Cal League All Stars Announced

And I'm feeling pretty good about the guesses I made last week. The official milb.com link is here, but I'll just list all of the players here. I'm going to analyze the rosters more later, but i thought it was important to get the roster up as fast as I could. Congratulations to all the players that made the team. There's a lot of talent in this league, and it's not easy to stand out.

Manager Brian Harper, San Jose
Pitching Coach Jerry Cram, San Jose
Trainer L.J. Petra, San Jose

SP Ethan Hollingsworth, Modesto- Hollingsworth has a string of bad starts going, but his overall season numbers are still great. His ERA is just north of 3, and he has a great K:BB ratio.

RP Brad Brach, Lake Elsinore- There have been a number of great closers, and Brach leads the league in saves. He pounds the strike zone and has been one of the best closers in the minors leagues the past couple seasons.

SP Tyler Chatwood, Rancho Cucamonga- Chatwood has the second best ERA in the league. He needs to be more efficient and walk fewer batters, but he gets a ton of strikeouts and ground balls.

SP Craig Westcott, San Jose- Westcott was just a 30th round pick last year, but he leads the Cal League in ERA. He doesn't strike out many guys, but he had a great shutout streak to start the season and is still pitching very well.

SP Eric Surkamp, San Jose- Despite getting bombed a couple times lately, Surkamp has been a dominant starter in 2010. He gets a lot of strikeouts, and opponents have a difficult time reaching base against him.

SP Kenn Kasparek, High Desert- It's difficult to pitch at High Desert, but Kasparek makes it look easy. He doesn't have big strikeout numbers like some other pitchers in the league, but it's been incredibly difficult to get hits off him.

SP Justin Fitzgerald, San Jose- Fitzgerald might be one of the best stories in the league this season. This is the first time in his career that he's in the rotation, and he has excelled, posting the 3rd best ERA in the Cal League.

RP Bryan Woodall, Visalia- Woodall doesn't always finish the game for Visalia, but he has been one of the best relievers in baseball. He finally allowed his first earned run of the season recently to bring his ERA all the way up to 0.33.

SP Nate Eovaldi, Inland Empire- Eovaldi might be the biggest surprise on the roster. The ERA is solid, but most of his other stats are just mediocre. Everything I read about his stuff is very good, but the numbers don't match that so far.

There's one fewer pitcher on the roster than I expected, but this is still obviously a strong staff. Nate Eovaldi is the only pitcher that I didn't expect on the roster. I had Aaron Miller, also on Inland Empire, in his place, and I'd still take Miller over Eovaldi. Because Kyle Russell was promoted to AA just before the roster was released, Inland Empire needed a representative, and it had to come from the rotation. I also had Anthony Bass on the roster, but since there was one fewer pitcher on the team than I expected, he didn't make it. He was certainly a deserving candidate, but it's tough to argue with the pitchers that did. Kenny Durst is tied with Chatwood for the lead league in wins, but his other numbers weren't good enough to make the team. Besides Miller and Bass, some other guys that could've made it include Nick Schmidt of Lake Elsinore, Andrew Carraway of High Desert and Wade Miley of Visalia.

Analysis of the position players and my guess of the starting lineup coming in a bit.

C Jordan Pacheco, Modesto- Pacheco is cooling off after a torrid start, but he's still by far the best hitting catcher in the league right now. Add in his adequate defense, and this was an easy choice.

C Jose Felix, Bakersfield- Besides Pacheco, the rest of the league's starting catchers are jumbled together. Felix had an OPS slightly above the league average in May, but his defense and throwing arm make him stand out.

1B Brandon Belt, San Jose- Belt doesn't have the power that some people expect from 1B, but that hasn't stopped him from having a great season. He leads the league in hits and doubles and takes his fair share of walks too.

1B Rich Poythress, High Desert- With Kyle Russell now in AA, Poythress leads active Cal League players in home runs and also sits atop the RBI leaderboard. He may benefit from playing at High Desert, but he's having a solid 2010.

2B Alexi Amarista, Rancho Cucamonga- Amarista has had a good season at the top of the Rancho Cucamonga lineup. He doesn't walk much, and his base stealing isn't efficient, but he does a good job putting the ball in play.

2B Cole Figueroa, Lake Elsinore- Figueroa kind of flew under my radar because he doesn't hit for much power, but he gets on base in just about every game and is hitting the ball very well right now. He's a key player in the Storm lineup.

SS Drew Cumberland, Lake Elsinore- Cumberland is healthy, and Lake Elsinore has received the benefits all season. He's hitting for great contact, stealing bases and lately, Cumberland has been hitting for some power too.

3B Jimmy Cesario, Modesto- Cesario is another athletic player in the Lake Elsinore lineup. He leads the league in triples and hits a lot of doubles too. It's been a few years since Modesto had a position player in this game, and this year they have two.

3B Stephen Parker, Stockton- For a brief period a month ago, Parker led the league in home runs. That isn't the case now, but he's still one of the league's most patient hitters with good power.

LF Dan Robertson, Lake Elsinore- Robertson is the only natural corner OF on the roster, and if Blake Tekotte was on another team, he might be a CF himself. Like a couple other players, he doesn't hit for a lot of power but does a good job getting the ball in play.

CF Tyson Auer, Rancho Cucamonga- Auer leads the league in steals, and I failed to consider that when making my guesses. He doesn't hit for any power, but his speed makes him an asset on a team like this.

CF Jay Austin, Lancaster- Austin is another guy that likely made the team because of his speed. Earlier this season, he was hitting for a lot of power and really looked like he turned a corner, but that proved to just be a hot streak.

CF Juan Perez, San Jose- Like teammate Brandon Belt, Perez has a very good SLG% but because of doubles, not home runs. He doesn't walk much, but he makes good contact and is having a very good season.

CF Blake Tekotte, Lake Elsinore- Tekotte is a little guy, but he has been a complete hitter so far this year. He makes good contact, takes a lot of walk, and his power output hasn't been bad either.

There were some more differences between my guesses and the real roster with hitters than with the pitchers. My biggest mistake was not listing a starting 2B for some reason. I probably meant to list Albert Cartwright as my starter and add Alexi Amarista to the bench. Speaking of Cartwright, it's hard to believe he didn't make the team. I think he would've been a better representative from Lancaster than Austin. Austin's best quality is his speed, but it's not like the team is short on steals. The biggest snub has to be Modesto's Thomas Field. He's 3rd among active Cal Leaguers in OPS, and it's too bad his great season isn't being rewarded, especially because an extra hitter is being taken.

I'll take a guess at what the starting lineup might be.
RF Perez
2B Figueroa
SS Cumberland
1B Belt
3B Cesario
CF Tekotte
C Pacheco
DH Parker
LF Robertson

The lineup is missing a great home run hitter now that Kyle Russell has moved on to AA, but that's still a bunch of solid hitters from top to bottom. There are a lot of centerfielders on the roster, but Perez has a number of games in RF, so it was an easy choice to slide him over. Amarista v. Figueroa was a tough choice, but I think Figueroa's season has been a bit better, and he's also hitting better at this moment. Auer and Austin could be great options to pinch run off the bench if necessary.

I'm not as familiar with Carolina League players as I am with these guys obviously, so I really can't make a prediction about who will win. I do know that this is a talented bunch of players that will represent the league well. The last five years have been pretty even, so it should be anyone's game.

One last thing: I really like the competition between two leagues. It can probably getting tiring seeing the same teams and players over and over, and this gives fans a chance to see some guys they usually won't. Triple A does this too, and it's too bad more leagues don't. Travel would be pretty reasonable for the Texas League and Southern League and maybe even the Midwest and South Atlantic Leagues.

Maybe I'm just crazy, but this could work for a couple weeks in the regular season for some leagues too. I like interleague in the majors a lot more than most, and I think it would be interesting to see it expanded to the minors. Maybe they're worried about schedules becoming unbalanced, but it would mix things up a little bit and let fans see some different teams and players. I understand teams have small budgets, and that's probably the biggest factor preventing this from happening. Obviously it wouldn't work for some levels. The travel would be a bit much for the AAA leagues, and the Eastern League and California League probably couldn't be involved either. However, bus trips, albeit long ones, could be made between some Texas and Southern League destinations, the Carolina and Florida State Leagues and probably the Midwest and SAL too. That's it, it's not really relevant to the All Star Game, but the Carolina/California format made me think of it.