Bunch of crap. Let the first timers play. Pence should have gotten at least an ab. With any luck, the Astros will still be in contention going into the last weekend and will take it out on Charlie Manual's pitching staff.
So the only NL reserve other than Pence not to hit was Sanchez? Werth was a replacement and got in over Pence. I know Manuel was managing but still...
I'm never watching another All-Star game ever again. The NL cannot win. What's the point? It's turned into a freaking joke is what it is. The only reason to watch any more is to see how the NL is going to find a way to lose the game per usual. I don't understand why the AL is better than the NL. Could it really just be the designated hitter creates this disparity between the AL and NL as the commentators eluded to? I have a hard time buying that. I just think if you want quality players...you go to the AL. If you want the leftovers...you go to the NL.
No...it's just a quirk. In baseball, the worst team can beat the best team on any given day more often than any other sport. Match up the Red Sox or Dodgers against the Nats for 13 games, and neither team wins all of those games. These games have all been one-run decisions over the last 3 or 4 years. A ball bounces this way or that, and the outcome is entirely different. The NL and AL have split even the last 8 World Series. 4 for the NL...4 for the AL. I don't believe there's a decided advantage because one collection of All Stars finds a way to beat the other collection by one run for one night in July over a series of years. That's a quirk.
The Problem for the NL is that as the game progresses to the latter innings, their hitting gets worse while the AL pitching gets spectacular.
I'm going to pass on a piece of advice to you my young padawan that my father once told me... "Son, if Tim McCarver tries to explain something to you about the game of baseball, you can be sure that no matter what comes out of his mouth, he is wrong."
Agree with everything in your post up to this point. I disagree with this. I think there is a clear advantage right now to the American League in terms of overall talent. However, just like you said above about any team being able to beat any team on any given day, when you match up good teams in the playoffs, that increases dramatically. There is so much luck involved with the playoffs. Billy Beane described it as a crap shoot. His team is a perfect example. If some of his players hadn't misunderstood baserunning calls (interference, etc.) his team would have been in another AL Pennant game. If Derek Jeter doesn't back up a throw to home plate in an odd way and/or Giambi elects to slide, the A's go to a World Series. So much luck involved. The AL is clearly better right now than the NL in my opinion. Not because of the All-Star game results, because I don't think the AL All-Stars were any better really than the NL All-Stars (save for the bullpen) but because the overall talent level is just higher.
I'm with you on all that. I wasn't saying that one league wasn't better than the other...just that I couldn't use the All Star game as a measure of that. As you say...so much luck involved...and it's ONE game.
I had to hit the mute button earlier than anticipated. I think it was Buck who said emphatically during Pujols first AB that when you lead the league in HR & RBI, you will lead the league in walks. The only player in the National League to lead the league in all 3 categories in the same season since 1950 is Mike Schmidt, and that occurred during the strike-shortened season in 1981.
Oh ok, I'm with you. That's one of the least egregious examples of their idiocy, and in general, Joe Buck is much better than McCarver. Tim McCarver saying that the reason the AL is better than the NL in the ALL-STAR game is because of the DH, and then he himself pointing out that there isn't a DH every year, and then further digging his grave by saying that even when there isn't a DH in the game the DH makes the AL better because DH's make the rest of the lineup better... He's so bad. He just doesn't make any sense at all.
