Presenting – The 2016 Chicken Wolf All-Stars

Even bad, horrible, rotten teams have good players. Many have great players, even superstars. So, we at the Spitter take time to recognize those who toiled all season for teams that were…um…less than stellar.
These are the best of the worst – the star players on teams that finished 10 games or more under .500 in 2016. The biggest problem was finding catchers this season, as many catching candidates were traded, or fell off the face of the earth. Also, finding outfielders not center fielders was also a struggle, so it was decided to take just two LF and one RF.
Players were chosen by B-R WAR for position players, and FIP for pitchers. Thus, we can recognize pitchers who were saddled with bad bad luck, especially in regards to teammates’ defense and allowing their inherited runners to score.
The team is named after William Van Winkle “Jimmy” Wolf, better known as Chicken Wolf, who toiled for a lot of bad Louisville Colonels teams in his career, suffering through indifferent teammates, petulant owners, and drunken fans.
So, without further ado, here are your 2016 Chicken Wolf All Stars:
C – Wellington Castillo, ARI
C- Stephen Vogt, OAK
1B – Freddie Freeman, ATL
1B – Paul Goldschmidt, ARI
1B – Joey Votto, CIN
2B – Brian Dozier, MIN
2B – Jean Segura, ARI
2B – DJ LeMahieu, COL
SS – Andrelton Simmons, ANA
SS – Jonathan Villar, MIL
3B – Evan Longoria, TB
3B – Nolan Arenado, COL
LF – Ryan Braun, MIL
LF – Adam Duval, CIN
CF – Mike Trout, ANA
CF – Kevin Kiermaier, TB
CF – Charlie Blackmon, COL
CF – Odubel Herrera, PHI
CF – Ender Inciarte, ATL
RF – Kole Calhoun, ANA
SP – Aaron Nola, PHI
SP – Blake Snell, TB
SP – Matt Shoemaker, ANA
SP – Tyler Anderson, COL
SP – Jon Gray, COL
SP – Julio Teheran, ATL
RP – Xavier Cedeno, TB
RP – Jim Johnson, ATL
RP – Tyler Thornburg, MIL
RP – Liam Hendriks, OAK
RP – Ian Krol, ATL
RP – Alex Colome, TB
RP – Brad Hand, SD
RP – Ryan Buchter, SD
RP – Jose Alvarez, ATL
Honorable Mentions – Will Myers, SD; Logan Forsythe, TB; Trevor Story, COL; Marcus Semien, OAK; Junior Guerra, MIL; Robbie Ray, ARI; Boone Logan, COL; Hector Neris, PHI; Brad Ziegler, ARI