I'm not sure he deserved it. Started off hot but then fell off. .260 batting average, .336 on base %, .678 OPS, 25 stolen bases Plays good defense though.
A player from every team has to be selected, not many good astros this year. the selection show had commentary on every player, when they got to Bourn, they just said his name and moved on, lol
great range, great jumps, great arm. pluses all around...just needs the AVG and OBP to come back up more
Ty Wigginton making the team kind of hurts considering our 3b situation, know why he was let go but still hurts a bit. Ironic twist is that both guys, Valverde and Wigs, made the team and it was either or a few years ago.
Yeah - I would have thought Roy would be the pick. He's at least in the top tier of pitchers in the NL. Offensively, there are a bunch of centerfielders better than Bourn in the NL - I'm not even sure he'd be in the top 7 or 8. Defensively, he's obviously great, but its pretty rare that defense drives all-star selections.
It's likely because all the reserve pitcher spots on the roster were filled by other bad teams' pitchers, including middle relievers Evan Meek and Arthur Rhodes. That's probably why Oswalt didn't get the spot. And without Oswalt, who could represent the Astros? Michael Bourn. Yeah, his hitting's down, but he does everything else as good or better than any other CF in MLB. He deserves it.
Bourn leads the NL in stolen bases and NO ONE plays CF better than him. It's not all about HRs and average.
Neither is a .260 batting average which is 61st in the NL. I'm not saying Roy deserves to be an all star on merit, just that if an Astro had to be chosen, I figured it'd be Roy instead of Bourn.
Of course it's not. But it's about a lot more than steals. Bourn is: 10th in AVG 6th in OBP 11th in SLG 11th in OPS (this is out of 12 eligible players) While he leads the group in steals, ask yourself if you'd rather have a steal or a HR? Is 25 steals + 1 HR better than 7 HRs + 20 steals (Andrew McCutchen)? Or 12 HRs + 17 steals (Shane Victorino)? Or 14 HRs + 12 steals (Carlos Gonzalez)? Or 16 HRs + 9 steals (Colby Rasmus)? And all of those players have substantially higher OPSs. Of the 12 eligible players, 10 have double digit steals - the two that don't are #1 and #2 in OPS. So it's not like Bourn's steals run circles around everyone else, while those other players do run circles around Bourn in all the other categories. Ignoring the fact that the Astros needed an All-Star, it's hard to argue Bourn over: Rasmus Kemp Victorino Gonzalez McCutchen Chris Young And there are few others you'd have to put in the same category offensively as Bourn - Stubbs, Torres, Byrd. I think the only two you can clearly say he's above are Nyjer Morgan and Angel Pagan. Now, defense gives him an added boost, but certainly not to jump over that entire first tier. That said, after looking at the roster of NL starting pitchers, it's hard to argue that Oswalt should go over any of them. And since most of them will probably be used in the game, it's more important that you get the best possible SPs than the best possible CFs. So Bourn goes as the "we need an Astro" representative.
MLB needs to remove the requirement that there be one player from every team on the squad. Especially now that it "means something" (not that I want to get into that argument again).
