It's nice for that to be an option, but I hope that fan doesn't end up doing it out of necessity. I remember when the guy who caught Bonds' record-breaking HR* ended up selling it because he couldn't afford it. Ummm...what? How can you not afford to keep a souvenir? It had something to do with taxes, but it never made sense to me. How the shit can you be taxed for catching a baseball? * Herp-da-derp
Craig Kimbrel to replace Matt Cain on the NL team. Such great news for Braves fans, even though it's simply because Cain pitched yesterday. That seemed to be expected. No word yet on whether Tommy Hanson will replace Cole Hamels, though.
Not a big fan of letting the captains pick the Home Run Derby participants. Sure, Cano and Gonzalez were great, but the rest of them sucked. I wanna see guys that can crush the ball, like Howard and Pujols. And they are going to run into problems when the captains start picking their teammates and homies. This is where you should let the fans vote. Or pick some random fans and let them be "Captains" and pick. Or at least let the captains be whomever has the most home runs in each league at the break or led the league the year before.
It's not necessarily the captains' fault that guys like that weren't participating. Every year, guys are asked to take part and they refuse, usually to spend time with their families or some stupid notion that the Home Run Derby is cursed. Conventional baseball wisdom/paranoia/superstition claim that players in the Derby tend to decline in the second half of the season, mainly due to changing their swing to hit home runs or wearing themselves out over the course of a night. Personally, I think it's bullshit. These guys take BP every day of the season and for at least some of that time, they're only trying to hit home runs. If one night of exclusively trying to hit home runs really fucked up their swings, they wouldn't be doing it every day in BP. Somewhat obviously, most guys who make the All-Star teams and the Derby are having above-average seasons compared to their career totals. It makes sense that they would regress towards their career averages over the second half of the season.
The Captains picked the participants. I did not read anywhere where people were asked and declined the invitation. How many people would have to turn Fielder down before he got to Rickie Weeks?
I know Teixeira was asked by Ortiz and refused, but I'm not sure of any others. And both captains took a guy from their teams, one of whom made the finals. If Fielder felt like he had to take a Brewer, you've got to imagine he would've taken Braun if he were healthy.
That was the best Home Run Derby I've seen. The Celeb game was snoretastic though so it all evens out. Can we just get on with god damn football already?
Teixeira said he would go if he was in the AS game, but he wasn't so I can understand that. They didn't pick anybody outrageous (Holiday was somewhat of a reach) but I can see the potential for issues in the future. I would have thought Braun too, but he is coming off a calf injury. Maybe they asked a bunch of people and they refused. Because I am a Homer, I would have liked to have seen Mike Stanton in there. Everybody says he hits the longest BP home runs in the league. Maybe next year...
Ortiz picked guys so that his team would win (Gonzalez, Cano) Prince? He picked his guys (Kemp and Weeks? Come on) so that HE would have a better chance to win.
I watched all NINETEEN innings of last night's game between the Pirates and Braves only to watch it end like this. Unbelievable. I'm sure there will be at least one person here who says that none of the evidence (screencaps, video, etc) definitively proves the tag was made. I'll just politely say that I disagree with you. "There isn't in baseball a large desire for instant replay." - Bud Selig. Seriously? Fuck yourself.
Yeah that was nice. I especially like how the ump doesn't really admit his mistake. "I saw the tag, but he looked like he oléd him, and I called him safe for that. I looked at the replays and it appeared he might have got him on the shin area. I'm guessing he might have got him, but when I was out there when it happened, I didn't see a tag. I just saw the glove sweep up. I didn't see the glove hit his leg." Drop the 'might have got him' bit. He clearly got him. At least it's more of an acknowledgment than this damn play.
That was a fucking bullshit call. So, people who actually know baseball, what can you tell me about this Colby Rasmus guy who's a Jay now other than he's highly touted and his relationship with his previous coaches was horrible?
Some asshole I work with made the argument "Great catchers would have put that glove right into his body and taken him down. Fisk wouldn't have made that swipe tag." Shut the fuck up douchenozzle. Maybe he made a light tag cause there were other runners in play. And when the ball is there 10 ft before the runner, I don't know how you give the runner the benefit in that situation. Oled him my ass.
Tony la Russa is kinda weird and territorial, and clearly disliked Rasmus. It was mutual, so there was definitely some non-baseball pressure to move him. He's had a tough start to this season, but he's only 24, so he's not in his prime yet. He'll hit for mediocre average, take some walks, hit with a good power and play a decent center field. He's not going to wow you with any particular facet of his game, but it all adds up to an above-average player who is cheap and young, which is exactly what the Jays need. St. Louis kinda got fleeced in this deal, unless they really think that Duncan can work his magic with Rzeczechrepublicky.
The Rangers (jokingly) ban the wave. http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=6816167 As an on the record wave-hater, I wish this was official policy.
My Indians made a huge splash w/Ubaldo... I like the boldness but I'm not sure about giving up Pomeranz.
The Pirates picked up Derrek Lee. This is pretty much the kind of (almost) lateral move the Pirates would make with Lee being a very marginal upgrade over Lyle Overbay. Defensively I consider it a push, same fielding % and Overbay has 1 more error with 13 more games played. Lee has been better at the plate than Overbay, but not by much: 20 points higher in average, same OBP, better slugging b/c Lee has 5 more home runs in 14 less at bats. However, Lee also has 9 more strike outs despite having fewer at bats and has grounded into 1 more double play. All in all I'm rather meh about it. Lee didn't break the bank in terms of the trade or in salary, and it's nice to see management (1) be buyers and (2) be responsible when put in that position and not selling the farm. As for what he adds to the team though, Lee isn't going to push this team over the top, but good Lord will I be happy to see Overbay out of the lineup.
He has been warned about his involvement in underground poker games by his team and Bud Selig in the past, obviously because concerns would arise about possible bets on games. This is big. When the stakes are that high and the house is taking a cut - there is obviously Mob involvement. So, of course MLB is going to freak out about it, because it compromises "the integrity of the game." And yes, while it is absolutely fucking laughable to think that steroid use wouldn't be looked at as compromising the integrity of the game - for a long time, nobody gave a shit about it. It wasn't really until 2005 that MLB took a real stand on the issue. I predict a forced one-year vacation for the golden boy. Or maybe "an early retirement." He and MJ can become pals and golf together?
Fuck so do I. It's cool for the kids but overall, it's goddamn annoying. And Texas fans are so used to losing that they still don't know what to do or when to do now that we've got a decent team.