The Amazing Race: National League Shortstop All-Star
J. J. Hardy is off to a spectacular year and currently leads the National League in homeruns and RBI so it would be tough to vote against him. The biased part of me still wants to vote for Jose Reyes and the unbiased part of me wants to also because Jose Reyes is still the MVP of the best team in the National League. The voters probably will vote for Jose Reyes since he has the advantage of playing in New York but if all cities were equal the shortstop voting would be very close. It wouldn't just be J. J. Hardy and Jose Reyes though, there are as many as five shortstops in the National League that you could make an argument for.
The six guys I'm talking about are Jose Reyes and J. J. Hardy as I said before and also Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, Atlanta's Edgar Renteria, and Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins.
If you want an idea of how good this crop of shortstops is then all you have to do is look at the league leaders for the National League. Almost every category is littered with shortstops.
Runs
1st Hanley Ramirez
2nd Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes
3rd Edgar Renteria
6th J. J. Hardy
Hits
1st Jose Reyes
3rd J. J. Hardy
4th Edgar Renteria and Hanley Ramirez
5th Jimmy Rollins
Doubles
5th Jose Reyes
7th Hanley Ramirez and J. J. Hardy
9th Edgar Renteria
Triples
1st Jose Reyes
2nd Jimmy Rollins
4th Hanley Ramirez
Homeruns
1st J. J.Hardy
5th Jimmy Rollins
8th Edgar Renteria
RBI
1st J. J. Hardy
3rd Chase Utley
8th Jimmy Rollins
Steals
1st Jose Reyes
4th Hanley Ramirez
6th Jimmy Rollins
Batting Average
4th Hanley Ramirez
6th Jose Reyes
7th Edgar Renteria
9th J. J. Hardy
Total Bases
1st J. J. Hardy
3rd Jimmy Rollins
5th Jose Reyes
9th Hanley Ramirez
Runs Created
1st Jose Reyes
3rd J. J. Hardy
4th Hanley Ramirez
Looking at where they place in the National League you also can't really choose one of these five shortstops based on which one of them is in the top 10 in the most categories because three of them, Jose Reyes, J. J. Hardy and Hanley Ramirez, are in the top 10 in eight different categories. Jimmy Rollins is in the top ten in seven different categories and Edgar Renteria is in five. Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes are also first and second among National League shortstops in fielding too.
If anybody can prove to me why any one of these players is the choice hands down then I'd really like to hear that argument because I don't think any of these guys are that far ahead of all the rest.
It's a shame that one or more of these players are not going to make the All Star game this year because so far all five look like they deserve it. Heck, Albert Pujols, David Wright, Ryan Howard are all having bad seasons I say forget the third basemen, second basemen and first basemen and put shortstops in the entire infield. Who wouldn't want to see a lineup of Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, and J. J. Hardy?
Published by Lee Andrew Henderson - Featured Contributor in Sports
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4 Comments
Post a CommentGood article. I definitely agree that you could make a case for any of the five. Much easier to give the nod to Jeter in the AL with his closest competitors being maybe Peralta, Guillen and Cabrera. I would give the nod to Reyes. I think he's the best player of the bunch, but Hardy is putting up filthy numbers (though he doesn't run). You could also argue that Rollins has fallen off just a BIT in the last month or so...
It sure is fun watching all of the talent at SS in the NL. It certainly was out turn after the A-Rod, Jeter, Nomar, Tejada run in the AL a few years back. And David Wright is doing just fine after the abysmal start.
i read something like this on ESPN recently. can't go against Reyes...its just not possible
Thank You fer your informed opinions. Don't miss my article "Arlington, my memories."