MLB All-Stars named

Kerry Wood over Willis?

Freaking insane.

 

Absolutely love seeing all star nods go to Wakefieldian stalwarts, Preston Wilson, Rondell White, Aaron Boone, and Paul Lo Duca.

Of course with Tek being left to fan selection, the absence of Dontrelle Willis, Pedro Martinez, Austin Kearns, and Adam Dunn, simply tops the myriad of errors that come with fan/manager voting.

Preston and Rondell leave me more than pleased though.

 

That was funny.

Then he mumbled something about paying dues.

 

Dusty Baker defended that choice on ESPN. He said that on the player's balloting, the first five were taken, and Wood was #6. Chacon is on the DL and will miss the game, so he selected Wood.

It's not like Wood's stats are pathetic, either. He leads the league in Ks with 144, has 8 wins, and sports a very respectible 3.36 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. While Willis has him beat in ERA by a run and WHIP by .05, he's hurt by the fact that he hasn't played the entire season in the big leagues. His time will come, but it's apparently not now.

 

Willis was the only reason why I would watch the game, unless him or Frank Thomas are late additons I dont think Ill be watching.

 

But, to qualify my previous post, I think Willis should be there over someone like Russ Ortiz. Despite being a Braves fan, I'm not sure he's been an all-star pitcher this season. I think Kevin Millwood would've been the better Phillies' pitcher than Wolf, but that's not a big deal.

The biggest oversight in both leagues was Brian Giles. How can you select Mike Williams (the worst closer in baseball this season) as the Pirates' rep as opposed to Giles, despite his injury? If having a pitcher was that big of a concern, take Peavy over White from SD (as Jayson Stark suggested) and add Giles.

Jason Giambi is a close second, but he'll be the shoo-in winner on the AL 32nd man ballot. Surprised Sosa isn't in there either, nor is he on the 32nd man ballot.

 

does atlanta's whole team have to be on there?

 

Look, the all-star game in baseball is a colossal joke. And it has gotten even worse with this "bright" idea by that greatest of commissioners (not!) in Bud Seelig. This whole idea of whoever wins getting home field advantage in the world series is so stupid.

Hey baseball, how about doing like everyone else (i.e. the NFL, the NBA, etc) and go by whoever has the best overall record? Hmmm?

Mark my words, someone will get hurt in this game because the stakes have gone up. Or you will have somebody who shouldn't be there but got voted in at the last minute over the Internet or is only there because the Tigers had to have at least ONE all-star deciding this game. Then you will hear people moan and bellyache about it for an eternity.

Last season there was no excuse for what happened, but chalk that up to baseball getting too cute for the all-star game in the first place. It needs to get back to the way it was in the '70s when the game was always exciting like Rose bowling over Fosse and Reggie hitting one onto the roof at Tiger Stadium. Other than seeing the player intros, I have no desire to watch this game. And don't get me started on those idiotic "This time it means something!" commercials. Yea, nice way to spin what was a disaster last season, Bud into something cute.

 

NFL doesn't do it that way.

To me, this is no worse than the arbitrary way it's been done for years. The problem with giving it to whoever has the best record is the unbalanced scheduling. MLB teams don't play everyone. It's the only major sport that's like that.

Also, what's up with arguing that someone's going to get hurt because the stakes are raised, then arguing that the game should return to a more exciting brand and citing a play that hurt a player?

 

The thing that jumps out at me is the fact that they have changed the rules so that now the league which wins the All Star Game gets home filed advantage in the World Series...Is this old news that I just missed, or do you guys not think it's that big of a deal. I personally think that this is the biggest thing to happen to pro sports All Star games in a long time...Takes on a whole new significance...I'm not sure that I think it's the way to go, but it's interesting.

 

Already talked about in this thread.

There was also a thread not long ago started by Drewdog.

 

Sorry forgot about the Super Bowl, but home field definitely exists to get to the Super Bowl, little question about that.

Well, that was just the way Pete Rose played. Not every player is going to go in and bowl over a catcher like that plus back then, RM95, you had SPs who were compiling stats like 29 complete games (Mickey Lolich in 1971 for Detroit), Vida Blue had 24 CGs in that same season and Fergie Jenkins had 30 for the Cubs in that same season.

Now, you are lucky to see a guy compile 8 complete games a season. It is a fact that today's SPs are conditioned to go so far because of pitch counts and that they can tear their arm up if they go over that pitch count. As much as I love Pedro, he ALWAYS gets hurt every season and the Sox have to watch his pitch count like a babysitter watches a mischievous kid.

I can see it now that a SP goes over 100 pitches in the all-star game and the next day you read about them tearing a rotator cuff.

So, yes, I realize that I posted what seemed like a paradox but I meant that back when the games were exciting, the players weren't a bunch of p*****s like they are now today. Unfortunately, I doubt we will see players today like the ones back in the '60s and the '70s. Today's players are too busy complaining about that hangnail they got.

 

It definitely exists to get to the World Series as well.

I'll make any kind of wager with you that we don't see pitchers in the all-star game throwing 100 pitches. And I don't see how someone throwing 100 pitches in an all-star game is any different than throwing 100 pitches in a regular season game, unless you're contending that they'd do that on less than normal rest, which they wouldn't.

 

But it doesn't include a traditional 1 vs 4 matchup. When you use homefield advantage, your bracket is set up to have the team with the best record take on the team with the worst record. I know for a fact that Boston played Cleveland in the '95 divisional series and Cleveland was like the #1 seed and Boston was the #2 seed. So, that right there shows that it was a flawed system.

Surely, to God, you are not telling me that you think that Bud came up with a good idea here, RM95?

Here is an article that you might find interesting:

By the way, why do you always like to argue with me?

A bad idea about to go really bad

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com


So just to recap: The Major League players were put in charge of voting in the reserves for the All-Star Game, even though their ballots were due a week before the starters were even announced. The fans were to vote in the starters, gleefully stuffing ballots and tilting outcomes toward the popular and the celebrated, as they've done for years.

The managers each were to choose four pitchers and either three reserves (National League) or one reserve (American League, its other two spots already sucked up by the DH). The rosters were increased from 30 players to 32. And each league remained required to find a representative from every big-league roster no matter how ill a fit he was with the other All-Stars.

All of which would make for a decent 12-second conversation at the bagel stand were it not that the winner of this Ultimate Exhibition will now determine home-field advantage in the World Series.

In the immortal words of a friend of mine who never did make it all the way through college: That's so messed up it has to be true.

Looking back, you can see that baseball's fatal mistake was ever attaching one ounce of importance to the All-Star Game. Take away Bud Selig's amazing edict that the outcome would actually affect the World Series for each of the next two seasons, and you're looking at an otherwise purely theatrical production that honors a time-proven All-Star approach, which -- translated roughly from the Latin -- is: More cotton candy for the kid in Row 112.

The All-Star Game is a giant fraud, and a damned happy one. It's normally just a massive collection of people the People want to see, and there was never a thing wrong with that. Once baseball decided to let the fans vote, this game has shrunken in "importance" -- but grown in fun-factor -- with nearly every passing year.

Comes now the summer of 2003, and wipe that grin off your face, skipper. If N.L. manager Dusty Baker decides he wants to get everybody a half-inning of face time, is he traitoring the cause of the eventual pennant-winner? If A.L. manager Mike Scioscia has a hot pitcher, does he simply leave the guy in for four or five innings to ensure the W?

As Toronto manager Carlos Tosca noted last week, "It's no longer, 'Come out and see the stars.' It's, 'Win the game.' Are you going to take Barry Bonds out of that game? Are you going to take (Albert) Pujols out of that game? I'm not, if I'm trying to win the game."

Win the game: Is Tosca kidding? No, of course he's not. He is looking very soberly at the most hideous cross-dressing this side of "Hairspray" -- an attempt to attach significance to a mid-season Wiffle Ball Tournament and Bake-Off by grafting it onto the otherwise semi-serious mug of postseason play.

You're looking at the bespoiling of two independently fine things here. On the one hand, baseball absolutely kills its summer break by taking the relaxation out of it. Not that anyone is expecting the All-Stars to suddenly play for blood, but there will come a time in this year's game, count on it, when a decision is made or a play occurs at which point everyone suddenly realizes people are playing for stakes instead of smiles.

I'm guessing high spikes on a slide, but that's just me. One thing's for sure: There won't be any scenes out of the 1990s, when John Kruk had the Camden Yards crowd rolling in the aisles over his desperate, genuinely funny attempts to get safely away from Randy Johnson's huge, looping curveballs. Nope: This year, Kruk stands in there and grimly hacks away. After all, there's somebody else's playoff share riding on it.

And, of course, there is the more worrisome notion (for those inclined to worry over such things) that the World Series outcome might somehow be affected by the 32nd guy off Baker's bench in the All-Star Game. This is a player, remember, who doesn't even make the team a year ago, when only 30 spots existed. Now he's potentially the difference between the Giants or the Angels hosting Game 7?

This is not to suggest that there is any one safe solution to that Series home-field advantage question, by the way. Clearly, there isn't. The least controversial approach is to alternate the privilege between the leagues. More controversial, but at least rooted in the games themselves, is the idea that the team with the best record hosts -- period.

This All-Star stuff, this is something else again. The whole thing sounded absurd the moment it was announced months ago. Given time, space and air for the concept to breathe, we now see that it really was just precisely that absurd. An All-Star Game with something riding on it? Heck, why not just tell us they're using the "Friends" season-ender to elect the junior senator from Wisconsin?

Oh, and by the way: That final roster spot, No. 32 -- it's to be determined via Internet fan-vote. Happy hunting, and see you in October.

 

Yeah, but aside from that, are you saying that this isn't news?

 

Not that I'm a die hard sports fan to begin with (I'm a very girly girl), but before I begin to care about the MLB All Star game, I'll have to start caring about baseball in general. As long as there's no salary cap, the playing field is going to be completely unbalanced and managers and coaches will continue to buy wins and championships. It just makes the sport so not fun to watch, IMO.

 

The biggest all-star joke was Armando Benitez. This is a prime example why not all the teams need to be represented.

Kind of like when Ron Coomer went as a Twin a few years back. I was like WhoTF is this guy?

 

WTF? This is BS. How did Clemens not get in?
It's clear that this is his last season! No freaken respect!