Sunday, September 18, 2016

Season 36 All-Star Blog

Midseason Classic
The Pine-Tar Season 36 All-Star Game took place last week, where the American League edged out a 5-4 victory over the National League.  Boise LF Willie Tarasco was awarded the Most Valuable Player after his 2-run double in the 8th inning put the AL ahead for good, giving 23 year-old P Richard Huang (Sultans of Swat) the win.  Durham closer Juan Guerrero struck-out two in the 9th inning to earn the save.  Jacksonville 3B Julian Santana (2-run double) and Cincinnati 2B Greg Borland (homerun) put forth a strong effort for the NL in their first career all-star appearance.  In other All-Star weekend festivities, Seattle's Keith Williamson defeated Wichita's Zach Wathan in the finals of the Home Run Derby, and Season 33's #2 draft pick Jamey Mullaney (Tampa Bay) was MVP of the Futures Game.

The All-Star pitching staffs for both leagues were filled with plenty of new faces, as 74% of all pitchers were making their 1st or 2nd career appearance.  Also, the number of All-Star selections per team and per division were not as spread out as in years past.  The NL East division generated the most All-Star selections with 11 (they had 15 last season).  Oklahoma City and Omaha were atop the list of individual teams with the most All-Star selections, even though neither has been to the playoffs in the past 4 seasons.  More information on this season's All-Star rosters is below:

Teams with the most All-Star selections:
Oklahoma City Prairie Dogs - 5
Omaha Oracles - 4
Atlanta Apaches - 4
Jacksonville Juice - 4
Kansas City Yardbirds - 3
New York Sultans of Swat - 3
Syracuse Orange - 3
Nashville Merchants - 3
Salem Volcanoes - 3

Teams with zero All-Star selections:
Dover Dinklebergs
New Orleans Jazz
Colorado Springs Iron Horses
Texas Galveston Wave
San Francisco Journey

All-Stars by Division
NL East - 11
AL East - 9
AL West - 9
NL North - 8
NL West - 8
AL North - 7
AL South - 5
NL South - 3

*Links are posted - click on an individual player's name to open their HBD profile
First Time All-Stars – American League

First Time All-Stars – National League