A friend of mine said today, "All Star picks are emotional." He's right. Even in regards to the perennial All Stars, he's absolutely right. People feel strongly about who they want to play in the Mid Summer Classic, and I am no different. I try to remain objective, but I have my boys. I would be heartbroken if Chase Utley didn't start for the National League, Evan Longoria for the AL, but that would simply never happen. I was a little offended when the Baseball Tonight guys said that Mark Teixeira just might not be the best choice to start at first for the American League, but I understood and respected their arguments. Justin Morneau and Kevin Youkilis are great ballplayers, and I would never--no matter how much I adore Tex--argue otherwise. For the most part, I have to agree with the choices that were made. No, I'm sorry; I don't have to agree. I have to accept them.
For the most part.
One thing I don't agree with on this year's All Star roster is the exclusion of a player who took a daunting assignment and made it into a great success. This guy stepped into a role that ensured he'd be hated by some, loved by others, questioned by all, and he has posted numbers in this first half that make the guy he replaced look like just another baseball player. When Joe Torre told Juan Pierre that he'd be starting in left while Manny served his 50-game suspension, I'm almost positive that his response was a mixture of, "Oh, shit," and, "You won't be disappointed." Pierre is the kind of guy any club would want. He doesn't hit home runs, but he hits the ball. He doesn't generate a lot of fanfare, but he plays a good, solid, consistent game. Get him on base, and look out (he's been first or second in the league in stolen bases all but one season in his career). He gets the extra base because he's fast, but he also gets it because he's smart. No one seems to realize that Juan Pierre is actually a lifetime .300 hitter and has spent a good deal of his eight full seasons (not to mention the first half of his ninth) ranked pretty high in a number of hitting categories. Don't believe me? I have proof. In the outfield, fans never have to hold their breath when Juan's on the ball. He's going to come up with it, he's going to throw it to the right base, and there is very little territory out there that he can't get to. He's also a work horse. He has played in all 162 games in five of his big league seasons, and he's only missed a handful in the others. Even with Manny back in the lineup bein' Manny, Juan is getting a great deal of playing time and still doing well.
Juan's been like that his entire career. When he played at South Alabama, he was the quiet star. He's a nice guy who loves to play baseball, and that, my friends, really does count for something. If he didn't love what he was doing, he wouldn't be sitting on a .329 average, a couple dozen stolen bases, a healthy on-base percentage (.389), and a pretty respectable OPS (.807) while getting only backhanded compliments for his work. It's hard to believe but no one can say, "Juan Pierre is having a great year," without saying, "but Manny is back now." They can't seem to say, "Any club would be lucky to have Juan Pierre on their roster," without following up with, "but he's no Manny Ramirez." No, he's not Manny Ramirez, and thank the baseball gods for that! No offense to ManRam (a nickname I hate, by the way), but he's a liability. Juan will never crawl into any outfield wall during any game, and I promise you that he'll always know how many outs there are. Don't get me wrong; I think Manny is kind of healthy for a game that struggles for attention during the regular season (and I do enjoy laughing at him), but in a perfect world, Manny would be getting more credit for his personality and less for his skill while Juan would be getting more credit for his skill and less for his unfortunate role as Ramirez' more responsible shadow.
Someone will argue with me about Manny's playing ability. I know it. I am by no means saying the guy can't play baseball because he can. That's not at issue here. He does his job when he's paying attention, and he's got the power that Juan will never have. Did you ever notice, though, that when anyone shows highlights of Manny Ramirez, they are either home runs, silly antics, or ejections? When anyone shows highlights of Juan Pierre stealing home, there's always some announcer comparing him to Manny.
I'm really not on a crusade to compare the two, either, as a matter of fact. I'm on a crusade to say that the single most reprehensible decision made in the 2009 All Star selections was not naming Juan to the team. I knew he wouldn't win the fan vote, but that didn't stop me from voting the maximum 25 times a day every day from the end of May until July 2nd. It also didn't stop me from strong-arming my friends into voting for him as well. The problem was that he had to be written in. He wasn't a starter when the ballots were made, so voting for him had to come as an afterthought. A few of my friends even said, "Oh, I didn't see him on there, so I forgot about him." Not true Juan Pierre fans. The fact is, even Dodgers fans who like the guy could easily have forgotten to write him in as they clicked the boxes. I'm guilty of getting wrapped up and forgetting something like that; I did it with the American League vote. Adam Lind had to be written in (yeah, I support my South Alabama boys), and I was so focused on writing in Juan that I forgot about Lind until about the fifteenth time I voted. I got you, though, Adam. Don't worry.
In fact, so did a lot of other people. Lind was a Sprint Final Vote finalist for the last American League spot, which proves that writing in a player does work. The difference, though, is in the type of players they are. Since Lind has 19 home runs and 59 RBI, he gets more attention from fans. Juan has 13 homers in his Major League career, none of which were hit this season. Fans like home runs; it's a sad fact. The networks know this, too, and they show more Adam Lind home runs than they do Juan Pierre base hits. I think Adam Lind should be an All Star, too, so this is not about comparing them either.
After the starters were announced, I thought for sure that the players would give Pierre his due. Surely, the guys on his own team like Ethier and Kemp, Loney and Blake would have his back. How about his former teams, the Marlins, Rockies, and Cubs? Wouldn't they want to see their old teammate get an All Star berth? I was genuinely surprised when he wasn't a player vote.
My next hope was Charlie Manuel and the powers that be. Looking at 2009, it would be hard for Manuel not to recognize the great year Pierre is having, as he's hit safely against the Phillies in all but one game thus far, with a couple of multi-hit games. I have personally seen him rein in potentially dangerous fly balls off the bats of Philly's big hitters, too. I don't think that Manuel chose anyone who didn't deserve to be on the roster, but I do think he overlooked one.
It looked as though there might be one more chance for Juan when Carlos Beltran made it clear that he would have to miss the midseason festivities. That was pretty much a lock from the moment the teams were announced, as Beltran is struggling pretty badly with that right knee. I thought this could be the window that Pierre would need.
Now, I am a Phillies fan ("phan," if you will). I love the way they play, and I love the characters they've corralled on their team. With that in mind, I'm not sure how I feel about their entire outfield being on the NL All Star roster. I take that back. I do think Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, and Raul Ibanez deserve to be on the All Star team, but I regret that it was the one last chance Juan had to get the recognition (I think) he deserves. I have to stop and question Manuel here this one time. I know I say I don't like to question the people who get paid to make these decisions, but we all make exceptions. It seems to me like placing Werth in that last spot might have been the easy way. Manuel knows Werth is one of the game's solid men this season because he works with him day in and day out. It's true that most of Werth's numbers make him as good a fit as anyone else on the team (20 HR, .895 OPS), but he's, well, just like anyone else on the team. I think Juan's .329 average dwarfs Werth's .268, but that's clearly not enough to get noticed. It's the kind of hits you get.
The All Star Game seems to have taken on an identity very different from what it was originally intended to be. It's about power numbers, it seems. Fans are more inclined to want to watch to see if Jayson Werth hits another 500-foot bomb than to see if a guy (ahem, Juan Pierre) stretches a double to a triple by challenging some of the greatest outfield arms and smartest infielders in the game today. Well, if that's the case, then watch the Home Run Derby, and let me watch the game itself in peace.
Of course, I'll watch both the game and the Home Run Derby next week; I enjoy seeing some of the game's best come together in one place and have a blast. It's not about Manny Ramirez. It's not about Adam Lind. It's not about Charlie Manuel. And it's not about anyone who's on the team (even you, Jayson Werth; I like ya, buddy). Every player on there deserves his bid. I'm just being a Juan Pierre fan, and I am allowed to do that.
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