It's hard to believe Brian Giles was just a two-time All-Star

I agree. It's also hard to believe he's 39 already.

That’s Brian Giles, not Marcus, Warren, or the other Brian Giles

Don't forget Bill the "Honorary President of the National League."

I thought they were looking for a librarian.

Limited to 61 games in 2009, Giles hit .191 with two homers and 23 RBIs.

That sentence needs a healthy sprinkling of "just" "only" and "holy Jeebus!".

That sentence needs a healthy sprinkling of "just" "only" and "holy Jeebus!".

In addition to starting it with "mercifully".

If it means that Mientkiewicz doesn't make the team and Giles is the primary ph, I'm fine with that. Even more so if he could play first base. Even though both Loney and he bats lh, 6 or so games a year at first to rest Loney would be fine, as well as some of the rest days for Manny, also.

Trivia time. Despite hitting .313/.403/.577 for the Pirates in the first half of 1999 (he would go on to finish the season at .315/.418/.614), Brian Giles was not named to the All-Star team. The Pirates lone representative that year hit .300/.402/.545 in the first half, earning his only All-Star appearance, and then tanked to the tune of .220/.270/.350 in the second half.

Who was that guy?

Who was that guy?

Kevin Young?

Edit: Nope, that's wrong. I wouldn't have guessed the right answer in a million guesses.

Pat Meares, right?

EDIT: Jesus, where did I get that idea? I'm now trying to figure out exactly which association tripped me along that path.

I know, so it's not really fair for me to say.

Definitely not a guy you'd casually guess.

Must resist looking at B-Ref...must resist...

Okay I looked...I might have gotten it by guess 984,752, but I doubt it.

Warren Morris?

Edit: Wow, really? Him? (Not WM, by the way)

Wasn't it his only season with Pittsburgh?

I do know that he once hit 36 homers, but not in 1999.

As soon as I looked at the 99 roster, I knew who it was.

That team must have been eating steroids 24 hours a day -- Giles, Martin, Young and Kendall (!) all slugged over 500.

And here's something I never would have guessed -- Brant Brown's career ISO is nearly 200. I remember him as a line-drive/gap hitter. Instead he was a 2TO hitter who only needed to figure out how to walk more (which would have made him cromulent).

I guessed Jay Bell. He did have a monster year in 1999 and made the All-Star Team, but I had forgotten he was already on Arizona by then.

Having now looked up the real answer, I would never have gotten it.

The '99 All-Star in question is one of the many reasons we fans of Chipper Jones are like, "oh f*ck you."

Speaking of Chipper Jones, those 6 All-star appearances are going to weigh against him when he tries to get into the Hall of Fame.

Also, how the #### do you win a MVP in the same year you don't make it to the all star game?

I never would've guessed, either, especially since I didn't know he was even on the Pirates.

Ed Sprague.

Mostly luck, since his original team was the team I followed, but I guessed him before even seeing the roster.

Operation Shutdown?

I knew it was either Ed Sprague or Pat Meares. Both of them are synonymous with "Horrible decisions by the pre-Littlefield Pirates" in my book.

Also, how the #### do you win a MVP in the same year you don't make it to the all star game?

The term you're looking for is "idiots." Chipper hit .313/.422/.589 (1.011) in the first half. Compare that to our Mystery Pirate's .300/.402/.545 (.947). Now, Matt Williams was posting a first-half .279/.325/.510 (.835) and no one was adjusting for his hitting in the BOB, plus he was a great defender back with San Francisco and those cute little upstart Diamondbacks were winning so soon after inception! So Matt Williams gets voted in, because people are complete frikkin' morons.

Now you're left with reserves spots. Mark McGwire is the starting 1B and you have to get Jeff Bagwell in there somehow, so there's a roster spot gone. And everybody and their f*cking mother was still sucking on Sean Casey's junk so there's another down. And you apparently need three bloody catchers, so Mike Lieberthal AND Dave Nillson are on the list, even though you've already got Jeromy Burnitz and Curt Schilling representing those teams. And even though Tony Gwynn gets in on the "well, he was great in the 80s" ballot somebody thinks you need to carry Phil F*cking Nevin as well, and that's not just a reserve spot but a 3B spot too. And then you get to the point where you have to get someone from the sad sack Pirates on, and Brian Jordan had that big year in '98 and was a mediot favorite free agent and that Giles guy couldn't even start for the Indians, so what are you going to do?

The short answer, for the record, is that Chipper won the MVP in the second half, where he increased his 1.011 OPS to 1.157. He hit .328/.464/.693(!) down the stretch, and he single handedly destroyed the Mets that year.

Also, how the #### do you win a MVP in the same year you don't make it to the all star game?

Because the all-star game and its voting are incredibly stupid, always have been, and should not be given any attention when considering merit for the HOF.

See: Ed Sprague.

Speaking of Chipper Jones, those 6 All-star appearances are going to weigh against him when he tries to get into the Hall of Fame.

Jones is going to have an easy time getting into the HOF. He'll be a no-doubt first balloter if last year wasn't the beginning of the end. Even if it is, he'll get in within the first 3 or 4 years. He is going to approach 500 homers and 3000 hits. That's a pretty exclusive club.

Now, Matt Williams was posting a first-half .279/.325/.510 (.835) and no one was adjusting for his hitting in the BOB, plus he was a great defender back with San Francisco and those cute little upstart Diamondbacks were winning so soon after inception!

He also had 82 RBIs at the break, which did it probably more than anything else.

He also had 82 RBIs at the break, which did it probably more than anything else.

Yeah, I get that. I can forgive Williams. I will never forgive Sprague and Phil Nevin. Or Dave Nillson. Or Brian Jordan.

You can't get mad at Nilsson: he was .311/.385/.602 in 290 PA as a catcher at the break. Besides, how can you hate a guy who set important MLB records like player with most incidences of Ross River Fever?

Kendall (!)...slugged over 500.

Before Kendall tore the tendon in his thumb and irreparably ###### his hand up by playing hurt all year, he actually had very good power for a catcher.

For the first five years of his career (i.e. the pre-tendon bit), offensively he was basically a Joe Mauer clone.

While we're talking about Kendall, I should add that His ankle injury is pretty much what precipitated Larry being left off the All-Star roster in '99. He was going to be the NL's second catcher and the Pirates' mandatory rep, and then he put a foot down wrong and dislocated the ankle (so badly the bone stuck out through the skin without breaking - all the day-after newspaper reports had it wrong, because nobody imagined an ankle could do that), and they had to go to Plan B.

Larry Jones should've gone to a couple more All-Star games than he did, but he can start complaining when his own personal screw-job reaches the level of Brian Giles's. Which might happen if he plays for another dozen years or so.

Nilsson deserves to have one of those red-white-blue banners across his B-R page. So that posterity knows he was a player worth watching, even though posterity has forgotten him, when posterity is browsing the intertubes at 3 am.

Nilsson deserves to have one of those red-white-blue banners across his B-R page. So that posterity knows he was a player worth watching, even though posterity has forgotten him, when posterity is browsing the intertubes at 3 am.

Also the rare player to have his sole All-Star appearance in his final season.

Also, how the #### do you win a MVP in the same year you don't make it to the all star game?

I posed a question in a thread like this a while ago, and I got one response:

Can you name a player who won an MVP but was never an All-Star?

(Note: I only know one answer to this question, but better-informed people have more.)

Kirk Gibson

Yeah, that's the one I know.

He is going to approach 500 homers and 3000 hits. That's a pretty exclusive club.

Or it was, until Raffy Palmeiro snuck in.

In 1988, the year Gibson won the MVP in the NL, 5 guys slugged over .500. In 1999, the Pirates, a mediocre team, had 3 guys do so and that doesn't even include Kendall.

The 3000/500 club is still pretty damned exclusive even with Raffy. There are only 4 guys who have ever done that and I thought there were a few more than that.

It's hard to believe Brian Giles was just a two-time All-Star

For me, it's even harder to believe Carlos Delgado was just a two-time All-Star. What Giles averaged over four years Delgado did for twelve.

Nice trivia, flournoy. First thought was "bad Pirate All-Stars...Carlos Garcia!" (but quickly realized he was earlier. And he could never have posted 300/.402/.545 over a long weekend, let alone a half season)

Didn't Nilsson leave the majors (after a .309/.400/.554 season) so he could be eligible for the Australian Olympic team? And he tried to come back with the Red Sox in 2001 or 2002, signed a contract, only to have it voided because of a failed physical. (As I recall, Gammons insinuated that was ########)

need any more evidence that the all-star game is completely meaningless?

I've never understood how a hot 2 months entitles you to play in the game.

Also, how the #### do you win a MVP in the same year you don't make it to the all star game?

It happens a lot more often than one would think.

Jimmy Rollins 2007
Justin Morneau 2006
Jones
Terry Pendleton 1991
Robin Yount 1989
Gibson
Willie Stargell 1979