MLB Report
There is not much to report this week besides the All-Star selections. So let me
give you The Real Game of the Week: Giants @ Diamondbacks, and move straight to
the mystery that is the All-Star teams. Click to see the NL team or the AL team.
Every year there are surprising selections by fans and managers as well as
significant snubs. The snubs are typically caused by bad voting on the part of
the fans, but this year I think the fans have done fairly well. I have no
disputes with the NL starters and in the AL I affirm six choices, am not
convinced of two (Hideki Matsui over several other deserving candidates and
Alfonso Soriano over Bret Boone), and strongly deny one (Troy Glaus over Hank
Blalock). I don’t dispute any of the reserves, but I need to qualify that
statement. There might be some players left off the team that deserve to be
there over another player who is there. But all the players that are going are
having All-Star caliber seasons. On the NL squad I was surprised by these
selections: Mike Williams (PIT), Paul Lo Duca (LAD), and Rondell White (SDP).
Notable NL snubs: Hideo Nomo (LAD), Octavio Dotel (HOU), Corey Patterson (CHC),
Juan Pierre (FLA). I was happy to see Sammy Sosa and Ivan Rodriguez (two players
I generally like) fail in the vote and then fail to be selected as a reserve;
they just don’t deserve it. On the AL team I was surprised by the selections of
Barry Zito (OAK), Lance Carter (TBD), Shigetoshi Hasegawa (SEA), and Carl
Everett (CHW/TEX). Notable AL snubs: Gil Meche (SEA), Sidney Ponson (BAL), Roger
Clemens (NYY – this is his last year, for crying out loud! I hate the Yankees,
but the guy is a baseball legend, and he has pitched well enough to deserve a
spot.), Aubrey Huff (TBD). Each team will have one more player who will be
elected by the fans. This is a really silly idea, but if you want to vote you
can do it at MLB.com. I am voting for Geoff Jenkins and Eric Byrnes, but Jason
Giambi and Benito Santiago will probably win.