They're all in, it's just be about the National vote for who starts.  Vote.

Burnes is certainly in as a Starter too.  The other big consideration is all-team representation, so I guy like Garret Crochet is probably WhiteSox rep. Don't need to worry about the A's with deserving guys like Rooker (DH) and Miller (RP)

Mike Petriello at MLB.com always does a mock full ASG roster including the random reps for the crappy teams and his first draft is Adley, Gunnar, Mountcastle, Westburg and Burnes

https://x.com/mike_p...411519459316122

"The deserving"

You can certainly make the case for both Westburg and Mountcastle.

1B/ Mountcastle is at the top of the 1B OPS ranking in a dead heat with Vlad.  Vlad certainly has the more National profile so it seems like a lock he's the starter and he could be the only rep from a disappointing BlueJays team (Berrios will certainly get a lot of consideration as a SP)....but Mountcastle's inclusion will be about the rest of the AL.  If Alvarez gets voted as the DH....Rooker likely makes it from OAK.  Ryan Jeffers may be the Twins only rep.  Naylor is a consideration like Mountcastle (CLE will have several reps).

Mountcastle is certainly deserving and is likely the GG today.

3B/ Westburg has a bit of a challenge given the profiles of Devers and JRam who will be battling it out in the national vote as the starter...both are clearly making it.  Westburg is actually 4th in 3B OPS (Issac Parades/TB is 3rd) and has been GG quality over there.

What's a little interesting is he'd be the OPS leader at 2B.  Known cheater Altuve is the OPS leader and he's under .800.  In fact, only Altuve (.776) and Semien (.757) are over .700 OPS among qualifies AL players. Westburg's offensive and defensive profile probably would make him the top 2B in the AL right now, if he was consistently playing there.

I could certainly envision a scenario where Altuve and Semien are both selected (one voted) and they skip the festivities to maximize the break and Westburg actually becomes the starter.

"worth a look" 

Coulombe and Santander will both get some consideration in the tier of replacements for starters.

Judge, Soto and Tucker should be the starting (voted) OF for the AL and there isn't much consideration for something different.  Those guys are all over .975 OPS and nobody else in the AL OF is over .800.

...but Tucker is currently on the IL and Soto is resting a forearm issue right now and we know they'll want to rest Judge given his recent injury history, so none of those guys may actually be the starters.  Of the next tier of guys to consider, AS is certainly towards the top of that group. 

HE's not making the team straight up, but given what probably happens (ASG defections), wouldn't be at all surprising if he's starting RFer. 

Coulombe is in the same track.  Not on the initial roster, but as guys start falling off, a quality lefty that will absolutely say yes to the opportunity (1st time AS?) he could certainly wind up in the bullpen.  

"shot in the dark"

Kimbrel should be in the category above.  It fact, depending on the breakout of required players, he could be in the Mounty/Westburg group.

The lamentations surrounding Kimbrel around these parts is still a little absurd.  Here's the Leaderboard.  Yeah, he had a rough patch over 5 of 6 appearances and the 2xBS against the A's are ridiculous, but he's actually been one of the better closers in the AL.  There's still quality out there so whether  the Orioles get a 6th guy guy (whatever) over someone else getting a 2nd or 3rd, we'll wait and see on that, but he's certainly deserving of the assignment, in the same way that the 4 guys in the 2 categories above are.

I don't see Cowser having even an outside shot here.  There's plenty of OFers above him and in deference to his 1.000 OPS (and RoM) in April, he's also OPS under .575 since.  Not negative, not worried about it, but just not in the conversation of this discussion without some positive drama over the next month.

Mike Petriello at MLB.com always does a mock full ASG roster including the random reps for the crappy teams and his first draft is Adley, Gunnar, Mountcastle, Westburg and Burnes

 

https://x.com/mike_p...411519459316122

I have no idea what the argument he'd be making to leave Devers (and his 6th-in-the-AL in OPS) off the All-Star roster.

I have no idea what the argument he'd be making to leave Devers (and his 6th-in-the-AL in OPS) off the All-Star roster.

Westburg is much a better defender and their overall WAR favors Westburg, though it's close enough that it could be a rounding error.

I'd take Devers over Paredes but I don't know if the Rays have another plausible candidate.

It's not even a Westburg-Devers argument.  It's how is not on the team.  There's only 6 guys in the AL with an OPS over .900 and he's one of them.  If a .900 OPS can't get you on the All-Star team, I'm not sure what the criteria is.  Basically, all 20 qualified guys over .790 not named Josh Smith are on his AST, except Devers.  Absurd.

What I do find a little interesting is Westburg is playing a lot more 2B in the last 10 games.

Just the Mateo injury? ...or bumping up his 2B profile for this thread?

What I do find a little interesting is Westburg is playing a lot more 2B in the last 10 games.

 

Just the Mateo injury? ...or bumping up his 2B profile for this thread?

Well his 2B profile didn't go up any the last two games.....lol