FNFT All-Star Team

I had fun with this.

(Although I acknowledge it will probably be March before most of you read it.)

As Major League Baseball was handing out its awards, I wondered what it would be like if there were player awards for FNFT - an FNFT All-Star team if you will.  There's really not much new here.  Every year I post the list of points scored in FNFT games by every player who was on a roster.  But I've never put them together in the form of a team.  Until now.  The FNFT All-Star team will be the top scoring player(s) at each position.

To be fair and balanced - which I am want to do - I decided the FNFT All-Star team would consist of 16 players.  There will be eight pitchers (5 starters and 3 relievers) and eight hitters (on at each field position with three outfielders).  This is very much like an FNFT starting lineup on a given week.  I left off a DH because we really don't use a traditional DH.  We allow anyone to fill that spot.  If an actual DH, like David Ortiz, were among the top scorers, I would use subjective judgement as to where to put him.

Here are the FNFT All-Star teams for each year going back to 2000 - the "modern era" of FNFT - the first year for which I have complete data.

This year's All-Star team boasts a record 13 first-time All-Stars.  The only returning players are Roy Halliday and Matt Kemp, each appearing on their second All-Star team, and reliever Jonathan Papelbon who is on the All-Star team for the fifth time.  This is just one short of Curt Shilling's record six.  Perhaps you'd want to consider that little fact when you vote for the FNFT Hall of Fame this spring.

Anyway, peruse away.  My right thumb, which if you don't know, I smashed in a log splitter a few weeks ago, is still too sore to allow me to type my typical manefesto.

UPDATE:  There's one little point I wanted to add.  If you'll notice, the top 3 scoring players in 2011 were all starting pitchers.  That was the case in 2010 too - as was it in 2009 and 2008.  For four years in a row we haven't had a hitter in the top three.  Last year the top five scoring players were starting pitchers.  The year before that the top six were.  The steroids era has ended.  Hitters are not scoring as many points as they used to.  We should adjust for that the way we did for relief pitchers a couple of years ago.  Something like adding one extra point for a home run would probably work.  In fact, that's what we did pre-steroids.  I'll play with the numbers and make a recommendation.