...Bryce Harper, Phenom, College of Southern Nevada (after earning his GED at age 16).Harper, a 16-year-old who just completed his sophomore year, has registered at the College of Southern Nevada, where he plans to attend classes in August and play for the Coyotes next season.
So not only will Boras have a "once in a generation" pitching talent with Strasburg this year, he could have Harper next year. And he'll have his gun in the back of the Nats (in all likelihood) yet again this time next year. At 16, I was just hoping to get a car. He's contemplating a multimillion dollar draft bonus. Of course, I wasn't a 6-foot-3-inch catcher who hit .626 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs along with 36 stolen bases.
[...]
Bryce Harper and his mother, Sheri, recently went to CSN and signed enrollment forms and his letter of intent to play baseball. Harper is aiming to earn his GED test credentials in the fall.
A review of Harper can be found here: Behold! The Baseball Jesus!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
With the #1 pick in the 2010 draft, the Nationals select...
Friday, June 12, 2009
That's about as absurd a way to win/lose a game as I have ever seenAnd the MSM has the nerve to bash the blogosphere?
And they pump out worthless drivel like this*:The big deal is that the Sox and Yankees don't play each other again until Aug. 6. So New York can win every game for the next eight weeks; the Yankees can win 40 in a row or more. But no matter what they do, they're going to be constantly reminded that they are 0-8 against the Red Sox.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Boston Globe. What's the matter, Dan, no more "Curse" books to write?
It's pretty terrific when you think about it.
And the truth is, from one Yanks fan: Losing to the Sox always sucks. Eight in a row is really painful. And I lost not one wink of sleep over it the past few nights. I give a ton of credit to the Sox for doing it everyway possible and for being a very smart organization.
But can the MSM stop with the blogger bashing when they are tossing this horsesh*t out there as "professional content" that you can only learn in a classroom taught by Geoff Baker?
* Thanks to my bro for bringing this to my attention
The evisceration of bloggers
Because we haven't been professionally trained or have a masthead to work under, we are not allowed to question anything. At least according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times:But there is a training that has to occur. You either learn it in school, or learn it on-the-job at a paper before going out in the field. Or from me. But you have to get some training before you head out there. That way, you don't embarrass yourself nationally, as this blogger just did, or risk ruining a ballplayer's reputation when you may not be right.
I don't think the blogger, Jerod Morris, embarrassed himself. He laid out a case that pointed a direction that wondered if Ibanez was on some PED. Passive-aggressive, true, but I'd rather read that than Morris come out and say definitively that Ibanez was on something without proof. Hell, I did the same thing 5 days prior, with less statistical "evidence". As I noted at the bottom of that posting, we'd be lazy to assume everyone is innocent.
But Geoff, what would you say to your esteemed colleague, Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times, who kicked this innuendo door WIDE OPEN? Would you want him to attend your class? If it's good enough for the Chicago Sun Times to run innuendo questioning a hometown player, why can't anyone else? Said Telander, just as a reminder:To wit, Theriot -- no disrespect, but if he's 5-11, I'm 6-12 -- hit two home runs Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Padres, giving him five times more home runs in 33 games this year than he hit all last season.
Mr. Baker seems to take particular delight in the fact that Morris was "eviscerated on national television", as if that represents a nationwide beatdown of guys like me who love the game and love writing about it. Guess again, Geoff.
That rings the steroid/HGH/ whatever-designer-drug-is-in bell, doesn't it?And in this case, the blogger really didn't have a leg to stand on. That much was clear when he was eviscerated on national television by Fox Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal, a longtime baseball writer for the Baltimore Sun. I've seen some commenters to various fan blogs the past 24 hours try to say the blogger "held his own'' but let's get real. It was ugly. I give the blogger -- I won't mention his name because I'm reluctant to give him his 15 minutes -- credit for going on with Rosenthal. If it was me on the air instead of Rosenthal, I would have torn the blogger to shreds in much the same way. Maybe even worse. I know Rosenthal and spoke to him at the ballpark yesterday after his ESPN appearance with said blogger. When you go on TV and radio a lot, you learn how to destroy people like the inexperienced blogger on-air. It was like that Korean dude pounding on Jose Canseco in Japan the other day.
I was lucky enough to enjoy 15 minutes of fame via my VoteForManny idea. I did interviews on the radio, in print. I was on ESPN Radio, MLB on XM, local radio in St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego, New York. I had a blast. It takes a bit of practice to get your feet under you to get your point across in a short window without sounding foolish. You have to learn to anticipate and have your rebuttals rehearsed. I learned quickly to have my responses "canned" and ready to go. I got better at it. Guessing Mr. Morris did not have that chance to learn from his on-air mistakes, but let's face it, the blogger got on national TV to debate with the pros. How AWESOME is that? Just ponder that for a quick moment: That's our equivalent of making the field at the US Open golf tournament as a walk-on weekend warrior. Behold the power of guts, verve, passion, and ignoring the intimidation of the pros. Good for Mr. Morris.
But I give the blogger props for standing up and taking his blows like a man. There is not enough of that in the internet world these days. Not enough accountability. And the fact he was ready to stand up for what he believed in gives me hope that he can one day rise to better things. That his blogging career was not just ruined by this one misstep. I don't think his was. It took some guts to wade into this topic.
Morris has his last word, follow-up available and it's well done.
Ken Rosenthal asked at one point, “how did we get here?” What I wish I had said was: “We got here because one newspaper mischaracterized what I said, because a reporter from that same paper went running to Raul Ibanez for a comment without (ostensibly) Ibanez or the reporter reading the actual article I wrote, and because the mainstream media and its holier-than-thou high standards decided to run with the story. If none of that had happened, the Raul Ibanez story would be making its way towards 300-400 views right now and fading from relevance even here at MSF, as opposed to being a national story.Rock on.
I wasn’t setting out to create a firestorm, but it is curious (there’s that word again) that the MSM was so quick to jump on the story. Could it be because the MSM salivates anytime the terms “steroids” or “PEDs” and an actual player’s name are in the same sentence? Might such stories drive pretty high traffic and viewership? Seems to me they would (and, admittedly, the last few days have proven it for us here at Midwest Sports Fans. Thanks mainstream media!).
Sons of famous dads getting drafted
The 2009 versions of "I have a famous dad" belong to:
- Asaad Ali, the youngest son of boxing great Muhammad Ali, drafted in the 40th round
- Michael Yastrzemski, the grandson of Red Sox icon and Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski (by Boston, naturally)
- Gavin McCourt, son of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, was drafted in the 39th round Thursday by the Boston Red Sox.
Anyone I missed?
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Where are they now: Brien Taylor
This is a few days old, but what an interesting tale. The sad story of Brien Taylor, from high school phenom to Exhibit #1 of "What happens if your draft pick is a bust":
He was 6-foot-4 and not fat and not skinny. He looked like a man. He swaggered like one, too, when he was on that mound, all presence and intimidation and fear. Batters started the walk to the plate with a chrysalis in their stomach, and by the time they saw that fastball, it metamorphosed into a full-on butterfly. Lord, that fastball. They swear it tickled 85 when he was 12, and Willie "Ray" Taylor, his daddy and catcher, remembers the sting when it caught the mitt's heel. Like a thousand bees at once.More than a tale of woe, it's an fascinating review of how the Yanks tried to lowball Taylor compared to Todd Van Poppel, with accusations of racism tossed in, and how this changed the tactics for agents thereafter.
"I've been through 28 drafts," Scott Boras says, "and Brien Taylor, still to this day, is the best high school pitcher I've seen in my life."
The offer was also $900,000 less in guaranteed money than Todd Van Poppel, the ballyhooed Texas right-hander, had signed for in the previous draft.Ya know what, I believe her completely, and you know I rarely believe people who claim it's not about the money...
"They had the attitude that these poor black people from the South were stupid and didn't know any better," Bettie says. "And we were. But, let me tell you, we learn quick."
From June 3, the day the Yankees chose Taylor, Bettie drew the line of demarcation: Pay him Van Poppel money or he's going to college. The Yankees raised their offer to $650,000. She said no.
"When I went in, I told them what I wanted," Bettie says. "And I wasn't going to budge from that."
Along came Boras, who Bettie had read about. She knew he wrangled the Van Poppel deal, and she was going to need help. Major League Baseball had sent in a representative to kindly ask the Taylors to accept the Yankees' offer. The scene resembled a mafia sitdown, and Bettie wouldn't have been surprised if a dead fish showed up on her windshield.
Single-handedly she was changing how baseball did business, empowering the players who, for so long, had been stunted by a rigid bonus structure.
[...]
"It was not about the money for me," Bettie says. "I told them what I expected, and it was a matter of respect and equality and pride."
We can only wonder what might have been had he not turned his shoulder into spaghetti.
MLB.tv gives its viewers the Heisman
Reader Keith K. clued me into this one:"This past week the geniuses over @ MLB decided to change their MLB.tv policy to make archived games unavailable until 90 minutes after the game. They were previously available immediately to "premium" subscribers and 45 min after the game to everyone else. As you can imagine, this makes watching anything but a live game on MLB.tv almost impossible for viewers on the ease coast. Their reasoning wass unbelievably that the "networks" requested the change. The complete disregard for their customers by MLB has left me disillusioned and flabbergasted."
To answer the original question, the networks requested waiting 90 minutes to be able to watch a game that has ended so that we do not interfere with the start of any encore presentations of a game that are shown once the game has ended.
The response to the reasoning above:"Thank you for answering my original question. However, it raises a new question. Based on your response, shouldn't the 90 minute policy only apply to games that were blacked out live (in other words, games in your local market)? If it's not a local game, an encore broadcast wouldn't air in my market, so it would be irrelevant and completely unnecessary to wait 90 minutes. For example, if I'm in Colorado, trying watching a game between the Marlins and the Phillies, the game would not be on local television, and therefore would not have an encore presentation. I don't understand how this 90 minute policy would apply to me."
"This policy change is absolutely unbelievable. As a premium subscriber I signed up for a product that would allow me to watch games whenever I want, now I have to wait until midnight, on average, to begin watching a game????? Meaning the game won't end until almost 3 am.
This is ridiculous. How can the policies be changed midseason like this with no regard for the customers and fans?????"
UPDATE: (9:51am): A message to anyone from MLBAM who reads this: Please email if you want to explain your stance on these changes. I want to be fair and impartial, if possible. And since I know someone from the mlbam.com ISP has been here reading this, please come back and speak up.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Ibanez defends himself
When I first heard that Ibanez was speaking out against a blogger for daring to question the purity of his bloodstream this year, I thought that he heard/read this. Evidently not.
"I'll come after people who defame or slander me," he said before last night's game against the New York Mets. "It's pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there."However, I DO like his tact here:
A column in yesterday's Inquirer brought to light an Internet blogger who wondered if Ibanez had used such drugs.
"Unfortunately, I understand the environment we're in and the events that have led us to this era of speculation," he said.Whew, I'm not 42 and thankfully my parents have no basement. But I am always accountable.
[...]
"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test," Ibanez said. "I'll give you back every dime I've ever made" if the test is positive.
"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."
And in case you weren't sure where I stand on Ibanez's surge:
Do I think that Ibanez is cheating in some way? No, I don't think so. But doesn't it, at least, look like the same late-career outlier that we now look back at for other players and point out "ah ha!"? We've done this for every player we thought/knew was using.
Mark Cuban's brother thinks Manny was a major user
Brian Cuban, Mark Cuban's brother, has some pretty interesting things to say about Manny: As a former steroid user, I am familiar with HCG. I have used it on numerous occasions. HCG itself is not a steroid, but a natural hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother’s hormones.
Any experienced steroid user knows that including HCG or a similar agent is a must for proper recovery after a steroid cycle. When a person takes testosterone steroids the body shuts down it’s natural production of testosterone to compensate for the huge spike in the artificial amount entering the blood stream. When the athlete finishes the 8-12 week cycle, the body is no longer producing adequate amounts of testosterone and must be “kick started” to get it flowing again.
If a person does multiple heavy steroid cycles over an extended period and does not use HCG, one of the worst nightmare of every male occurs. His balls shrivel up eventually looking like a couple of raisins. HCG is used to bring the family jewels back to normal size and and full “erectile” function.
What does all of this tell me about Manny Ramirez? It tells me that it within the realm of reasonable probability that he was probably doing significant and repeated testosterone steroid cycles.
Manny channels his inner McGwire
As a wise man once said: "You can't fix stupid".
Example #489,204:
The dreadlocked slugger, who also talked to manager Joe Torre, told reporters he isn't going to formally address the media about what led to his 50-game ban because it's in the past.You'd think that maybe, just maybe, Manny would remember the McGwire mistake: "I'm not here to talk about the past". Except that he clearly doesn't. If we've learned anything from those who have been outted: being upfront and honest (at least a reasonable attempt at honesty) goes a long way in a player's public relations rehabilitation. Worked for Pettite and others quite well. McGwire, Bonds, Clemens and others similarly defiant, not as much.
"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.
"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."
The last sentence, about murder and rape... well that's about as dumb a comment as you can make. I'll leave it at that.
A reasonable voice in Boston
Boy, after yesterday's whining, I was happy to read something refreshingly honest and reasonable from Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe today. Of course, the Boston faithful are sick of hearing it, though.Given the resources with which the Red Sox operate, we all know that they forever will have options, and Theo Epstein rarely fails to have an alternative plan for virtually every scenario. So long as the Sox have a big payroll and a productive farm system – kudos to the baseball operations department for this – they will have wherewithal to enhance the big-league roster with signings and trades. Still, given the amount of dead money the Sox now have on the roster -- Ortiz, Lugo and Drew will earn a combined average of $36 million per season, this year and next -- it now seems downright silly that the Sox may have lost out on Teixeira for as little as $2 million a year, especially when Teixeira would not have required a forfeiture of talent like that they sacrificed in, say, the Josh Beckett deal (Hanley Ramirez).
Maybe Teix was never really interested in Boston other than as a stalking horse for the Yanks. Maybe he was sincerely torn. We'll never know, unless he shares his thoughts once his playing days are over.
Many of us don’t regret the Beckett move and never will. But the point is that the Red Sox might have had Teixeira for nothing more than money, which now seems like an even better deal at a time when the Sox have some wasted money on their payroll.
But Mazz's comments are true; the only cost for a free agent is money (and a draft pick) and for a team with the financial prowess like Boston, falling $2M short given their other expenditures seemed shortsighted. True, the Yanks might have upped their offer again, but that's another thing we won't ever know for sure.
But, I'm happy to let this stuff pass under the bridge at this point. Whining doesn't help. Enough of the handwringing.
Sox fans, you guys are 6-0 against the Yanks so far this season after the 7-0 shutdown last night. Yet your beat writers are still obsessing about Teix as the 'one that got away'. Strange, no?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Friday Tuesday video fun: People falling down
A FOTB, Mark the Persistent Writer, was not a big fan of my posting of The Grape Lady falling down on Friday. I understand that laughing at people get hurt is walking a fine line, but it appears that I wasn't alone in my love of this video. To wit:
The #1 overall pick is a total crapshoot
If you like lists, the draft and nostalgia... here ya go: the #1 pick in every MLB draft since 1984...
1984: Shawn Abner, New York Mets- 1985: B.J. Surhoff, Milwaukee Brewers
- 1986: Jeff King, Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1987: Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle Mariners
- 1988: Andy Benes, San Diego Padres
- 1989: Ben McDonald, Baltimore Orioles
- 1990: Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves
- 1991: Brien Taylor, New York Yankees
- 1992: Phil Nevin, Houston Astros
- 1993: Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners
- 1994: Paul Wilson, New York Mets
- 1995: Darin Erstad, California Angels
- 1996: Kris Benson, Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1997: Matt Anderson, Detroit Tigers
- 1998: Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies
- 1999: Josh Hamilton, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
- 2000: Adrian Gonzalez, Florida Marlins
- 2001: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
- 2002: Bryan Bullington, Pittsburgh Pirates
- 2003: Delmon Young, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
- 2004: Matt Bush, San Diego Padres
- 2005: Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks
- 2006: Luke Hochevar, Kansas City Royals
- 2007: David Price, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
- 2008: Tim Beckham, Tampa Bay Rays
For every Chipper, Junior or ARod, you get a bunch of Bryan Bullingtons, Brien Taylors, Matt Bushs or Jeff Kings. Good luck, Strasburg.
Call it in the air...
Whining taken to a new level
For some reason, I thought this sorta whining coming from the Boston media was done, that somehow we were beyond this (note the subtitle: "Yanks buy first place and perhaps a title"). Guess not.There was nothing particularly savvy or skillful about it, of course. They were dealing with Scott Boras, so they knew that honor and integrity would play no part in the process.
Awwwwww. That's so sad. Boo hoo. Boston was $10m "short" in their efforts to buy first place, Mr. Callahan. Don't act so one-sided, looking down on the Yanks for doing exactly what you were prepared to do.
Just money. Lots and lots of money.
In other words, it was a New York Yankees kind of deal right from the start, a chance for them to buy the biggest house on the block and act like they built it with their bare hands.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman didn’t even have to travel to Mark Teixiera’s home to grovel. All he had to do was sit back, checkbook in hand, and let Boras do his thing. In the end, the slimy superagent did not let him down.Even though they already had a pretty good first baseman and third baseman, the Sox didn’t try to hide their affection for the best free agent on the market. They pounced on Teixeira like Brian Williams on Barack Obama. They made a bold offer of about $170 million over eight years.
And don't dare call that difference "sizable", because it represented just 6% of their total offer and that's not material by any stretch when you're whalehunting. That's close enough for the Sox ownership to call Boras and say, "call" and get Teix if he wanted to come to Boston for the same money as NY.
[...]
Cashman did as he was told. He topped the Sox by a sizable margin. Final number: $180 million over eight years with a full no-trade clause.
The Yanks do what they always do; use their financial might. And with some $80m+ coming off their payroll last year, all they did is backfill (with the best players available).
Mr. Callahan, you can hate on Boras all you wish. Makes no difference to me. He was only doing his job. And doing it damn well. If you think Boras would somehow treat the Sox differently than any other team, you're a fool. He's an agent with a singular mission: securing the largest deal for his clients. To think that he'd play favorites with Boston merely because they had worked well together in the past is either naive or dumb.
Also, don't try to portray Boston as some small market club, innocently being clubbed by the big, bad Yanks. As you noted, Mr. Callahan:It is easy to say the Red Sox should have known better, but after lavishing outrageous contracts on other Boras clients, including J.D. Drew and Daisuke Matsuzaka, maybe the Sox thought Boras would give them a fair shake. They thought wrong, and they got burned.
Pot, kettle? Not quite, I know. But close.
Just quit the whining. The Sox are an incredibly run organization with great talent up and down, and plenty more on the come. Whining is not something the organization does; they react and fix things as well as any other club. Why aren't you, Mr. Callahan, lauding your team for being only a game out of first despite a sinkhole at DH and slow starts by Beckett and Lester (though obviously both have come on like gangbusters lately, especially Lester), rather than whining about the Yanks' spending. It's not a new story.
UPDATE (6/9/09, 11:15am): Deadspin's take on the transfer fees being paid in soccer and how it might related to MLB:Perhaps someone with a more secure grasp of international sports could explain why U.S. sports don't try this transfer fee stuff. When teams like Milwaukee and Oakland and Minnesota watch their best players waltz away for big bucks contracts (or maybe get pennies on the dollar in a trade), would it help if Boston and New York had to dump big piles of cash on their old desks to take the talent? Or would it just give the small teams even more incentive to hoard money and stay terrible? The agents would certainly love to get in on that action.
Fun idea.
Random 'This Day In Baseball" tidbit
A double Zoilo Versailles reference, from this day in baseball history on B-R.com:
- 1966 - The Minnesota Twins rocks the Kansas City Royals with the first five-home run inning in American League history. Rich Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, Tony Oliva, Don Mincher and Harmon Killebrew connect in the seventh inning to give the Twins a 9-4 victory.
- Deaths: 1995 - Zoilo Versalles, infielder; All-Star (b. 1939)
All Star voting: Hypocrisy edition
DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to bash the fans of any particular team, but rather serve as an example of how hypocritical we can all get regarding the voting for the All Star Game.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When I launched the Vote For Manny site two weeks ago, some of the (publishable) hate mail looked like this:- f**k Manny vote for Raul Ibanez who is 6th in the voting and actually deserves to be a starter
- if Manny gets voted in then a more deserving player does not get to play in the ASG
- It's funny now; but, what if he would take a spot from another deserving player that works their ass off, and contributes everyday to his teams success?
There's the rub: Many people felt that a vote for Manny would be taking the spot away from a player --like Ibanez-- who otherwise deserved to start (or make the team). Big kudos to the fans in Philly who got out and voted like mad. They launched Ibanez from 6th to 2nd last week, and up to 1st in this week's tally. Totally deserved, too.
So, my Philly friends, how do you reconcile the fact that you also voted for a shortstop who is hitting just 0.222 with and OBP of 0.261, three HR and just ten SB? Doesn't the vote for Rollins fly right in the face of "a more deserving player does not get to play in the ASG"? Isn't that hypocritical, silly, contradictory?
You know what, I'm OK with Rollins being selected as a starter because the selection process allows the fans to dictate who the starters are. I love that we get to vote. I also like that every team has to have a representative. What I DO NOT LIKE is that after that very democratic and fan-friendly selection process, we have a rule that the game counts towards home field advantage in the All Star Game. I've been up on this soapbox for a while, so hopefully you understand my stance by now: These two concepts are in direct conflict. Either the game is an exhibition with the current selection process, or change the selection process to match the game having significance.
Mr. Selig, should you or one of your team in the Commissioner's Office be reading this: Please change something surrounding this game. I'm begging. Keep the fan-friendly selection process and let the game go back to being an exhibition, a nine-inning exhibition with no worries about a tie. The managers will manage in a fan friendly way, trying to work everyone into the game without worry about extra innings, since it would be merely an exhibition.
On other thing, Mr. Selig: You also need to figure out a way to battle the MLBPA to keep those who have tested positive out of their next eligible All Star Game. For integrity's sake. Ya know?
Oh, happy draft day
The miracle of the internet, the growth of fantasy baseball and the continuing growth of baseball in general has pulled the MLB player draft out of shadows and pulled it into the forefront. The draft starts today and, for example, the MLB Network is televising the whole thing. Overkill, maybe? Maybe not. Not for the MLB version of Mel Kiper, John Sickels. Sky Kalkman of Beyond The Boxscore was lucky enough to "sit" with him for a few minutes to discuss the draft:BtB: Where are the biggest opportunities for improving prospect evaluation? Better prediction of injuries? Predicting development of skillsets? Mental and emotional diagnosis? Other?
A good read given the fun that will take place later today.
John Sickels: I would say the mental side. I think finding new ways to assess a player’s mental and emotional makeup, both currently and in the future, is the "next frontier." Some people are doing neurobiological work the "brain types" of competitive athletes, while others are taking a more psychological approach. A lot of teams use standardized personality tests, and of course scouts have been assessing and analyzing player personalities for 100 years. I think that is where the next breakthroughs in player analysis will be, though what exactly that breakthrough will involve, I don’t know.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Philly rocks the vote
Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez are now atop the NL voting leaderboard.
Still whining about it being only this year's best players should be selected with Rollins pretty much sucking it up this year? He's batting 0.222 with just 3 HR and 10 SB. The third 2009 National League balloting update for Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, to be held July 14 in St. Louis, was released Monday and two more Phillies -- shortstop Jimmy Rollins and outfielder Raul Ibanez -- have taken the lead at their respective positions.
Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez, suspended for 50 games on May 7 for violating baseball's drug policy, remains a topic of conversation. The slugger remained in the fifth spot but with an edge of fewer than 6,000 votes over the Phillies' Shane Victorino. Two weeks ago, Ramirez was in the fourth spot among outfielders on the ballot.
Remember, either keep the game an exhibition (and leave the fan vote/mandatory representation intact) or have the game count (and pick the best 32 players via a new hybrid selection process). Not both. And no one suspended for a violation of the drug policy should be eligible for selection to their next available All Star Game.
Got it?
Post-script on Saturday's game
I missed most of the games this weekend; the weather was gorgeous and we had a ton of outdoor activities to attend. I fine trade-off, if I do say so.
As a result, I missed seeing the 9th inning meltdown on Saturday and the comeback win on Sunday. I did, however, hear the cries of "disrespect" being showered down on Girardi as a result of having Mo intentionally walk Evan Longoria.
My two cents: Oh, spare me, will ya?
Yes, Mo wants to attack every hitter. But sometimes, a manager wants to play the odds. That Girardi had Mo walk Longoria intentionally is not disrespectful. It was strategy and while Mo didn't want any part of it, those are the breaks.
"He's pitched Upton tougher than he's pitched Longoria during the course of his career," Girardi said. "That's why I made the move."That being said, I think the decision to walk a hobbling Longoria was indeed a bad one, but it wasn't disrepectful. There were two outs and Longoria wasn't beating out any throw. But that's secondary to this discussion.
"If it were me, I would have pitched to [Longoria], but I'm not the manager," said Rivera, who yielded an RBI single to Upton that prompted Girardi to pull him. "[Why?] Because that's what I do; I don't go out there to intentionally walk guys.
"I think I have good stuff to get people out, but it's not my decision."
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