Who has All-Star edge at each position?
Mike Petriello
@mike_petrielloLast year, the National League held a 101-85 edge in Interleague play headed into the All-Star Game, which the American League won, 8-6, in 10 innings for its sixth consecutive victory.
This year, the National League holds the Interleague edge again, at 86-70. They've outscored the AL by a margin of 774-702. The tide, perhaps, is changing. Yet, the last time the NL won an All-Star Game (2012), its All-Stars included Rafael Furcal, Bryan LaHair, and Chipper Jones. It's been a minute.
Will they break that streak in 2019? We have no idea. But we can at least look at each side's group of players, position by position, to see which league has the edge.
Spoiler alert: There's not much to separate them. They're all, as the name implies, stars.
Catcher
AL: Gary Sánchez, James McCann
Before the season began, you'd have thought this would be lopsided. Realmuto was the most sought-after catcher available and escaped pitcher-friendly Marlins Park for a better hitting environment in Philadelphia. McCann was coming off a such a poor season that the Tigers simply chose to not offer him a contract to return. But this season, Realmuto has just been OK, posting a league-average hitting season (albeit with excellent defense) while McCann has put up a shocking .316/.371/.502 for the White Sox.
We're going to go with the NL on this one, though it's close. Contreras and Sanchez have both had great rebounds from disappointing 2018 seasons, but Contreras' 144 OPS+ outplays Sanchez's 129 OPS+, and their similarly strong arms and questionable framing cancel each other out. Grandal, who already has 19 homers to go with a .372 OBP and outstanding framing, has probably been baseball's best all-around catcher.
Advantage: NL
First Base
AL: Carlos Santana, José Abreu
We can sum this one up pretty easily: Santana and Abreu have combined to post a .364 OBP and a .525 slugging, about 30 percent better than league average. Meanwhile, Rhys Hoskins and Anthony Rizzo, two first basemen in the stacked National League who couldn't find their way onto the team, thanks to the big four up there, have posted an OBP of .392 and a slugging of .518 -- or 37 percent better than league average.
Bell will start at DH, giving the NL another formidable bat in the lineup. Either way, you'd probably take all four of them before either of the AL guys, all due respect to Santana's career-best start.
Huge advantage: NL
Second Base
Here we have four second basemen, except one has spent nearly as much time in center field (Marte), one has spent more time at his longtime home of third base (Moustakas), one has played three times as many games at shortstop as he has at second (Torres) and one is a veteran second baseman who has spent less of his time there this year than he has in his entire career (LeMahieu). Some of this is the odd aftereffect of the injuries in the Yankees infield this year, and some of it is about Tommy La Stella and Brandon Lowe each getting injured in the last 10 days.
As far an edge, the AL guys give you more on-base (.372 to .346 OBP) while the NL guys offer more power (.556 to .523 SLG). The defensive edge is pretty clear for the AL, too. The most interesting aspect here may be the potential for LeMahieu to be replaced in-game by his Yankee teammate, Torres.
Advantage: AL
Shortstop
There are six very good players here, so let's be thankful they're going to make it easy on us. The sides are essentially tied in slugging percentage, but the AL has a 31-point edge in on-base percentage, thanks in no small part to Bogaerts, who had to be added as an injury replacement, but now has the best line of any of our All-Star shortstops. Lindor, for what it's worth, hit just .214/.261/.429 in his first 11 games after an injury-delayed 2019 debut, then has posted a .307/372/.502 in 56 games since.
Everyone here can play defense. It's very difficult to pick between stars.
Small advantage: AL
Third Base
NL: Nolan Arenado, Kris Bryant
AL: Alex Bregman, Matt Chapman
When Anthony Rendon was still in the mix here, this tilted toward the NL, because it's so awash in third basemen that even Justin Turner and Eduardo Escobar couldn't get in here. Now that he's out, this got a lot closer -- a lot closer -- and it's difficult to even use defense to break the tie because Arenado and Chapman are each elite. There's not really an edge here, so we won't make one.
Advantage: Push
For outfield spots, we're taking a best guess as to who will back up at what positions, once the starters come out. We don't guarantee it will play out this way.
Left Field
The AL hitters are out-hitting their NL counterparts, though not by a great deal. Brantley and McNeil are somewhat mirror images, in terms of making elite contact. Gallo, assuming he ends up playing in left, was playing at an MVP level before he was injured, and he's picked right back up where he's left off, posting a .300/.447/.767 line since his return. How is it possible that Acuña, who is probably the brightest actual star of any of this quartet, actually has the weakest hitting line of the four of them? Too many stars, that's how.
Small advantage: AL
Center Field
NL: Cody Bellinger, David Dahl
AL: Mike Trout, Mookie Betts
This isn't fair. We shouldn't have to make a choice here. We're assuming Dahl and Betts move over from the corners to finish things off in center, but even if it's someone else, we're still talking Trout, the greatest player of this generation or most anyone else's; Betts, the defending Most Valuable Player; and Bellinger, who got off to one of the greatest starts we've seen in years. (No disrespect to Dahl intended, as he's finally stayed healthy enough to show off his immense talent with a .308/.352/.530 line.)
Small advantage: AL
Right Field
It's easy to forget just how good of a start Springer was off to before he was injured, and how important Merrifield has been to the Royals, but what Yelich and Blackmon have done make this pretty easy -- they have a 43-point edge in OBP and a 151-point edge in slugging. Even when you adjust that down a little for Blackmon's hilarious home/road splits -- and they are legendary -- it's still a pretty clear National League advantage. Yelich has been that good.
Advantage: NL
Designated Hitter
NL: Josh Bell, Pete Alonso
Bell gets the start for the NL at DH, and Alonso seems like a good bet to follow him, partially due to the glut of first basemen and partially because they're known far more for their bats than their gloves. They're good bats, too: Alonso (1.006 OPS) and Bell (1.024) are far outclassing Martinez (.918) and Vogelbach (.881).
Advantage: NL
Starters
AL: Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Lucas Giolito, José Berríos, Shane Bieber, Masahiro Tanaka, John Means
Relievers
NL: Will Smith, Kirby Yates, Felipe Vazquez
It's probably important here to remember that this isn't a real baseball game with actual strategies, and that starters Ryu and Verlander will go two innings, at absolute most, before they're followed by an endless stream of relievers and starters acting like relievers.
So instead, let's just look at the combined pitchers on both sides, because surely we'll find some separation when we see that the American Leaguers have allowed a 2.90 ERA, while the National Leaguers have allowed a ... 2.83 ERA. The AL has allowed a .623 OPS, and the NL has allowed a ... .624 OPS.
Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising, because both sides are just overloaded with great pitchers. That it's nearly exact tells you all the story you need to know.
Advantage: Push