3 former Astros in NL Starting Line-Up. Looks like Morgan got screwed since www.cubs.com has already announced Aramis Ramirez has been named a reserve. That sucks and isn't the illegal to announce already.
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASAp...t_id=1113714&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou Ensberg finished second to Aramis Ramirez of the Cubs in the player balloting, 328 to 290. Scott Rolen of St. Louis was the fans' choice at third base. Ensberg leads all Major League third basemen with 22 homers and ranks second with 59 RBIs, trailing only Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees (66). Ensberg has homered in six of his last 12 games and has driven in 17 runs since June 22. His 20 homers since May 1 are tied for the second most in the Majors during that span behind Andruw Jones of Atlanta (23) and tied with Carlos Lee of Milwaukee. During June, Ensberg hit 10 homers and drove in 28 runs, tied for the most RBIs by a third baseman in that month in the last five years with Edgardo Alfonzo (San Francisco in 2004) and Phil Nevin (San Diego in 2001).
Oswalt and Ensberg were both screwed out of the all-star game this year. How the heck does Cesar Izturis make the team and Ensberg does not? All-Star Rosters
If Lidge is out (which he should be.... if he can't pitch for us, the club most definitely won't want him pitching for the ASG), LaRussa will have to make the decision whether or not to go with the next most deserving pitcher overall (Roy O), or another closer (Wagner). Also, I'm pretty sure that Lidge is there just as much for his performance in last year's playoffs (which definitely deserves some sort of recognition) as his 2005 season. Its amazing the Roy has yet to make an all-star team, but as soon as Clemens retires, he should be the de-facto Astro to go there every year for the remainder of his career. The NL lineup is a joke... Rolen and Eckstein get in because of the Cardinals fans only (although there aren't that many good SS in the NL), and Beltran and Piazza because of the NY fans. St. Louis (who is a likely candidate to go to the World Series, and thus wants/needs home field advantage) must be furious that Beltran will be getting AB's over Andruw Jones. If I was TLR, I would bat Beltran 9th... and take him out during the 3rd inning even if his spot in the lineup hasn't come up yet. He does not deserve to be there in any way, shape, or form.
How is isn't Felipe Lopez of the Reds not in the game. He gots some great number for a SS and should be starting. How did Eckstein become a starter. He is a good player but not All-Star caliber.
Teams are selected based on players at a certain position, and having at least one representative from each MLB team. Izturis did not "beat out" Ensberg... he beat out the other NL shortstops. Ensberg lost his spot because Scott Rolen was voted in by the fans, and Aramis Ramirez is his backup (and Aramis is a legit choice... even if he is a Cub). Likewise, LaRussa did not choose Fuentes or Lidge over Oswalt... he needed closers. Oswalt lost out to Clemens, Willis, Pedro, Carpenter, Peavy and Livan... and while those last two are tough to stomach over Roy, they have to have somebody from the Padres and Nats.
C Jason Varitek, BOS S/R 33 2 .308 13 34 1B Mark Teixeira, TEX S/R 25 1 .286 22 64 2B Brian Roberts, BAL S/R 27 1 .359 13 44 3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY R/R 29 9 .323 20 66 SS Miguel Tejada, BAL R/R 29 3 .321 19 60 LF Manny Ramirez, BOS R/R 33 9 .275 20 70 CF Johnny Damon, BOS L/L 31 2 .343 4 42 RF Vladimir Guerrero, LAA R/R 29 6 .350 14 47 DH David Ortiz, BOS L/L 29 2 .308 19 67 American League Pitchers All-Star Stats thru 7/2/05 Pos Player B/T Age Games W-L ERA SP Mark Buehrle, CWS L/L 26 2 10-1 2.42 SP Bartolo Colon, LAA R/R 32 2 11-4 3.06 SP Jon Garland, CWS R/R 25 1 13-3 3.29 SP Roy Halladay, TOR R/R 28 3 11-4 2.40 SP Kenny Rogers, TEX L/L 40 3 9-3 2.46 SP Johan Santana, MIN L/L 26 1 7-4 3.74 All-Star Stats thru 7/2/05 Pos Player B/T Age Games SV ERA RP Danys Baez, TB R/R 27 1 13 2.83 RP Justin Duchscherer, OAK R/R 27 1 4 1.48 RP Joe Nathan, MIN R/R 30 2 22 3.67 RP Mariano Rivera, NYY R/R 35 7 17 0.88 RP B.J. Ryan, BAL L/L 29 1 18 1.67 RP Bob Wickman, CLE R/R 36 2 22 2.61 American League Reserves All-Star Stats thru 7/2/05 Pos Player B/T Age Games AVG HR RBIs C Ivan Rodriguez, DET R/R 33 12 .293 5 29 1B Shea Hillenbrand, TOR R/R 29 2 .305 8 37 1B Paul Konerko, CWS R/R 29 2 .246 19 53 1B Mike Sweeney, KC R/R 31 5 .299 9 37 2B Alfonso Soriano, TEX R/R 29 4 .277 20 51 3B Melvin Mora, BAL R/R 33 2 .300 14 46 SS Michael Young, TEX R/R 28 2 .325 12 43 OF Garret Anderson, LAA L/L 33 3 .309 10 60 OF Gary Sheffield, NYY R/R 36 9 .297 13 57 OF Ichiro Suzuki, SEA L/R 31 5 .301 6 27 National League Starters All-Star Stats thru 7/2/05 Pos Player B/T Age Games AVG HR RBIs C Mike Piazza, NYM R/R 36 12 .264 9 34 1B Derrek Lee, CHC R/R 29 1 .386 25 67 2B Jeff Kent, LAD R/R 37 5 .302 15 59 3B Scott Rolen, STL R/R 30 4 .250 5 21 SS David Eckstein, STL R/R 30 1 .290 2 23 LF Carlos Beltran, NYM S/R 28 2 .262 9 40 CF Jim Edmonds, STL L/L 35 4 .283 15 50 RF Bobby Abreu, PHI L/R 31 2 .314 17 52 SP Chris Carpenter, STL R/R 30 1 12-4 2.60 SP Roger Clemens, HOU R/R 42 11 6-3 1.50 SP Livan Hernandez, WSH R/R 30 2 12-2 3.32 SP Pedro Martinez, NYM R/R 33 7 9-2 2.74 SP Jake Peavy, SD R/R 24 1 7-2 2.89 SP John Smoltz, ATL R/R 38 7 9-5 2.68 SP Dontrelle Willis, FLA L/L 23 2 12-3 2.04 RP Chad Cordero, WSH R/R 23 1 29 0.85 RP Brian Fuentes, COL L/L 29 1 10 2.68 RP Jason Isringhausen, STL R/R 32 2 22 2.05 RP Brad Lidge, HOU R/R 28 1 18 2.73 National League Reserves All-Star Stats thru 7/2/05 Pos Player B/T Age Games AVG HR RBIs C Paul Lo Duca, FLA R/R 33 3 .308 2 33 1B Albert Pujols, STL R/R 25 4 .340 21 66 2B Luis Castillo, FLA S/R 29 3 .338 2 16 3B Aramis Ramirez, CHC R/R 27 1 .299 17 50 SS Cesar Izturis, LAD S/R 25 1 .275 1 20 SS Felipe Lopez, CIN S/R 25 1 .321 14 48 OF Moises Alou, SF R/R 39 6 .325 12 39 OF Jason Bay, PIT R/R 26 1 .311 15 41 OF Miguel Cabrera, FLA R/R 22 2 .341 16 59 OF Luis Gonzalez, ARI L/R 37 5 .302 11 50 OF Andruw Jones, ATL R/R 28 4 .280 26 59 OF Carlos Lee, MIL R/R 29 1 .270 22 72
You right Lopez made the team, but how the hell did Cesar Izturis make over Ensberg. He is hitting .275 with ONE frickin homer.
Fans voting is shambles once again. It was fine when the game didn't really mean anything - but since baseball's contrived "Home Field" decision - it needs to GO AWAY.
Lopez is in. It is a crime that they would choose 3 shortstops when it is the worst position in the NL. Ensberg deserves to be there and should be voted in the final ballot. Ensberg has better numbers than Izturis, Gonzalez, and Ramirez. Oswalt has better numbers than Smoltz, Martinez, Peavy, & Hernandez. It is a joke that Oswalt does not get the attention he deserves ace one of the best pitchers in baseball.
One thing about this - both the Dodgers and Astros already had a representative (Clemens and Kent). There were already two SS's and two 3B's on the team. Not saying that it came down to any thought process of Izturis and Ensberg, but Izturis could have been left off and Ensberg added. You'd have 3 3B's and 2 SS's instead of 2 3B's and 3 SS's. Although then you have a guy like Eckstein playing 6 innings.
It's the fact that the players should have voted in Lopez because Izturis hasn't put up the quality numbers that Lopez did and LaRussa wouldn't have picked Izturis to be on the team. He may have picked Ensberg.
Or you could look at it as TLR won't want his possible home-field advantage being decided by the glove of Felipe Lopez over Izturis... and you only needed to watch today's Astros game to see that. Ensberg definitely deserves to go... but if you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at all the fans that voted for Rolen. This happens every year in the NBA and MLB... but until they institute a minimum games played rule or something like that, you'll always have the ASG being a popularity contest first. There is the online one player vote-in thingy that MLB started a couple of years ago... Ensberg will likely be a candidate for that.
Oh - players now vote for position players? I knew they did for pitchers, but not the other spots. Never mind my previous post then! It would have been between Lopez and Ensberg, and that's a tougher call.
Oh yeah - I don't blame anyone. The process is ridiculous - if you're going to say "people deserve the all-star game" then it can't be fan-voted. If you want to say it's just about the fans want, then I don't think anyone necessarily deserves it. I agree that there need to be some rules on the process if you're going to continue fan voting. Ensberg will have an interesting race - I think Delgado will be in the mix, and he's a bigger "name" guy than Ensberg.
I hate fan-voting. I wait until the last day every year to send in my ballots to make sure the most deserving player goes. I don't go down the list and just vote for Astros players either. I pick the Astros player if it is a close call between them and another player. I also hate that each team has to have a player in the game. There are too many teams in the league now to still have that rule. Remember a couple of years ago when Mike Williams of the Pirates got in with an ERA over 6 if I remember correctly.
