MLB All-Star Game: Each team’s worst All-Star selections ever
San Francisco Giants – Rod Beck (1994)
Relievers are always sort of a funny commodity to put real value toward and for the most part, WAR (Wins Above Replacement) isn’t generally very nice to them. Perhaps that is because most statisticians don’t think very highly of the save. Meanwhile, Major League managers love them.
Such was the case with the 1994 All-Star Game, which makes its second appearance on this list. Jim Fregosi, who managed the National League squad and was perhaps still steaming from Mitch Williams’ home run in the 1993 World Series, apparently felt he needed to carry four closes on his All-Star team, including Rod Beck of the San Francisco Giants.
Now, Beck enjoyed a solid season, saving 28 games against a 2.77 ERA before the strike cancelled the end of the year. However, his FIP was nearly two and half runs higher at 5.00 and Beck finished the season with a -0.4 WAR. To put that into contrast, Beck ranked 64th in the National League in that category among relief pitchers before the All-Star break.
Meanwhile, Fregosi completely skipped over arms like Greg McMichael, Trevor Hoffman, John Wetteland, and even his own set-up man, Heathcliff Slocumb, who all ranked within the top four in in the first half.
Now, the strategy payed off for the N.L., as they came back to win the game 8-7 and Beck threw a solid 1.2 innings of relief, followed by Randy Myers and Doug Jones. So maybe it was all just part of the plan…or it was the mustache.
Next: Seattle Mariners - Shigetoshi Hasegawa (2002)