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Clay Buchholz has a miss percentage against his changeup of 47.1 (81/172), well above the league average of 31 percent.

Before the All-Star break, Marlon Byrd was hitting .387 (75/194) off the fastball and .290 (18/62) on the slider; after the All-Star break he is hitting .340 (16/47) off the fastball and .154 (2/13) off the slider. Since the All-Star break he is hitting .333 (3/9) on the curveball, compared to .258 (8/31) before the break.

Juan Pierre hit .478 (11/23) against LHP during his 16-game hit streak which ended on Tuesday.

Opponents are hitting .121 against Jered Weaver's changeup (league average: .258) and his strike percentage is 75 percent (league average: 62 percent). For his career, opponents are hitting .177 against his changeup with Weaver throwing the pitch for a strike 54 percent of the time. The Kansas City Royals are hitting just .136 (league average: .258) vs. the changeup this season.

Opponents are hitting .242 (24-99) against Chad Billingsley's curveball in 2010, up from .154 in 2009. Matt Kemp's slugging percentage when ahead in the count is .719 (69/96) (league average: .585).

David Wright is hitting .376 (35-93) vs. lefties this season (league average: .261).

Javier Vazquez is allowing an average of just .086 (3-35) since June 1 against his curveball. Prior to June 1, batters were hitting .333 (12-36) against the pitch.

The Texas Rangers are batting .257 vs sliders, and slugging .368. Opponents are hitting .321 vs. Javier Vazquez's slider, with a slugging percentage of .604.

It's that time of year again: the time for hand-wringing about the way Major League Baseball selects its All-Star position players. Is there a way beyond all the gnashing of teeth about the alleged silliness of fan voting, stuffing the (virtual) ballot box, and so on? Maybe not. But there are more objective methods of measuring overall player value available to the public than in the past. Bloggers have come up with some ingenious suggestions for using multiple seasons or even full-blown projections to generate “true talent” All-Star teams, but let's take a more simple approach using FanGraphs' implementation of Wins Above Replacement to see what players have been the most valuable at each position in the league so far this season (as of June 22).


Joe Mauer is having a good season (if slightly disappointing for him) and just barely squeaks ahead of Victor Martinez. Mauer's teammate Justin Morneau, on the other hand, is having a season even Albert Pujols would be proud of. Robinson Cano is stepping out from the shadows of more celebrated Yankees by having a dominant season at the plate and being above average in the field. Marco Scutaro is having a well-rounded season at shortstop, even if his presence is also a testimony to the relative weakness at that position in the American League this season.

This is about what we've come to expect from Evan Longoria, and given that he is only partially through his third season, that we have such high expectations for him says as much about him as any other superlatives. Fellow Ray Carl Crawford is having a good year even by his lofty standards, and Alex Rios, coming off a disastrous 2009, looks like one of the best outfielders in baseball. Two Rangers round out the All-WAR AL All-Stars: Josh Hamilton is the third outfielder mostly on the strength of his recent offensive outburst, and Vladimir Guerrero still has enough left in the tank to outhit the rest of the primary DHs in the AL.

There isn't as much competition among the NL catchers, and Brian McCann is clearly the class of that group this season. Adrian Gonzalez, not surprisingly, is a major part of the Padres' current revival. Chase Utley is having a down season relative to his usual standard, but it's more than enough to be the best second baseman in the National League. Troy Tulowitzki is currently leading all NL shortstops but is also out for a couple of months, and Hanley Ramirez is right behind him at 2.2 WAR. Ryan Zimmerman is having another excellent year behind the veil of Strasburg mania. Marlon Byrd is playing less like the stopgap everyone thought he would and more like, well, an All-Star. Matt Holliday is the second best outfielder so far in the National League; despite not really having heated up with the bat yet, UZR is impressed with his glovework (in a small sample size).

The big surprise on the WAR leaderboards is the Giants' Andres Torres, a capable player, but not someone one would have seen as an All-Star before this season, in which he has played well on both sides of the ball. There aren't any “primary DHs” in the National League, of course, but Albert Pujols has been the most valuable hitter in the National League other than Gonzalez so far, and really, it would be laughable to have an All-Star Game without the best player in baseball, wouldn't it?

Matt Klaassen is a writer for FanGraphs.

Quick Hits: Here’s a look at some players who are crushing fastballs this season [source: Inside Edge]:

* Marlon Byrd is hitting .422 off fastballs this season, tops in the majors among players with at least 50 at-bats.

* Jose Bautista, Paul Konerko and Kelly Johnson are tied for the MLB lead with 9 HR off fastballs this season.

* Chase Utley leads the majors with a well-hit average of .450 against fastballs

* John Buck leads the majors with a 1.298 OPS vs fastballs

* Juan Pierre has swung and missed on just 2.6 percent of fastballs he has offered at this season.

* Travis Hafner is batting .545 (6-11) off fastballs 95 mph or faster.

* Shane Victorino leads the majors with four HR off fastballs 93 mph or faster.

Today’s Trivia: Today is the six-year anniversary of Randy Johnson’s perfect game. Can you name the only player other than Johnson to throw a perfect game while wearing No. 51?

Today’s Leaderboard: Sticking with the fastball theme, here are the leaders, according to Inside Edge, in slugging percentage vs fastballs 93 miles per hour or faster. Thanks to his league-leading four home runs, Victorino also leads in slugging percentage.

Key Matchups: Miguel Tejada is one of the few hitters who have Zack Greinke figured out. In his career against Greinke, Tejada is 5-9 with a home run.

It’s doubtful that anyone on the Red Sox is looking forward to facing CC Sabathia tonight, but two guys should be particularly uneasy about tonight’s matchup. Dustin Pedroia is batting .053 (1-19) in his career against Sabathia. Adrian Beltre hasn’t been much better, posting a .063 average (1-16).

Trivia Answer: Dallas Braden

Today’s Trivia: Derek Lowe and Kevin Millwood are both scheduled to start on Tuesday, but that’s not the only thing they have in common. Both pitchers have thrown a no-hitter on April 27 before; Lowe in 2002 and Millwood the following year. In fact, there have been six no-hitters on April 27, tied with September 20 for the most on a particular date.

On the subject of no-hitters: Who are the three active pitchers with multiple one-hit shutouts to their credit, but no no-hitters?

Quick Hits: With some data to work with after three weeks of action, some interesting lefty-righty split trends have emerged:

* In 2008, Andruw Jones hit .178 against lefties. Last season, it trickled up to .218. So far in 2010, Jones is hitting .400 against southpaws and already has four home runs, most in the majors and equaling last season’s total.

* A career .308 hitter against lefties, Xavier Nady was brought in to provide some punch to a Cubs offense that hit only 25 home runs against lefties all last season, which was seven fewer than any other team. So far, Nady is 3-for-20 (.150) against lefties.

* Meanwhile, Marlon Byrd is 17-for-28 (.607) with a league-leading seven doubles against lefties.

* Matt LaPorta is 0-for-18 against southpaws, and hitting .294 against righties.

* In 2008, Garrett Atkins had a 1.014 OPS against lefties. This season, he’s 0-17 against lefties and hitting .310 against right-handed pitchers.

* After a 5-for-25 start, Ryan Howard is now hitting .206 against lefties since the start of 2009.

* Chone Figgins is a mere 3-for-39 against righties, a year after he hit .323 against them. Yet, only four players have more walks against righties.

* The Padres are hitting an MLB-worst .185 against lefties, and have only managed six extra-base hits.

* The Royals are hitting an MLB-best .333 against lefties, yet have done so with only seven extra-base hits.

* The Dodgers and Mariners have only managed one home run against a lefty. The Dodgers, who have 19 homers off of righties, have gone 87 at-bats without taking a southpaw deep.

* The Blue Jays’ 26 home runs against righties are the most in baseball, but they only have a pair against lefties.

Today’s Leaderboard: Colby Rasmus has the league’s highest OPS against righties (1.480), but is 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts against lefties.

Key Matchups: Jamie Moyer is just 1-3 all-time when pitching in San Francisco. That one win came on July 16, 1987 –- almost 23 years ago – in Moyer’s first full season in the big leagues. Pitching for the Cubs, Moyer had a pair of Hall of Famers behind him in Andre Dawson and Ryne Sandberg. Bruce Bochy, Moyer’s opposing manager tonight, was still an active player. But the most startling note comes from Baseball Tonight researcher Mark Simon: Pablo Sandoval was just 11 months old on that date. This will be the first time Sandoval and Moyer face one another.

If Derek Lowe wants to celebrate the eighth anniversary of his no-hitter in style, he’ll have to do something about Matt Holliday first. Holliday has a .563 career average against Lowe. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s the highest average in any batter-pitcher matchup among active National League players (minimum 30 AB). However, that includes a .650 batting average when playing in Colorado. Away from Coors, Holliday is a mere .417 hitter against Lowe.

Trivia Answer: Tim Hudson, Kerry Wood and Chris Carpenter all have pitched two one-hit shutouts, but never a no-hitter. (Pedro Martinez and Jason Schmidt would also qualify if on a roster). Interestingly, Carpenter gets the start tonight against Derek Lowe.

In the 5th inning Saturday night, Jeremy Hermida and Jason Varitek hit back-to-back home runs off Royals ace Zack Greinke.

The fact that Greinke allowed back-to-back home runs is actually nothing new, he’s done that four times previously including a back-to-back-to-back occurrence in 2004 against the Mariners (Miguel Olivo/Jose Lopez/Hiram Bocachica). But there are some interesting notes about tonight’s dingers allowed by Greinke.

It was the 17th time that Greinke allowed multiple home runs in a game, but just the 4th time he’s done so in his 73 starts at Kauffman Stadium. In fact, Greinke had gone 36 straight starts in Kauffman since he last allowed more than one in a game. It was the longest such streak by a Royals starter since Mark Gubicza went 48 straight starts from 1990 to 1995.

Perhaps the most interesting nugget off the back-to-back shots, however, comes from Stats and Info’s Doug Kern who points out that both home runs came off Greinke’s curveball. Last season, only three players had homered off Greinke’s curve – Gordon Beckham, Marlon Byrd and Adam Jones.

While the low home run total off the curve is impressive, perhaps it's nothing more than dumb luck. Over the past three seasons opponents are hitting .276 off Greinke’s curve with an OPS of .714. Both those numbers are well above the league average of .222 and .601.