[Elendil]

2012 All-Star Break

Before playing out the 2012 All-Star Game, I'd like to stop and take stock of this rather surprising season so far, and profile a few of the old-timers who are still making All-Star teams. I'm also going to do a little "where are they now?" piece on Alaskan League retirees from the past few seasons.

Standings

Seward Division

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Chugiak Jets	45	24	.652	-
Anchorage Glacier Pilots	35	34	.507	10
Anchorage Bucs	36	38	.486	11.5
Kodiak Grizzlies	34	38	.472	12.5
Bethel Mushers	32	39	.451	14
Peninsula Oilers	32	39	.451	14

Denali Division

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
North Pole Nicks	42	30	.583	-
Mat-Su Miners	40	32	.556	2
Juneau Senators	39	36	.520	4.5
Sitka Sentinels	35	35	.500	6
Whitehorse Yukoners	35	36	.493	6.5
Fairbanks Goldpanners	23	47	.329	18

A couple of things surprise me here. The first is to see North Pole atop the Denali. Juneau has led the division most of the way but are currently mired in a 6-game losing streak. Sitka has also won 5 in a row to get themselves out of the doldrums. But the main story is the Nicks, whom everyone thought were on their last legs. They are doing it by hitting like the Nicks of old, in a year in which offense has increased (league ERA has been around 4.40 all year).

In the Seward, the Glacier Pilots are surprising league observers, although they are barely keeping above .500, and there are plenty of other teams just a game or two behind them. That the Jets are dominating is not terribly surprising, given their aggressive transactions in the offseason, but they do look mortal lately: their winning percentage used to be well above .700.

There were a couple of big deadline deals that may affect races down the stretch. The Nicks reacquired 38-year-old Bob Horton, trading away pitcher Mike Rancourt and his bloated salary. It's a puzzling move for the Oilers, who had to suffer through Horton's injury-plagued season last year but were enjoying his .325/.382/.519 performance this year. Horton is more valuable than Rancourt and cheaper - but less popular. Well, except in North Pole: Horton certainly received a hero's welcome there, whom he left in 2011 for free agency. Nicks fans have always stood behind the slugger, who put up the three greatest consecutive seasons in history in 2008-10 for the club.

In a rather surprising move, the Yukoners dealt starter John Lynn, who had spent his entire career with the club, to Sitka in exchange for 26-year-old second baseman Zander Sabin. The knock on Sabin is his consistency, and he's not hitting well this year. However, he's a great fielder and has made two All-Star teams, in 2007 and 2009. Lynn has declined a bit this year but the patina of his 13-6, 2.81 year in 2011 hasn't fully worn off yet.

The Sentinels also acquired starting pitcher Leif Morris from Bethel, another move to shore up their biggest weakness. In exchange, the Mushers got 3.5-star catching prospect Chris Normore. Morris is still 28 but has played since '07, putting up a career line of 35-38, 4.01.

Aging Sluggers of the Alaskan League



This survey of the veteran hitters selected to the 2012 All-Star Game begins with the oldest of the bunch: 40-year-old Mat-Su catcher Pierre-Alexandre Langlois. Langlois has played every season with Mat-Su. Each of the last five seasons he has posted a VORP over 40, and this is his fourth All-Star team. He won the 2007 Alaskan Championship with the Miners.

So far this is his best year of all; he's hitting .355/.475/.627 and is on pace to break the all-time walks record! It's unusual for a catcher to last to forty years old, particularly for a guy who hadn't played professionally since age 27 when he first tried out for the Alaskan League. The rust showed his first year, but he has only improved since then. Who knows how long he'll go? He's signed with Mat-Su through the 2014 season and is one of a handful of elite players making over $100,000 per year.



What can you say about Tom Robbins that hasn't already been said? The guy has fought through a number of injuries and the negative prognostications of the naysayers. He has played in only just over half of the games this season and still has been good enough to make the All-Star team! He's hitting .312/.387/.716 and has really been crushing the home runs lately: he's hit 14 of them in just 141 at-bats. Robbins is also making over $100,000 a year with Kodiak and, at age 38, has a player option for 2013 in his contract. This guy has been dominant every year he's played, except perhaps 2008. The one thing he doesn't have is a championship ring.



Center and left fielder Dominique Gaudet has been around the league from the start and has now made his fourth All-Star Game. He's having the best year of his career and is a big reason why North Pole has surprised the pundits this year. He's hitting .354/.454/.650 and has already stroked a career-high 20 homers. He's not a bad fielder either and is particularly reliable with his hands, not making many errors (just one this year so far). He came to the team right after their championship year and is itching to get his first ring.



Thirty-four-year-old right fielder Doug Beard of Sitka has seen it all. He's played for cellar dwellers and a championship team: the 2009 Juneau Senators. Last June, Beard was a throw-in in the deal that brought Ryan Dye to the Jets. Since then, he's become a mainstay in the Sitka lineup and has returned to life, making his fourth All-Star team. This year he's only played in 54 games, partly due to injury, but has hit .318/.402/.557 to put himself on the squad. Beard has a nice career line of .299/.397/.504 and this year reached 300 RBI in his career.



Fairbanks first baseman Gary Johnson, 34, is now the only player to have made every single All-Star team since the inception of the league! In the first three years of the league, Johnson hit over .350 every year and won the batting title in 2007. Since then, his performance has declined a bit, but he's still hit over .310 every year, including this one, in which he's posted a line of .315/.403/.494.

Johnson has missed two games this season, breaking his consecutive games streak that went back to 2009. In fact, since 2008, Johnson has only missed three games! Hopefully, Johnson's stamina portends a long career that sees him through this painful rebuilding cycle for the Panners. A player of this caliber deserves a ring at some point in his career.