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Navarro, Kazmir Top All-Star Candidates

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - It stands to reason that the best first half in Rays history would open the door for Tampa Bay to garner more than the minimum level of representation at the All-Star Game.

But of course, reason and All-Star selections rarely go hand in hand, so it's anybody's guess right now when it comes to determining who and how many from the Rays' clubhouse get the call when rosters are unveiled July 6.

It probably isn't coincidental that the Rays are playing better than ever and reaching previously unseen heights in the standings without any one player posting the kind of eye-popping statistics that usually compel All-Star status.

But now that they're finally at a point where they can justify multiple selections for the second time in franchise history (Jose Canseco and Roberto Hernandez, 1999), it's difficult to pick out any one, two or three players whose numbers demand inclusion.

With that in mind, Rays Beat on Friday embarked upon its Second Annual All-Star Survey. The question posed to 20 Rays was, if you had to pick only one player who deserves to represent the team in the All-Star Game, who would it be?

The one-player limit led to much grousing among the respondents, but in the end all were browbeaten into a single answer. Three players received votes, with Dioner Navarro (10) edging out Scott Kazmir (nine) and B.J. Upton getting the other nod. Deserving candidates all, but none a dead-solid lock.

Navarro's numbers are very good, with a .335 average through Friday's game complemented by an .822 OPS (on-base plus slugging) and only 18 strikeouts in 157 at-bats.

His average would lead AL catchers (and the league overall) and his OPS would be second to Minnesota's Joe Mauer if he had enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title. Then again, only five AL catchers do qualify, and fan voting leader Jason Varitek (.257 average, .764 OPS) isn't one of them.

Like Navarro, the only real knock on Kazmir's case is that he hasn't had as much exposure as his peers. Missing the first month of the season has allowed him to accumulate only eight appearances this year while other starters have racked up 13 or 14.

Nonetheless, it's impossible to ignore Kazmir's 1.74 ERA, and among AL starters, only Rich Harden (11.03) and Josh Beckett (9.46) top Kazmir's rate of 9.41 strikeouts per nine innings.

As for Upton, the number that really jumps out is his stolen base total of 20, which ranks third among AL outfielders. The two ahead of him are Jacoby Ellsbury and Ichiro Suzuki, but they don't have the run-production dimension Upton provides, combining for 39 RBIs between them while Upton has 38.

ESPN.com's Tim Kurkjian made his All-Star selections this week and included both Kazmir and Upton - both of whom also have the advantage of name recognition to casual fans around the game, unlike Navarro.

But those in the Rays' clubhouse are going with Navarro in completely unscientific polling, and it's difficult to argue with them.

Except to mention that the player who ended up getting the All-Star nod last year, Carl Crawford, finished third in the Rays Beat survey behind Al Reyes and James Shields.

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