MLB Spring Training: The mid-spring All-Star roster
By Bill Felber
These guys may not make the 2020 All-Star teams, but based on their play so far during MLB spring training, they merit a place on the spring All-Star team.
We’re halfway through MLB spring training. In the great tradition of the mid-season classic, that means it’s time to select the spring All-Star team…those players who so far have made the most positive impressions in their camps.
The rules are identical to what they would be during the regular season: performance with an emphasis on such familiar categories as batting average runs batted in and OPS. The only true requirement is a minimum of 25 official at-bats to date.
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For pitchers, we’re using a minimum of 10 completed innings so far, and again looking at familiar criteria: earned run average, strikeouts, and opponents batting average.
Excluding DH, we’ll pick spring star candidates at each position – not necessarily one from each league – and three pitchers.
MLB spring training being what it is, a star who makes this team may not necessarily be likely to repeat when the actual All-Star team is selected this summer. In fact, some may not even be in the Major Leagues.
But they’ve all made an impression in late February and early March.
We begin with our three selections at pitcher.
Daniel Ponce de Leon, St. Louis Cardinals. de Leon hasn’t made a start yet, but he’s appeared in four games, and been consistently brilliant. In 13 innings he’s allowed just eight hits and a single run. He has 12 strikeouts, a .186 opponents batting average and a 1.00 WHIP.
J.A. Happ, New York Yankees. Through the Yankees various rotation issues, Happ has emerged as a reliable No. 2 to Gerrit Cole. (Cole lacks the requisite number of innings to make the team.) He’s started four times, with two wins, and allowed just seven hits in his 13 innings. He leads the spring in strikeouts with 16, and his 0.62 WHIP is also atop the list.
Derek Holland, Pittsburgh Pirates. Holland looks like he could aid the Pirates in a desperate search for a reliable rotation element. He’s worked 13.2 innings, and although carrying a 3.95 ERA he’s fanned 15 with a 0.95 WHIP.