MLB Report
Roy Halladay of the upstart Toronto Blue Jays won his 11th consecutive start.
It's the longest such streak in the majors in 6 years. Another hot young pitcher
is Florida's Dontrelle Willis who followed his one-hit outing against the Mets
with another shutout against the Devil Rays. Willis is 7-1 on the season and his
animated style is reminiscent of Mark "The Bird" Fidrych and "The Mad Hungarian"
Al Hrobosky (both pitched in the 70's). If you have the chance, Willis is
definitely worth watching. The first of the "Geographic Rival" Weekends with
mixed results. The trouble is there was only series that had any real draw to it
(Giants vs. A's). The rest were mostly a good team against a bad team or two bad
teams. I ranted a bit last week about Fox choosing the Yanks and Cards over the
Mariner's and Braves for there game of the week and I'd like to extend that
discussion a bit. So if a Fox or ESPN executive happens to read this, listen up.
Yankees/Mets, White Sox/Cubs: we don't care. Dodgers/Angels: we mostly don't
care. Believe it or not, there are people who do not live in New York, Chicago,
or L.A. The Dodgers/Angels series had a limited national appeal because the
Dodgers are playing well and the Angels are the defending champs, although they
are not playing particularly well. But the other two series pits one good team
(Yankees, Cubs) against really bad teams (Mets, White Sox) We've seen these
series before, and they're just not that interesting outside their particular
markets. The Mets/Yankees didn't even feature the Clemens/Piazza matchup as
Clemens wasn't scheduled to pitch and Piazza's on the DL. Nevertheless, two of
the three games from each of these series were nationally televised. The Blue
Jays/Expos is a better series for crying out loud. At least those two teams both
have post season hopes. I realize one could argue that despite their position in
the standings, the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, and sometimes Red Sox and Cardinals
get more national games because they're more popular. I can grant that, but you
can fix that. Show the Mariners. Show the A's. Show the Astros. These are three
teams that are doing well (and have done so for the last five years). How can
the baseball fans across the country become fans of teams like these and gain a
national following unless you put them on TV sometimes? I'm a Mariner fan, but
I'm not arguing that the M's/Padres series should have been the game of the
week. It shouldn't be either one. It should have been the A's/Giants because it
was two good teams playing a series that had meaning as each team needs every
win to maintain or gain on their current positions. With that in mind - I want
to introduce a new weekly feature to the MLB Report: The Real Game of the Week.
This way if you turn on Fox on Saturday to be propogated by the Yankees and the
like, you'll know that there is another game out there with more meaning and
better matchups. Sometimes the popular teams will be The Real Game of the Week,
and that's okay. Who can deny that Yankees/Red Sox (given their current position
in the AL East) would be the game with the most national appeal? So the first
ever Real Game of the Week is Oakland @ San Fransisco. The schedule next weekend
is largely the same as last weekend, so the decision is really a no-brainer.
It seems this report has spilled into a second paragraph, and here are my
reasons. We're approaching the halfway mar for the season (I believe the end of
next week), the All-Star game is coming up, and the Trading Deadline follows
shortly after that. As a result there will lots of things to cover in July and I
need to get a head start. Next week I want to look at projected award winners
and play "If the Playoffs Started Today" in addition to the fact that the
All-Star starters should be named by then. So this week I want to make
predictions about who will be an All-Star and who deserves to be an All-Star.
The Commisioner's Office expanded the All-Star roster from 30 to 32 to give each
team more pitchers and try to avoid the tie that happened last year. The other
stipulation, in case you didn't know, is that every team must be represented,
which results in some undeserving selections and some snubs. I doubt there will
be any change in the current voting, so we'll assume that the current vote
leaders will get to start. In the NL that would be Ivan Rodriguez (C - FLA),
Jeff Bagwell (1B - HOU), Jeff Kent (2B - HOU), Edgar Renteria (SS - STL), Scott
Rolen (3B - STL), Barry Bonds (OF - SF), Sammy Sosa (OF - CHC), and Gary
Sheffield (OF - ATL). I can accept all of these choices but one: There's no way
Sosa deserves to start over Albert Pujols. There is no case for that whatsoever.
I suppose there will be 12 more position players and 12 pitchers. The pitchers
should be: Kevin Brown (LAD - game starter), Woody Williams (STL), Mark Prior
(CHC), Kevin Millwood (PHI) Al Leiter (NYM - we have to pick a Met), Russ Ortiz
(ATL), Hideo Nomo (LAD), Dontrell Willis (FLA), Octavio Dotel (HOU), Billy
Wagner (HOU), John Smoltz (ATL), and Eric Gagne (LAD). That leaves 12 position
players and 7 NL teams not currently represented, so let's knock those out. The
only real option from the Diamondbacks is Luis Gonzalez. As a Padre, we take 2B
Mark Loretta, and from Colorado we take Todd Helton. The Reds have to send Aaron
Boone to play 3B, Kenny Lofton comes from Pittsburg, and Richie Sexson comes
from the Brewers. This leaves only the Expos who will be represented by Orlando
Cabrerra at SS. That leaves 6 more roster spots for players who actually deserve
it. Obviously we add Pujols and that leaves five. Given what we have so far, we
have a back up at every position except catcher and Javy Lopez is the clear
choice; we also take Marcus Giles from Atlanta. Next we take Mike Lowell (3B)
from Florida. The last two spots go to Preston Wilson of Colorado and Rafael
Furcal of Atlanta. Sorry: Cory Patterson, Austin Kearns, Andruw Jones, Paul Lo
Duca, and Jim Edmonds. Albert Pujols, if not elected, will start as the DH since
the game is held in an AL park. AL All-stars reviewed later this week.