All-Star Week

With the All-Star Break looming, the festivities chatter has kicked up quite a bit.  Thursday, we learned who the final two members of the All-Star team were, with Freddie Freeman of the Braves winning the National League Final Vote and Steve Delabar of the Toronto Blue Jays winning the for the American League.

I voted for Freeman over Puig for the simple fact that a player needs to play more than 5 weeks to be an All-Star, in my opinion.  Puig has put up good numbers, I’m not saying he hasn’t, but he’s not deserving of the All-Star Game.  Yet.  If he had come up earlier in the year and was still playing hot, I would have said sure, but 5 weeks is not enough time.  Player’s numbers change and even out over the course of the season, and nobody stays hot forever.  New call ups tend to do a little bit better the first month or so because there isn’t enough scouting reports available.  Once those get around, the numbers usually come back down to human level.  Which we’ve seen with Puig’s increasing strike out numbers.  Either way, I think Freddie Freeman is a great player and very deserving of the honor.  At least somebody I voted for made the team!

One of my least favorite All-Star Game festivities is the Home Run Derby, which takes place tomorrow.  I like home runs, but I’m not a fan of the derby.  It has a history of screwing up the players that partake and actually do well.  Watching Josh Hamilton at the old Yankee Stadium in 2008 was amazing though.  This year, the Oakland A’s have a representative in the derby, Yoenis Cespedes.  I’m sorry to all my fellow A’s fans, but I think this is horrible.  I love Yo, but I have a very bad feeling about this.  Aside from the fact that Cespedes has not hit a home run since June 21, three weeks ago, bringing his total to 15.  The main reason I don’t want him to participate though is his swing.  He has a very strong and slightly violent swing.  He has a tendency to hurt his wrist and miss time because of said swing.  Having him go up there and that’s exactly what he will be doing for a minimum of 10 swings is horrifying.  I don’t want to see him get hurt in something that doesn’t mean anything for the team and could end up hurting us as we continue to make a push for the post-season.  That’s right, it’s mid-season, I’m now allowed to say it.  I would love to see him do well, and maybe watching the balls go out will help him when he rejoins the team after the break.

Exciting news today though, Athletics closer, Grant Balfour, is a proud member of the American League All-Star team!!!!  I’m so excited and happy for him.  He is truly deserving and I’m just bummed it took them this long to add him to the team.  I can only hope he gets to actually play, I’m sure FOX will love the Aussie Swear Jar.

“All-Star” Game

I thought that maybe after a couple of days I would be less annoyed.  Turns out, that’s not the case at all.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more upset I get.

Saturday, Major League Baseball announced the All-Star Game rosters.  I wrote about the All-Star game last year and it’s the same issue this year.  I am really starting to hate the game with a passion.  The fans are ruining the game.  Hands down.

I would not have an issue with the fan voting if baseball’s All-Star Game was like all the other ones in professional sports, in that it literally means nothing.  However, thanks to the infamous game in Milwaukee in 2002.  The game that changed the game forever.  That game ended in a 7-7 tie.  Because of this horrible management, we have been punished with the rule of the winner of the All-Star Game gets home field advantage in the World Series.  At that point, fan voting needed to get the boot.

I hate the fan voting for the very reason that most of the fans voting, know either nothing about the game, or know just about their team.  Which is great if you know your team, but not helpful in voting for All-Stars.  You end up with people voting in mass quantity for every member on their team that’s available to be voted on, whether they are deserving or not, or playing or not.  I know plenty of people who have voted for players on their team that are injured and wouldn’t be playing.  That’s a wasted vote.  I’m sorry, but seriously.  You think the guy sitting on the bench is the most deserving of your vote?  I bite my tongue, because my mommy taught me that if I have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all.  There was over 1 million people who voted for Derek Jeter to be an All-Star, knowing full well that there was no way he was going to play.  Wasted vote at it’s best.

This year, I think I’m going to pass on watching the All-Star Game.  Each year I watch it, and think of all the players that should be there and aren’t, and get annoyed.  Baseball is my passion, it shouldn’t be making me angry.  There were so many snubs this year, it’s hard to believe.

I love the Oakland Athletics.  It’s hard to believe, hard to swallow and hard to accept.  One.  One All-Star.  As of right now, we own the second best record in all of baseball, behind the Boston Red Sox.  We have beaten the National League Central’s best in the St. Louis Cardinals (2-1), Cincinnati Reds (2-0), and Pittsburgh Pirates (2-1).  And yet, we have one All-Star.  Bartolo Colon deserves it, but there are two other guys that aren’t going and should be.  Josh Donaldson and Grant Balfour.  Donaldson is having a career year and is making the hot corner look like the cold corner.  The guys on MLB Network have been going on for weeks about how he deserves to be in the game and the first thing they said after the rosters were announced said he was snubbed.  Grant Balfour has been lights out so far this season.  Not one blown save.  In fact, tonight, Balfour continued with his record-setting ways while notching consecutive save number 42.  Impressive is an understatement.

My National League team, the Arizona Diamondbacks had a couple of snubs of their own.  Outfielder, Gerardo Parra, wasn’t even on the ballot.  Parra was expected to be the fourth outfielder for the team, but due to an injury, was made into the starting center fielder.  He’s having a great season, and isn’t going to the All-Star Game.  Paul Goldschmidt, the Diamondbacks first baseman, is having an AMAZING season so far.  He should be starting the game at first.  No offense to Reds Joey Votto, but Goldy is having a much better season.  If you looked up Beast Mode, it would say Paul Goldschmidt’s 2013 season.  That’s how good he’s been.  I’m happy he made the team, but he should have been voted as a starter.  The numbers he has put up this season so far are incredible.  21 home runs, 74 RBI and batting .310.  Holy smokes.  But he’s not a starter because the Diamondbacks aren’t as popular as the Reds are.  It’s as Jon Heyman would say, a shame.

Then there’s the Dodgers’s Yasiel Puig.  I get it, I do.  It happened last year with Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes.  He was great to start the season and everybody was going on and on about him.  However, his numbers have tampered way off this season.  Sure, he still can hit massive bombs, but it seems like it’s a bomb or he’s bombing with a strike out.  Pitchers are very well equipped today with technology to figure out how to get batters out.  That’s what their job is, and they will figure a way to do their job.  Puig, he’s got talent, but I don’t think he is an All-Star, yet.  But, considering the game has become a popularity contest rather than based on what you do on the field, I’m sure he’ll make it.  I don’t see how a guy with 34 games in the big leagues can be considered an All-Star.  So Braves Freddie Freeman is getting my vote on the final ballot.  Mainly because I want a hug.  I kid, sort of.

In the end, my opinion doesn’t matter.  The downside of being a small market fan.  I only hope that Major League Baseball at some point does something to fix the voting system to make the All-Star Game full of actual All-Stars.  Until then, its high school all over again where the popular kids win everything.

Umpires

I love writing and I love writing about baseball. Things that excite me in a game, things that get the creative juices flowing. I started this post the day after the “home run that was really a double that was actually a home run” game in Cleveland between the A’s and the Indians. I was still fuming from the night before and was livid with Major League Baseball and the Umpires. I had to hold back because I didn’t want to say something in the heat of the moment, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the problem. The umpiring this season is HORRIBLE. Major League Baseball should be embarrassed and ashamed.

May 8, 2013 will forever be the day that proved MLB’s replay system is not up to par and fails in comparison to other professional sports. Adam Rosales hit a game tying home run in Cleveland in the 9th inning, but he didn’t, but he did. Confused? So are we. Watching the live feed, I said it was a home run, Angel Hernandez said it was a double. Bob Melvin, being the amazing manager he is, went out to argue that it was indeed a home run. The good news is that Major League Baseball has a replay system in place for such moments and every time, they have gotten the call right after the review. Well, now that 100% rating has dropped. It was horrible. Angel Hernandez continues to prove why he’s the most hated umpire in baseball, and why Jim Joyce will always be a favorite of mine. At least he admits his mistakes. To make matters worse, Major League Baseball pretty much made things worse for themselves with the way they handled the situation, or lack there of. Here’s what I took away from their response “He messed up, moving on” like it was nothing.

May 9, 2013 the umpire crew in Houston tried to one up Angel Hernandez and company with the worst PR move of all time for baseball. It’s one thing to blow calls in a game, but it’s another thing entirely when you don’t know the rules of the game. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were in Houston taking on the newest member of the American League West, the Houston Astros, when the most shocking of umpire moves happened. Astros manager, Bo Porter, made a pitching change, and then another. The only issue is that the rules state that the pitcher must face at least one batter before he can be replaced. Porter, being a first year manager, might not know that, but that’s why you have umpires there. They are supposed to know the rules and make sure they are upheld. That didn’t happen. As a result, MLB looked stupid two days in a row and put a major magnifying glass on umpires. Crew Chief, Fieldin Culbreth, was suspended for two games and fined. The rest of his crew were also fined for their part as well. At least somebody got suspended.

June 11, 2013 the four strike strikeout. There is nothing nice I can say here. It’s not that hard to count to three. Three strikes and you’re out. It’s even in a song that is sang in every baseball park around the country every night. I don’t understand how you can possibly not get that right. The Arizona Diamondbacks were in Los Angeles taking on the Dodgers in what later became the brawl game when the umpire lost track of the number of strikes. Diamondbacks pitcher, Ian Kennedy, threw four pitches for strikes to get the strikeout recorded. I’d love to tell you more, but there’s very little about the game that’s not fight related. Lucky break for the umpires there. Speaking of the brawls the happened in that game, we all know I love a good baseball brawl and that was a good brawl. However, I do not think Kennedy was trying to hit Puig and I will continue to dislike Greinke now. Greinke threw at Miguel Montero the next inning, hitting him in the back. That, to me, was his way of getting back at the dbacks for Kennedy hitting Puig. The issue is, you intentionally hit a player as payback for an accidental hit batter. No pitcher is ever going to try to hit a batter in the head, not including Roger Clemens because actually threw a broken bat at Mike Piazza. There for, when Kennedy plunked Greinke, that was more payback for Greinke drilling Montero. Either way, that was a lot of BS going down in that game. I guess the umpires got a lucky break because of the fight. I do give them props though for this game. Four guys trying to break up a fight between 50+ guys. That’s not easy.

I think this off-season, Major League Baseball is going to need to do a lot of work to fix the umpiring system. If they want to add more replay systems, they need to fix the one they have in place first and make sure it’s completely fool-proof to avoid another blown call. Also, maybe have extended training to avoid issues like what happened in Houston. No matter what though, they need to make some changes because they are going to lose fans, and that would be a shame.