Buster Olney Recognizes Our Favorite Reds

Buster Olney released his NL All-Star team today. His criteria for selection:

25-man rosters, no rule about having one player from every team, the starting pitchers working deep into the games, and relief and bench specialists playing a major role.

Guess who made the cut? Maybe Buster has been reading Red Reporter and we just don't know it.

No injured players were allowed on the team, but Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips were both available off the bench for Olney. On Votto:

Few players are as hot as Votto right now, and he and Dunn and Jones would make for some serious punch in late-inning pinch-hitting situations.

Olney wants Philips around to pinch-run and play defense in the late innings, and it can be assumed that Sanchez was ineligible for Buster due to his injury issues.

To us, those 2 guys are pretty obvious. Buster was only carrying a few starters on this team, as he was structuring it for one game, and loaded up on bullpen guys that can be used to match up well late in games. Nick Masset and Arthur Rhodes make the cut for their phenomenal splits against RHB and LHB respectively:

most of the rest of the selections are based on excellence against either right-handers or left-handers. Rhodes, for example, has held left-handed hitters to an OPS of .327; Masset has held right-handed batters to an average of .099.

It's nice to see some of the quality Reds players getting some recognition from ESPN's insider MLB guy. Votto's bat is being recognized, as is Phillips' fielding and speed (which has been inconsistent on the basepaths, statistically speaking). Masset and Rhodes are the feel-good stories, to me, and it's really nice to see some of the lesser-known players that are really the heart of our organization this year getting some credit.