Category: Uncategorized

It didn’t help that Scott Rolen was voted NL starting thirdbaseman.  No offense to Scotty who I have immense respect but when you miss as many weeks as he he did, he get no All-Star votes from me.  This is what you get when thousands of uninformed, too-loyal fans vote on the Internet.

Morgan Ensberg has been a catalyst for the Astros all season.  By all season, I mean he has played all 82 games so far.  That’s just the start.  At .971, Ensberg has the highest OPS of any non-All-Star.  Actually, D Lee, Pujols and Abreu are the only ones who have a higher mark.  Among NL thirdbasemen, Ensberg leads in homers, rbis, and runs.  If that’s not enough for you, he also leads in walks.

The Astros are two runs away from last place in runs scored.  I’m no Bill James but to me, that makes his run production that much more critical. Without his 61 rbis and 50 runs, the Astros would be in a dire place and definitely not in second place.  Manager Phil Garner would be the first to agree according to an article in the Houston Chronicle:

What he refused to tell anyone is that he played with a bonfire in his right elbow. Until this spring when he told manager Phil Garner, he offered no alibis, accepted the criticism without complaint, and did the best he could with what he had.

“That shows me something,” Garner said. “That shows you he’s pretty tough. Even last year when he was hurt, he got some big hits down the stretch for us. When (Lance) Berkman and (Jeff) Kent were pitched around, he drove in some huge runs.”

Ensberg has been the Astros’ most valuable offensive player this season. With no Carlos Beltran or Kent, with Jeff Bagwell injured and Berkman missing the opening month, the Astros have been desperate for power.

They’re still the lowest-scoring offense in the National League, but without Ensberg’s 22 home runs and 60 RBIs, they’d be buried.

“We’d be in last place,” Garner said.

With all that said, Morgan Ensberg gets my vote for Most Deserving NL Player left off the All-Star roster.

This Pirate fan never caught a souvenir ball all his life.  Not a foul ball nor a homer.

Until June 22, that is.

Within 15 minutes, he caught three foul balls in a game against the Nats.  One off Jason Bay and two off Jack Wilson. 

Read the story at the Pittburgh Post-Gazette.

Here is the NL All-Star roster.

Derrek Lee won.  That’s old news, I know but it bears repeating.  Even as a Cub fan, I don’t necessarily relish in it even though it was the right decision.  Albert Pujols is one of my favorite players (a cynic would say that’s because he’s on my APBA team but I think it’s more than that).  Albert is having a hellva year. 

That said, the right person was chosen.  Lee was the best choice hands down whether you base it on stats or contribution to team. 

 The starting lineup as a whole for the NL seems a lot weaker (and a lot less deserving, IMHO) than the AL’s.  Where the AL starters seem to be chosen on merit, the NL’s appear to be picked on name recognition and team loyalty (giving the advantage to the big market clubs). 

I’m not sure there was much that was to be done about catcher.  There were others probably better than Piazza but none that realistically could get voted in ahead of him.  David Eckstein is a scrappy shortstop who would fit better in the 1950’s.  Scott Rolen, who was injured for a good part of this year, simply got in on previous experience and name recognition.  Carlos Beltran is a centerfielder who had a lot of potential and probably still does but this year hasn’t lived up to potential. 

The good news is that the managers and players did their best to choose some deserving players as reserves.  Luis Castillo has a good OBP (.434), Felipe Lopez is having a fantastic year, and outfieders Andruw Jones and Carlos Lee are having All-Star caliber years.  And then there’s Pujols, of course.  Don’t forget to put them early, Coach!

The pitching selections seem solid.  Fortunately, the players looked past Clemens’ low win total (they knew his 6-3 record wasn’t his fault, he has a 1.41 ERA).  I would love to have any of the pitchers on the NL squad on my team.  Brian Fuentes is the only one I don’t know a whole lot about but his stats look pretty decent considering he pitches half the time in Colorado. 

Go NL!

Here’s a link to the team picked so far for the American League.

I have no real beef with any starter voted on the AL side.  I was pleased to see Mark Teixeira eke out a ballot victory over Tino Martinez who was leading for most of time.  Teixeira had a very good season last season but this year he is showing superstar potential.

I’m surprised Hideki Matsui was left off the reserve list.  As much as I like Garret Anderson, I think Matsui has better stats this year not to mention making the difference in a lot of Yankee games.

The starting pitchers picked for the AL all seemed to make sense.  Buehrle, Colon, Halladay, Rogers (yeah, well, we’ll see if he actually pitches), Santana, are all having solid, if not great years.  Picking relievers, I think, is more something that is left to discretion.  Case in point, Justin Duchscherer.  Granted his stats are there.  But I’m a little surprised.  I’m sure Francona had a reason for picking him though.

I found this and thought it was somewhat funny. 

Fark.com had a photoshop contest entitled “Theme:  If real world problems were handled by umpires…”

I’ve noticed that USA Today has made some slight changes in their format on their baseball web pages.  I should like it but as usual, I’m resistant to change. 

The change specifically is that they have rolled the box scores, the play-by-play, and summaries into one page.  Before, they just had box scores one after another.  They also spruced it up with a graphical format. 

The one thing I have appreciated about USA Today’s stats format is the ease of seeing current MLB stats.  They’re all on one page separated by teams for each league.  No unnecessary graphics. No need to click back and forth for each team.  Nice and simple.  The same could be said for the their box score page.  One simple text page full of box scores. 

I can get used to their new format and probably even grow to appreciate it. 

As long as they don’t feel the need to “modernize” their other stats pages similar to the other sports media’s web sites which I personally find less user-friendly. 

Also, since they updated their format on Thursday, their box scores haven’t been updated since.  Maybe they have a few bugs to work out.

I’m going to resist using the requisite “Gambler” references in my headline.  They’ve all been used.

There’s not a lot to say.  About the same time that one Ranger pitcher gets his sentence in court for his outburst against a fan, Kenny Rogers decides to take on a cameraman.  The cycle just continues with the Rangers pitching staff.  Their PR department must be working overtime.

I’m sure there will be those out there that will say that the cameraman had it coming.  Feh.  From all I heard, all the reporters and photographers, including the cameraman, were in their proper spot designated for media.  From the footage I saw, Rogers clearly came after the cameraman and most certainly had a bug up his butt.

For those who want to see a pitcher on a rampage, here is the link.

Update:  Rogers received a 20-game suspension.  He plans to appeal and will play during the appeal process.

On Tuesday, the Yankees blew their lead to the Orioles on a Brian Roberts’ walk-off homerun.  If you read ESPN’s article, you would have to read at least 3 paragraphs down before any mention of Rafael Palmeiro’s two record achievements that game. 

Such has been the career of Palmeiro the most unheralded player in this era.

Tuesday, Raffy’s 563 career homerun tied him with Reggie Jackson for 9th on the all-time list.  In addition, his two rbis passed Frank Robinson and he is now 15th all-time.  He now has 1813 rbis.

His stats are quite handsome yet how many people outside of us baseball fanatics know who he is?  He has remained pretty much unknown throughout his career.  Unless he is recognized from his Viagra ads.  And I won’t even go there.

But think of it.  He is only 37 homeruns away from the very coveted mark of 600.  As it is now, he has more homeruns than notable sluggers Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle and will most likely pass Harmon Killebrew this year (he needs 10 more).  He has more rbis than the aforementioned FRobbie, Cal Ripken, and Reggie Jackson.

As with most record holders, Raffy has done what he has done by virtue of his consistent play.  With the exception of the strike year 1994 and 1995 (143 games), he has played no less than 152 games every year since 1988.  Year in, year out, he has put out solid seasons yet never led the league in homers, slugging, or rbis.  In addition, he not won any MVP awards.  Yet, because of his consistent play, he leads all active players in hits, doubles, games and at-bats.  He was also second in total bases and third in homeruns.

Kudos to Rafael Palmeiro, the quiet superstar.

Last month, I wrote about Katie Brownell, the Little League girl who threw a perfect game and struck out every batter she faced.  It turns out she hasn’t escaped the attention of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Hall plans to commemorate the event on July 7 and the jersey she wore during her perfect game will be on display.  The jersey will eventually be part of either the Women in Baseball exhibit or Youth Baseball exhibit.

It seems for now that Mark Teixeira is leading in the polls for AL All-Star firstbaseman.  About time.  Teixeira has overtaken Tino “.227 BA” Martinez. 

Not only does MT have 20 homers and 58 rbis, he also sports a .363 OBP.