Friday, July 07, 2006
Giambi Snubbed?
One question has been on my mind since MLB.com ended the Final Vote yesterday; why the hell wasn’t Jason Giambi on the list for the All-Star Game.
I can see where he would not be elected thanks in part of his .264 batting average, but if you look deeper in the stats, you would see that his on-base percentage is .421, 12th in the majors and only .007, behind Derek Jeter, the starting shortstop for the American League.
Giambi also won the April Player of the Month honors and is on pace to be a nominee for June honors as well.
He has hit 26 home runs, leading the Yankees and three away from the major league lead. His 68 RBI also leads the Yankees and puts him 11th in the majors.
These types of numbers are all-star numbers, so what were the fans thinking. I can see David Ortiz starting, no problem with that, but to not even consider Giambi as an alternate, that boggles me.
Jason Giambi deserves to be in the All-Star Game, his numbers prove it, and his play style proves it.
Here are the comments I have recieved from ArmChairGM.com:
Barry Bonds isn't there either. Maybe they kept the steroid users off the teams this year.
posted by Coreyisarealboy on 2006-07-07 19:19:18 reply
It seems to me there was an effort to keep big market players off the ballot. I've heard others arguing that Schilling should have been on there. Well, if Giambi or Schiling were on the ballot, they would have been shoe-ins. As it stands, the biggest market players still got in (Chicago and LA) but it was a closer race. You know when a guy with 6 homeruns makes it in over a guy with 25 homeruns or a guy with an ERA under 2 that there is a flaw in the system.
posted by Friskysman on 2006-07-07 19:23:30 reply
Schill wouldn't have went (He pitches sunday), Francoma (I meant that!) was asked and he and schill declined...
posted by JuTMSY4 on 2006-07-08 07:12:48
alright, if you gave me a - for correcting you, that's your perogative... I'm just telling you the reason schill isn't going...
posted by JuTMSY4 on 2006-07-08 08:15:55
I didn't give you the negative. But now I will.
posted by Friskysman on 2006-07-08 08:57:46
Giambi wasn't snubbed, he's just another player that had good numbers that was worth consideration. He wasn't the kind of player who's numbers you look at and say, "what the heck? How on earth could he not be on the team?" Francisco Liriano had those kind of numbers. He's a legitimate snub.
posted by ASwaff on 2006-07-07 21:08:04 reply
Oh well, it'll give him three days off to rest at least.
posted by Alex Holowczak on 2006-07-08 01:12:03 reply
I believe it was due to the fact that the AL already had three first baseman on the roster, and didn't feel as if they needed to add another.
posted by Fornelli on 2006-07-08 04:25:23 reply
I agree w/ fornelli, ortiz, konerko and thome all deserve to go...if you look at my article, i think giambi just doesn't make the cut...but at least he played 1b more than everyone else except konerko...i think hafner should be there, especially over giambi...who cares if you can't play the field!
posted by JuTMSY4 on 2006-07-08 07:17:07
I think the biggest snub here is Travis Hafner. He had much better numbers than Konerko.
posted by Jgov05 on 2006-07-08 07:56:58 reply
Hafner has better numbers than everybody.
posted by Friskysman on 2006-07-08 08:05:15
Posted by Steve Kenul at 9:50 AM
Jerry Novick posted at 12:05 PM
While I agree that Giambi's numbers are All-Star worthy - and his comeback, surging performance is definitely deserving of praise - I'm sort of glad he's not an All-Star. 1) I'm always afraid of an important player getting injured in the All Star game, and 2) it gives us NY fans something new to point to about how everybody is always against the Yankees!
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