While a bit specious, yesterday MiLB.com released its 2019 All-Stars for the Washington system.
To justify this post make things a bit more interesting (and relevant), I decided to add two more columns for age – under 26 and appropriate to the level. I’m sure some of you will disagree 😉
| POSITION | MiLB.COM | UNDER 26 | APPROPRIATE TO THE LEVEL |
| C | Jakson Reetz | Taylor Gushue | Jakson Reetz |
| 1B | K.J. Harrison | K.J. Harrison | Leandro Emiliani |
| 2B | Cole Freeman | Cole Freeman | J.T. Arruda |
| SS | Carter Kieboom | Carter Kieboom | Carter Kieboom |
| 3B | Ian Sagdal | Drew Ward | Drew Ward |
| OF | Yadiel Hernandez | Chuck Taylor | Justin Connell |
| OF | Andrew Stevenson | Andrew Stevenson | Andrew Stevenson |
| OF | Jose Marmolejos | Nick Banks | Landerson Peña |
| UT | Matt Reynolds | Jake Noll | Angel Geraldo |
| RHSP | Mario Sanchez | Steven Fuentes | Steven Fuentes |
| LHSP | Tim Cate | Tim Cate | Tim Cate |
| Reliever | Aaron Barrett | Matt Cronin | Alfonso Hernandez |
Now before you go off half-cocked into the comments, for 2B it was extremely difficult to find an age-appropriate player. Likewise for utility players. Technically, Angel Geraldo fits the bill for both, but I felt like naming both would make the point that the system is pretty damn thin at that position. Freeman only played seven more games at 2B than in the infield.
It’s a similar situation with Cronin and Hernandez. On paper, Cronin is better but Hernandez pitched more than twice as many innings (50⅓ vs. 22). Take away his time at Hagerstown, and Hernandez may be the better reliever over more innings (and more innings per appearance).
I also found it odd that Sagdal got the nod over Ward. Granted, Ward is gone (and so is Marmolejos) and Sagdal is better on defense… but not that much better.
Finally, while MiLB didn’t make much of an effort to align the OFs, I did try to match up LF, CF, and RF as best as I could, given the dearth of true RFs. Perhaps that may be why MiLB.com chose to dip into the pool of 1B (Marmolejos, 48G at 1B; 44 in the OF) to get three OFs for its list.
Have at it in the comments!