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| All in all, I'm not sure anyone's ever done a worse job managing a game than Clint Hurdle did for the NL all-stars. Let's just do a quick run-through of the awful decisions that he made. It's late, so I might forget one or two, but here goes...
-Letting Russell Martin get 3 plate appearances, leaving Brian McCann on the bench until the 15th inning. There's a catcher reentry rule in the all-star game, and this was just inexcusable. McCann is a catcher with a .940 OPS. Giving him zero plate appearances in a 15-inning game is criminally awful.
-Using Aaron Cook in extra innings while Carlos Marmol and Brad Lidge were still in the bullpen. What are you, nuts? Cook happened to eke out three scoreless innings. That doesn't make this NOT a terrible decision.
-Not intentionally walking Grady Sizemore in the 12th with a runner on 2nd and no outs, with a groundball pitcher in (with Longoria and Morneau following). Again, this worked out ok, doesn't make it a good decision.
-Putting Cristian Guzman into the game. I don't really care if it was justified. I wanted to see him not play, because he doesn't belong in the all-star game. He's Cristian Guzman, for crying out loud.
-Using Ryan Dempster for an inning (the 9th) before Marmol or Lidge.
-Using Aaron Cook in extra innings while Carlos Marmol and Brad Lidge were still in the bullpen. I included it twice, because it was so colossally stupid.
On another note, has any position player ever had as bad an all-star game as Dan Uggla did? I'd have to guess not.
And one more thing: if a pitcher doesn't want to pitch in the all-star game, take him off the roster! Why the hell are Brandon Webb and Scott Kazmir there if they're not supposed to pitch? Replace them with starters who are willing and able to throw multiple innings.
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| As we all know, the all-star game sucks. It's boring and pointless, and nobody cares. Here are a few simple things that might help.
1. Stop trying to get everyone on the roster into the game. I like Carlos Guillen, but he should not be taking ABs away from Alex Rodriguez. Late in the game, most of the players in there are good, but not outstanding. Russell Martin? Aramis Ramirez? Yawn.
2. Get rid of the ludicrous requirement that every team needs to be represented. We do not need a Washington National, a Baltimore Oriole, or a Detroit Tiger this year. Actually, we don't need a Seattle Mariner either, but apparently fans are ignorant enough to vote Ichiro in. Are there really any die-hard Nationals fans out there who wouldn't watch the game unless Cristian Guzman gets to sit on the bench?
I hate seeing deserving players get snubbed to make room for someone who clearly doesn't belong. Jose Reyes belongs in there instead of Guzman (and Tejada). George Sherrill could get replaced by John Danks, Jon Lester, or Gavin Floyd, and I'd be happy with it. He isn't even the best pitcher on the Orioles.
3. For the love of God, please 1) don't let players vote in the reserves, and 2) somehow convince the managers to take the roster selection process seriously. Nothing is more irritating than seeing someone like Pat Burrell who's tearing up the league left off the roster because he just doesn't have a reputation. I'm sorry, but not putting a guy with an OPS over 1.000 on the all-star roster is criminally bad.
4. With the previous points in mind, reduce the size of the rosters. Let's make an all-star appearance somewhat of an exclusive honor, and then maybe the players will actually care. Ideally, I would like the role of the manager's position player selections to be the correction of fan voting mistakes, that is, adding players who should have been voted in as starters but weren't.
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| I am so sick of this.I just saw the headline: "Jeter clutch as Pettitte, Yanks blank Rays."
Jeter hit a go-ahead two-run double.... in the third inning. If that makes a person clutch, then I'm an Eskimo. NOBODY ELSE would be called "clutch" for doing this.
Sports media, please relax your grip on Derek Jeter's testicles. You might hurt your jaws.
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| This makes me sadhttp://mlb.mlb.com/tb/fan_forum/dotg.jsp (episodes 2 and 3)
I really loathe people who blindly denigrate knowledge and understanding. Statistics... prevent fans from enjoying baseball? Wait, really?????? That's what the troglodytes who came up with these cartoons think? To me, this looks like a high school football player clumsily making fun of the smart kid. Guess what: you're an idiot, and the smart kid knows what he's doing.
I was really rooting for the Rays this year too. If their organization is going to show anti-intellectual trash like this, I might be forced to cheer for the Red Sox in the AL East.
The American League East: now officially my least favorite division in baseball.
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Essentially the same thing I've written in years past:
AVG OBP SLG HR SB
Player A .276 .331 .379 3 4
Player B .307 .359 .448 6 4
Yeah, yeah, player A is Derek Jeter, player B is Michael Young. Jeter's going to start over Young in the all-star game, because voters are still a bunch of imbeciles.
This happens year after year. Can people please stop citing all-star starts/appearances as valid credentials on a player's resume?
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