Introduction
Incredibly, the calendar has already flipped its way to June despite it still feeling like it’s early May. As part of that calendar flip, the All-Star Ballot is officially open for the first phase of voting by fans that will run until the end of the month. Remember that you can vote up to five times a day – one of my mom’s favorite pastimes during this time of year. While there are plenty of worthy candidates in a stacked National League, I thought the opening phase was as good a time as any to review some of the possible candidates for our favorite team. Even though some of the big-city teams have a built-in advantage with the size of their respective fanbases and some of the usual All-Stars (like Manny Machado or Mookie Betts) are having down seasons, there are some interesting openings for lesser-known players to step in. This group is an interesting mix of perennial All-Stars, upstarts, and bounceback candidates, highlighting exactly what has made this Arizona team as successful as it’s been through the first two-plus months of the season.
Corbin Carroll
The team’s present and future, Carroll moved himself from the “very good” tier to “MVP-caliber” tier last year when he created the 30-30 club for the D-Backs. That momentum has continued so far this season as he’s already accumulated a major league-leading eight triples, has nearly reached double digits for both stolen bases and homers, and continues to make excellent defensive plays in right field on a nearly nightly basis. If you zoom out to the National League outfield, Carroll has the fourth-best bWAR (2.7), the third-highest OPS (.937), and the third-highest OPS+ (160) which normalizes OPS across the major leagues. Who wouldn’t want to watch Carroll take his 98th percentile speed out for a spin in Philadelphia? It would be the 25 year old’s third All-Star selection already and might be one of the most deserved.
Nolan Arenado
From a youngster just starting his career to a near-lock Hall of Famer, this D-Backs team features a wide range of experience and Arenado’s resurgent campaign certainly accounts for a significant amount of the year-over-year improvement for the team. We’re only about 40% of the way through the season, but he’s having his best season in nearly three years with more bWAR (1.6) accumulated in just over half the number of games played from last year, almost the same number of doubles from last year, and almost two-thirds of the RBI from last year. What’s most impressive – he’s been able to do all of that offensive damage while continuing to act as a leader and mentor to the team as well as making excellent defensive plays every night. Among third basemen in the NL, he ranks third in bWAR, second in OPS (.795) and OPS+, and third in home runs. It would be his first selection to the MidSummer Classic since 2023 among an incredibly restorative season.
Eduardo Rodriguez
I think if you had told me in February that E-Rod would be on this list of All Star candidates, I likely would have laughed you out of the room. He was coming off consecutive seasons with an ERA north of five and a WHIP above 1.5 while demonstrating exactly why so many baseball front offices are reluctant to commit multiple years to a starting pitcher over 30. Instead, since his championship run with Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, Rodriguez has been a different pitcher. He owns a 2.24 ERA in 12 starts and a WHIP under 1.2, accumulating 2.6 bWAR – good enough for sixth-highest in the NL. There’s clearly some room for some negative regression considering the gap between his actual and expected ERA as well as the abnormally high hard hit rate he’s allowed so far, but that level of analysis is unlikely to figure into the average voter’s consciousness. It would be the 33 year old’s first selection to the All-Star game and would be particularly gratifying given how badly he was struggling through the last two years.
Read the full article here