Midseason MLB All-Stars for both the American League and National League

In a low-profile MLB move earlier this week, the Toronto Blue Jays picked up struggling power hitter Daniel Vogelbach from the Seattle Mariners for some cash. The cost was cheap, as Seattle had designated Vogelbach for assignment and clearly was looking to move on. And you can understand why: Since the end of last April, Vogelbach has hit .178, he's already 27 and doesn't defend. They were done waiting on Vogelbach to develop into a consistent take-and-rake producer.

Here's a fun fact about Vogelbach: At the end of April 2019, he ranked sixth in the American League by the FanGraphs version of WAR. He was hitting .310/.462/.732 and led the AL with a 208 wRC+. Anyone picking a 2019 All-Star Game based on those numbers would have put Vogelbach on it.

As we hit the halfway point of the weird and unprecedented 2020 season, it's only natural to take a snapshot of the proceedings to date. After all, we're 50% finished, right? True but, then again, we've played a month, which, in 2020, is a half-season. Very, very strange. But as we proceed on to picking midseason All-Star teams for each league, bear in mind the Vogey saga. It has only been a month.

That doesn't have to be a bad thing when it comes to something harmless like picking All-Star teams. Invariably, some new names are going to bubble to the surface and since there are no real consequences to this exercise, it's kind of fun to shine a light on some of these fast starters. After all, it's not like they'll get an actual All-Star Game to play in. Still, there is another moral related to the Vogey story, which is that when you run through the narratives of some of these players, many of them were once in his position. There is just no reason to write off a player anymore, as long as there is some kind of underlying skill with which to work.

The past couple of years, I've used the Awards Index rating (AXE, for short), the latest version of which is mostly explained here. The "mostly" qualifier is needed because as I went about calculating this year's figures for the first time, I sadly discovered that a couple of data components no longer are available. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle that going forward, since I've already figured AXE ratings going back to 1893 and would prefer not to redo that. But for the time being I have an ad hoc 2020 version that will suffice.

The short explanation: AXE is meant to create a consensus rating of other bottom-line metrics, with additional context added based on probability statistics. The rating is expressed as a three-digit integer, where 100 is exactly average. (All of that is explained in the link.) This year's top AXE figure is 149; the worst is 66. Each player's primary position is considered to be the spot at which he has played the most games this season. A player is only eligible be selected to one of these teams at his primary position, though each league also has a utility slot reserved for a roving player.

Let's get on to the teams. (AXE ratings indicated in parenthesis.)

AMERICAN LEAGUE

1B: Jose Abreu (127), Chicago White Sox. Abreu has been a constant on a Sox roster in flux over the past few years. Now that his team is rising, his production is that much more valuable. Abreu's recent home run tear at Wrigley Field has lifted his average well over .300 and he's tied for the AL lead in homers (11) and tops in RBIs (28).

2B: Brandon Lowe (139), Tampa Bay Rays. Lowe is a slam-dunk choice at second base, though his bid was bolstered by the injury to DJ LeMahieu (117). Lowe has been one of the AL's best position players over the first half/first month, with 25 RBIs over his first 30 games, and a stunning slash line of .295/.393/.657.

SS: David Fletcher (126), Los Angeles Angels. Really, the answer here probably is the White Sox's Tim Anderson (125), who has logged all of his time at shortstop. Fletcher, filling in for Andrelton Simmons, has spent about three-quarters of his time at the position, however, and has been terrific on both sides of the ball. Fletcher's 43 hits lead the AL.

3B: Anthony Rendon (133), Los Angeles Angels. Despite missing a couple of games early, Rendon has lived up to expectation during his first season on the West Coast. He leads AL third basemen in OPS+ and wRC+, while also posting the best consensus defensive metrics at the position. He has distanced himself from Matt Chapman (118) and Gio Urshela (116). But one question needs to be asked: We have two All-Star Angels and haven't even mentioned Mike Trout yet -- how could the Halos be so bad?

LF: Robbie Grossman (124), Oakland Athletics. At 30, Grossman is having a breakout season after a career of being a quasi-regular for the Astros, Twins and A's. This season, he has walked nearly as often as he has struck out (17 walks, 19 K's) while posting a .416 on-base percentage and slugging well over .500. Left field hasn't been the strongest position in the AL, which opens the door for Grossman and up-and-comers such as Alex Verdugo (119) and Eloy Jimenez (114).

CF: Kyle Lewis (131), Seattle Mariners. As opposed to left field, center field has been a sparkling spot in the AL, largely because of the terrific rookie seasons of Lewis and Luis Robert (123), not to mention another fine campaign by the underrated Ramon Laureano (122). Lewis has done it more with the bat than the glove, while Robert has mixed in a little of everything except plate discipline. As for Trout (116), he has just not had a Trout-like start and his defensive metrics are among the worst at the position. Again: It has only been a month.

RF: Anthony Santander (128), Baltimore Orioles. While Aaron Judge's injury might have opened the door for Santander, he's a worthy pick on the strength of one of the AL's most stunning performances. Santander has hit .277/.323/.639 with 10 homers and 11 doubles for the surprising Orioles, while driving in nearly a run per game (27 RBIs over 29 games).

C: Pedro Severino (121), Baltimore Orioles. Severino doesn't grade out as well defensively as other AL backstops, but he has mashed his way to the top spot at the position. It's really not close; Severino is well ahead of second-place Austin Nola (114), while the third-place AXE rating is his own backup, Chance Sisco (113). Severino has been a backup for so long that it's hard to remember that he's still just 27 years old. Sure, it might be a fluke, but a .981 OPS speaks for itself. Severino also gets the largest win probability added boost to his rating of any catcher and ranks fifth in the AL overall by the Baseball-Reference.com version of the statistic.

DH: Nelson Cruz (134), Minnesota Twins. What can you say about Cruz? The guy is ridiculous. At 40, Cruz's slash line since the beginning of 2019 is .314/.397/.645, with averages of 56 homers and 146 RBIs per 162 games. He doesn't walk like David Ortiz did, but in every other way, Cruz has become the right-handed version of late-career Big Papi.

Utility: Mark Canha (128), Oakland A's. The A's haven't gotten elite performances from Chapman or 2019 MVP candidate Marcus Semien, but they have received terrific contributions up and down the roster. That's why Oakland is battling the Twins for the best record in the AL. Canha has played in all but one game for the A's, starting at first base, all three outfield spots and DH. That might not be the traditional positional array for what we think of as a utility player, but the ability to move around has kept Canha in the lineup. And once there, Canha has hit .279/.405/.452 and added value on the basepaths.

SP: Shane Bieber (149), Cleveland Indians. Bieber has ascended to superstar status, with the top overall AXE rating in the league so far. Texas' Lance Lynn (142) isn't far behind but seems to have picked the wrong season to mount another Cy Young push. Bieber has struck out 75 over 46⅔ innings while walking nine and allowing just four home runs. He's also 6-0 with a 1.35 ERA.

RP: Liam Hendriks (127), Oakland A's. Hendriks has picked up where he left off in his terrific 2019 season. His ERA since the beginning of last year has been 1.70 over 100⅓ innings. This season he leads all AL pitchers in win probability added. Thus he stands above a standout group of rookie firemen that includes Jordan Romano (122), James Karinchak (119) and Jonathan Hernandez (117).

NATIONAL LEAGUE

1B: Paul Goldschmidt (122), St. Louis Cardinals. Familiar faces top the NL leaderboard at first base, with Goldschmidt holding a narrow lead in AXE over Freddie Freeman (120). It's close. Freeman has hit for more power and has a narrow edge in defensive metrics. Goldschmidt, on the other hand, has a .487 on-base percentage.

2B: Donovan Solano (119), San Francisco Giants. The great breakout stories of the 2019 Giants -- Solano and Mike Yastrzemski -- both claim AXE All-Star spots for their play in 2020. Solano, 32, debuted in the majors in 2012 and through 2018 -- the second straight campaign in which he did not appear at the big league level -- Solano had a career total of 0.0 bWAR in 370 games. Since then, he has hit .337/.369/.471 for the Giants over 107 games. It's a great story. Not far behind Solano is resurgent Robinson Cano (116) and 2019 breakout Ketel Marte (114), whose power seems to have gone missing.

SS: Fernando Tatis Jr. (146), San Diego Padres. The top three in NL AXE are Yastrzemski (152), Tatis and Mookie Betts (144). If we were voting on NL MVP right now, it would be an interesting ballot. Betts has been even better than advertised for L.A. and stands out on baseball's powerhouse team. Tatis has become a sensation, with the numbers to back up the hype. And Yaz 2.0 might have been the best of the three. Tatis' rating towers above the next two at shortstop in the NL, though those players are having great seasons of their own: Trevor Story (127) and Dansby Swanson (125).

3B: Manny Machado (119), San Diego Padres. Machado has improved his percentage over his first season in San Diego, giving the Padres baseball's most lethal left side of the infield. Still just 28 years old, he and Tatis will be perhaps the best one-two offensive punch the Friars have ever had over an extended period. Dodgers stalwart Justin Turner ranks behind Machado (115).

LF: Juan Soto (125), Washington Nationals. Soto got off to a late start after testing positive for COVID-19 early in the season, but there still is no one in the NL at this position who is within hailing distance of him. Soto is off to a .382/.475/.815 start with seven homers and 17 RBIs in 19 games. For his career, he's at .293/.407/.551 and, oh yeah, he still hasn't turned 22 years old. The cliché about such players is to say that the sky is the limit, but somehow that doesn't seem to do justice to Soto's potential.

CF: Mike Yastrzemski (152), San Francisco Giants. Yaz has played a little over half his games in center field, so he's probably more of a utility outfielder than a true center fielder. No one is likely to complain about giving him this spot, though. If his age-29 season seemed like a wonderful story and the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of 21st-century second-chance players going off, what is his age-30 season? He has hit for average (.293), hit for power (.612 slugging), leads the NL in walks, has three triples, has well above-average defensive metrics and has lapped every other hitter in the majors in win probability added. It's as if he has changed skill sets with Christian Yelich. Yaz has been the majors' best player in the early going.

RF: Mookie Betts (144), Los Angeles Dodgers. Betts has outdistanced Bryce Harper (130), who is off to a terrific start of his own. Harper has been better with the bat, but Betts is in his own class with a defensive AXE (128) that dwarfs every other regular at the position. By moving to the NL, Betts has set up a pretty nice right-field rivalry with Harper in the years to come. So far, it looks like L.A. is getting the 2018 version of Mookie, which is a very scary proposition for the rest of the National League.

C: J.T. Realmuto (118), Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies have used Realmuto as first base and DH on occasion to keep his bat in the lineup, as the Braves have done with Travis d'Arnaud (114), but they grade out as the NL's top backstops for the first half. Realmuto has started 19 of the Phillies' 25 games at catcher, while d'Arnaud has done the same in 15 of the Braves' 28 games. It's a sign of the times. No Senior Circuit catcher has started as many as 20 games.