Comparing All-Star Lineups

How do this year's All-Star game lineups compare to last year's lineups?

Tonight’s All-Star game is loaded with its usual stars despite some big injuries to some of the game’s biggest names. Every year, I am curious to see how well this year’s starting lineup compares to last year’s Mid Summer Classic. I only look at the lineups that were set yesterday by both managers, not the players who were initially voted in by the fans. The statistic that I use is wRC+ (weighted runs created plus), which is a statistic that measures a player’s total offensive value. Let’s start with this year’s American League lineup compared to the lineup in ‘22.

This is a strong lineup led by Ohtani (181 wRC+) and Corey Seager (181 wRC+). I can only imagine how good this lineup would be if it had Aaron Judge and Mike Trout in it. Ohtani and Trout have the highest wRC+ sinec Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2021 (189 wRC+) This is the best A.L. lineup in terms of wRC+ since 2021, when the average was 147.

Now, let’s look at the National League lineup.

The National League lineup looks identical to the one that was voted in by the fans. It is impressive that catcher Sean Murphy is the NL leader in wRC+ (166). Murphy owns the highest wRC+ of any catcher that I found in an All-Star game dating back to 2010. The National League lineup hasn’t had a wRC+ lower than 144 since 2018, when they had a 134 wRC+

The American League has won the last 9 All-Star games in what has been a dominate run. Who has the better starting lineup in this year’s Mid Summer Classic? Who will win tonight’s game?