The most obscure MLB All-Stars ever: World War II fill-ins, a shortstop with a 37 OPS+ and ... this year's Rockies rep

The Colorado Rockies, connected gait for the modern grounds for losses successful a play acceptable past twelvemonth by the Chicago White Sox, volition person an All-Star successful catcher Hunter Goodman. Those are the rules, of people -- each squad gets an All-Star representative. Is Goodman 1 of the champion 32 players successful the National League? Probably not, but he's having a bully play and is possibly the second-best catcher of the archetypal fractional successful the NL. And present he'll everlastingly get to telephone himself an All-Star.

According to information astatine Baseball-Reference.com, determination person been 2,227 All-Stars successful MLB history, including those selected to the Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game. That's retired of the 23,521 players who had appeared successful the large leagues arsenic of a fewer days ago. That means astir 10% of each MLB players person been an All-Star.

You mightiness not person heard of galore of them.

Let's excavation into All-Star past and look astatine immoderate of the astir obscure and astonishing All-Star selections.

Frankie Zak: The king of obscure All-Stars

One All-Star stands retired among each others arsenic the unlikeliest All-Star of each time. It's a communicative hard to believe, and it's each true. It happened during World War II, erstwhile the majors were afloat of insignificant leaguers and 4-F players incapable to service successful the military. It provides discourse to Zak, who would play conscionable 123 games successful the majors, deed nary location runs and thrust successful conscionable 14 runs.

Zak was a 22-year-old rookie backup shortstop for the 1944 Pittsburgh Pirates, a squad that featured guys named Babe and Rip and Fritz and Preacher, which tells you this was agelong ago. Zak made the roster retired of outpouring grooming but didn't adjacent commencement a crippled until June 1, filling successful for a slumping Frank Gustine. Zak got 2 hits that day, 2 much the adjacent and 2 much the time after, and helium remained the starting shortstop until the All-Star break, erstwhile helium was hitting .305 with 5 RBIs successful a expansive full of 82 at-bats.

The All-Star Game happened to beryllium successful Pittsburgh that year. The backup shortstop was Eddie Miller of the Cincinnati Reds -- a seven-time All-Star -- but Miller was injured and incapable to be the game. With wartime question restrictions successful place, manager Billy Southworth sought a section replacement, but Pirates infielder Pete Coscarart had gone sportfishing and 3rd baseman Bob Elliott was already connected the team. Zak was successful municipality and enactment connected the roster. As ESPN's Steve Wulf erstwhile wrote: the accidental All-Star.

Alas, starter Marty Marion played the full game, with Zak not appearing successful the contest. He finished the play hitting .300 successful 160 at-bats, played sparingly for the Pirates the adjacent 2 seasons and died of a bosom onslaught astatine property 49 successful 1972.

The astir obscure All-Star starter

Through the years, I person spent untold hours looking astatine All-Star Game container scores, perusing rosters and wondering however immoderate guys got selected. Somehow, I had skipped close past Eddie Kazak -- until past week, erstwhile his sanction popped up. My cognition of shot past is, shall we say, reasonably deep, but I had ne'er heard of him. And Kazak had not lone been an All-Star but started the 1949 contest.

A 28-year-old rookie 3rd baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Kazak had served successful Europe during World War II, spending 18 months successful the infirmary aft his close elbow had been crushed by shrapnel and falling mortar during an artillery onslaught successful France successful July 1944. Doctors considered amputating the limb earlier utilizing pieces of integrative to repair his shattered elbow.

"I was warned to springiness up shot due to the fact that throwing mightiness dislocate the synthetic elbow," Kazak had told the AP.

Kazak reached the majors concisely successful 1948, and with regular 3rd baseman Whitey Kurowski incapable to propulsion due to the fact that of bony chips successful his elbow successful 1949, Kazak got the accidental to play. His archetypal location tally was a expansive slam. At the All-Star break, helium was hitting .302 with 4 location runs and 38 RBIs. The Chicago Tribune ran the instrumentality balloting to elite the starters that twelvemonth and the fans, nary uncertainty appreciating Kazak's warfare leader background, voted him arsenic the starter implicit the much accomplished Elliott (the 1947 NL MVP) and Sid Gordon (.310 with 16 location runs astatine the break).

Kazak went 2-for-2 successful the game, but 2 weeks into the 2nd half, suffered bony chips successful his close ankle sliding into 2nd basal and played sparingly the remainder of the season. He was ne'er again a regular, and his large league vocation was implicit by 1952 with conscionable 218 vocation games, though helium played successful the minors until 1960.

The Eddie Kazak All-Star lineup

In grant of Kazak, let's prime a squad of improbable players who started an All-Star Game astatine each position, though we'll skip implicit anyone from the World War II years, erstwhile the contention was importantly diluted. These guys each had important careers but wouldn't beryllium the benignant of players you subordinate with the rubric of "All-Star starter."

C: John Romano (1961)

Romano started some games successful 1961 (there were 2 games each twelvemonth from 1959 to 1962 to assistance money the players' pension fund), a play successful which helium deed .299/.377/.483 with 21 location runs and 80 RBIs for Cleveland. He was a legit All-Star that twelvemonth and again successful 1962, posting akin powerfulness numbers, but helium had occupation keeping his value down and was retired of the league by 1967.

1B: Justin Smoak (2017)

A first-round prime by the Texas Rangers successful 2008, the Rangers sent him to the Seattle Mariners for Cliff Lee during his rookie play successful 2010. The Mariners waited and waited for Smoak to interruption out; I don't deliberation a archetypal baseman was ever fixed truthful galore sheet appearances with specified mediocre results. They yet waived him, and the Blue Jays signed him. Then, successful 2017, helium enactment unneurotic an All-Star-worthy archetypal half, hitting .294 with 23 location runs. Smoak would decorativeness his vocation with 6.8 WAR successful astir 5,000 sheet appearances -- 3.1 of that coming successful 2017.

2B: Mariano Duncan (1994)

Duncan had a 12-year MLB career, but astir of that was spent arsenic a inferior player, and helium had conscionable 3 seasons with 500 sheet appearances. In 1994, Duncan did commencement regularly astatine 3 infield positions for the Phillies, who were coming disconnected a World Series quality successful 1993, and Phillies fans stuffed the ballot container to elite him contempt mediocre numbers. Duncan was hitting .265 with a .712 OPS astatine the break, getting the starting motion implicit aboriginal Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who was hitting .320 with an .894 OPS.

3B: Eddie Kazak (1949)

Obviously, Kazak gets the motion here. But an honorable notation goes to Ken Reitz, who started the 1980 All-Star Game for the NL implicit the injured Mike Schmidt. Reitz had implicit 5,000 vocation sheet appearances, but finished with minus-3.2 vocation WAR, making him 1 of 11 All-Star presumption players who finished their careers with antagonistic WAR.

SS: Orlando Arcia (2023)

This happened conscionable 2 years ago, and portion Arcia has been astir since 2016, he's the slightest accomplished shortstop to ever commencement an All-Star Game, with conscionable 4.2 vocation WAR and a vocation OPS+ of 77. He did deed good successful the archetypal fractional of 2023 for the Atlanta Braves, though cheque retired these first-half stats from that year:

Arcia: .294/.345/.424, 7 HR, 28 RBI
Francisco Lindor: .239/.320/.478, 19 HR, 60 RBI

Lindor didn't adjacent marque the team.

LF: Iván Calderón (1991)

We could spell with a mates of caller NL starters present -- Jurickson Profar past twelvemonth oregon Jesse Winker successful 2021 -- but Calderon is simply a amusive blast from the past. A talented imaginable for the Mariners, Seattle traded him aft manager Dick Williams caught him eating a sandwich during a game. He made his lone All-Star quality with the Montreal Expos, hitting .309 with 9 location runs and 49 RBIs astatine the interruption (solid numbers for that era), and drew the commencement with Darryl Strawberry injured.

CF: Kosuke Fukudome (2008)

You mightiness retrieve the name, but you astir apt don't retrieve that Fukudome started arsenic a rookie successful 2008. A 31-year-old seasoned from Japan erstwhile helium signed with the Chicago Cubs, Fukudome had a batch of hype entering the play and was OK but hardly large successful the archetypal fractional -- .279/.383/.408, 7 location runs. He got elected to start, and portion helium was chiefly a close fielder, helium drew the duty successful halfway tract implicit the adjacent little defensively-inclined Ryan Braun and Matt Holliday. Fukudome slumped successful the 2nd fractional and ended the play with conscionable 0.6 WAR.

RF: Pat Mullin (1948)

If we went strictly by lowest vocation WAR, the reply present would beryllium Don Mueller (1955) oregon Dante Bichette (1996), some of whom finished with less than 5 vocation WAR (Bichette, acknowledgment to his Coors Field-inflated numbers, made 4 All-Star teams). Mullin was a two-time All-Star successful 1947 and '48, the lone 2 seasons helium was a regular successful the majors. He was a coagulated platoon hitter who finished with 10.4 vocation WAR, missing 4 premier seasons portion serving successful the war.

DH: Corey Dickerson (2017)

Dickerson was your classical journeyman-type outfielder who played 11 seasons successful the majors. Alongside his teammate Smoak with the Blue Jays, helium had a large archetypal fractional successful 2017, hitting .312 with 17 location runs.

SP: Dave Stenhouse (1962)

A rookie for the woeful Washington Senators, Stenhouse was 10-4 with a 2.73 ERA erstwhile helium started the 2nd All-Star Game that play connected July 30 (there were 2 All-Star Games held successful each play from 1959 to 1962, successful bid to summation the wealth going to the players' pension fund). I had ever wondered wherefore Stenhouse drew the commencement since helium finished the play 11-12 with a 3.65 ERA, but helium had bully stats astatine the time. It's besides wide that this agelong astir apt ruined his career. Heading into the All-Star Game, helium had starts of 10 innings, seven, nine, 9 and nine, with 1 alleviation outing thrown successful arsenic well. On July 27, helium faced 43 batters, throwing an estimated 160 pitches. Then helium pitched 2 innings successful the All-Star Game. Two days later, helium threw 10 innings again.

He was ne'er the same. He had a 5.54 ERA implicit the last 2 months, past battled injuries the adjacent 2 seasons, finishing his vocation with a 16-28 record.

The anonymous All-Star lineup

The players supra mightiness person been astonishing starters, but astatine slightest they had coagulated and agelong careers. It does marque you wonderment astir what the percent is of players who person a 10-year vocation and besides marque an All-Star team. There's a bully accidental that if you're bully capable to past that long, you were bully capable astatine immoderate constituent to person a half-season determination on the mode that makes you an All-Star.

Here's a antithetic benignant of lineup -- and yes, these guys were, successful fact, each All-Stars. Let's telephone them, umm, a much anonymous database of All-Stars.

C: Steve Swisher (1976)

The begetter of 2010 All-Star Nick Swisher, Steve was a Cubs catcher who would person a .216 vocation batting mean successful nether 1,600 sheet appearances and decorativeness with minus-1.9 vocation WAR. He deed .268 with 3 location runs successful the archetypal fractional of 1976 -- and for immoderate crushed was selected arsenic the Cubs' typical implicit Bill Madlock (who won the batting rubric that twelvemonth and was eighth successful the NL successful OPS astatine the All-Star break) oregon Rick Monday (who had 15 location runs and was ninth successful OPS).

1B: Bryan LaHair (2012)

This is 1 of the champion All-Star stories ever. LaHair was a 29-year-old insignificant league journeyman who got a accidental to play for the Cubs successful 2012 during their rebuilding phase. He deed .390 successful April, and the players voted him arsenic the backup astatine archetypal base. He tailed disconnected from there, didn't play overmuch successful the 2nd fractional and signed to play successful Japan successful 2013, ne'er playing again successful the majors. With 599 vocation sheet appearances successful the majors, helium has the fourth-fewest sheet appearances of immoderate presumption subordinate All-Star (behind our antheral Frankie Zak, past year's All-Star David Fry and a catcher named Don Leppert).

2B: Mike Sharperson (1992)

Yes, determination was a clip erstwhile the Los Angeles Dodgers were atrocious and irrelevant. That twelvemonth was 1992: They mislaid 99 games, and their All-Star rep was a 30-year-old backup infielder. Sharperson had started lone 48 games successful the archetypal fractional but was hitting .328 with a .424 OBP. He fell disconnected successful the 2nd fractional and by 1994 was backmost successful the minors (before tragically dying successful a car clang successful 1996).

3B: Don Wert (1968)

OK, 1968 was the Year of the Pitcher, and Wert's Detroit Tigers would spell connected to triumph the World Series, but Wert was hitting .220 with 7 location runs and 19 RBIs astatine the All-Star interruption -- anemic numbers adjacent by 1968 standards. However, helium someway got the backup motion down Brooks Robinson implicit Sal Bando oregon Ken McMullen. Wert finished his All-Star play hitting .200 with a .258 OBP and 37 RBIs, making his enactment look adjacent much dubious.

SS: Billy Hunter (1953)

The worst hitter to ever marque an All-Star team? By vocation OPS+, it's Hunter, who was worse adjacent than Swisher with a vocation OPS+ of 53 successful conscionable implicit 2,000 vocation sheet appearances. He made the All-Star squad arsenic a rookie with the St. Louis Browns successful 1953 -- and wasn't adjacent their lone rep, arsenic Satchel Paige besides made it. How did Hunter marque it erstwhile helium finished the twelvemonth hitting .219/.253/.259 with 1 location tally for an OPS+ of 37? He was a antiaircraft whiz (he would pb the AL successful antiaircraft WAR that year) but helium was besides hitting .307 successful aboriginal June. He didn't bat successful the crippled but did pinch tally for Mickey Mantle.

OF: Myril Hoag (1939)

By vocation WAR, Hoag is the worst subordinate ever to marque an All-Star team. Primarily a backup outfielder successful a 13-year career, Hoag finished with minus-4.6 vocation WAR, with an OPS+ of 83. He made the AL squad with the Browns successful 1939, hitting .319 successful the archetypal half. Here's the much astonishing portion of this communicative though: In 1936, portion with the Yankees, Hoag collided with Joe DiMaggio successful the outfield. Both players were knocked unconscious, but Hoag played the adjacent day. Two days later, however, helium suffered a humor clot connected the encephalon and was rushed into exigency surgery, missing the remainder of the season. He returned to go an All-Star 3 years later.

OF: Domonic Brown (2013)

Brown was a heralded Philadelphia Phillies imaginable -- Baseball America's No. 4 wide imaginable entering the 2011 play -- who was 1 of the worst antiaircraft outfielders I've ever seen. He ne'er deed overmuch either, but for 2 months successful 2013, erstwhile helium deed .290 with 18 location runs successful May and June, earning All-Star honors. Two years later, helium was retired of the majors.

OF: Richie Scheinblum (1972)

A 29-year-old journeyman with small clip successful the majors erstwhile the Kansas City Royals acquired him successful 1972, Scheinblum parlayed his 1 play arsenic a regular into an All-Star quality portion astir winning a batting title, starring the AL for overmuch of the play earlier finishing sixth with a .300 average. He didn't person overmuch powerfulness and was a mediocre antiaircraft outfielder, however. Kansas City traded him successful the offseason (for Royals fable Hal McRae) and helium was retired of the league wrong 2 years.

DH: Daniel Vogelbach (2019)

The 2019 Mariners were not a bully squad -- they mislaid 94 games -- but did person 9 different players who made an All-Star squad astatine immoderate constituent successful their career. Their selection, however, was their lovable DH, who was hitting .238 with 21 location runs astatine the interruption earlier slumping to .162 with 9 location runs successful the 2nd half.

SP: Mark Redman (2006)

There is nary shortage of candidates for the pitcher slot, but Redman holds the grant arsenic the starting pitcher who finished his All-Star play with the highest ERA -- 5.71. But possibly helium had a bully archetypal half? Nope. Pitching for the Royals, Redman was 6-4 with a 5.19 ERA, with adjacent totals of walks and strikeouts (32). The Royals, you won't beryllium shocked to learn, mislaid 100 games that year.

RP: Derrick Turnbow (2006)

What was successful the aerial successful 2006? Turnbow holds the people for lowest WAR successful an All-Star play astatine minus-2.4. He had a lights-out twelvemonth arsenic the Milwaukee Brewers' person successful 2005, posting a 1.74 ERA with 39 saves, but helium didn't marque the All-Star squad that season. He made it successful 2006, erstwhile helium would decorativeness 4-9 with a 6.87 ERA and 24 saves. To beryllium fair, helium was a small amended successful the archetypal fractional with a 4.74 ERA, but it was inactive a unusual selection. Honorable notation goes to Mike Williams of the 2003 Pirates, who made the All-Star squad contempt a first-half ERA of 6.44 (he did someway person 25 saves).

The different accidental All-Star

Alfredo Griffin had a agelong vocation arsenic a antiaircraft specialist, playing 18 seasons and serving arsenic the superior shortstop connected the 1988 World Series champion Dodgers adjacent though helium deed conscionable .199 that season. He ran the bases arsenic aggressively arsenic a rabid rhino, 1 play getting thrown retired 8 times astatine location sheet and 7 times astatine 3rd base. Despite a lowly vocation WAR of conscionable 3.0, helium besides erstwhile made an All-Star team.

Here's the story. In 1984, Griffin's Blue Jays teammate Damaso Garcia made the All-Star team. Players were allowed to bring 1 impermanent astatine MLB's expense, and erstwhile Garcia's woman couldn't marque it, helium invited his double-play partner. Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell came up with a sore limb connected the time of the All-Star Game, however, and since Griffin conscionable happened to beryllium successful town, manager Joe Altobelli added Griffin to the roster. He adjacent got into the game, making 1 play successful the tract but not batting.

Here's the kicker: Griffin finished the play hitting .241/.248/.298 (he drew conscionable 4 walks successful 140 games) with minus-1.5 WAR, nary uncertainty putting him astatine the apical of the database for worst All-Star play ever. Only 1 different presumption subordinate finished with a little WAR successful his All-Star play and it was a overmuch much accomplished player: Reggie Jackson was an All-Star successful 1983, a play helium deed .198 with minus-1.8 WAR.