The regular season is 1/3 over. Who’s should be going to the All-Star Game? How has your team performed compared to expectations?
Last month’s thread can be found here.
Why all of the Giants, of course…isn’t that obvious?
Seriously, the Giants could conceivably have 6 representatives: Posey ought to start at catcher, and Brandon Crawford at shortstop. Brandon Belt won’t win the vote at first base, but is worthy of being selected, as is Hunter Pence in the outfield. And both Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto are having all-star worthy seasons.
How many of them actually make the roster? Who knows. I’m far more concerned about making it through the month of June with a winning record. They have a bit of a cushion, and have been matching the Dodgers win-for-win (and loss-for-loss, and off day-for-off day) for the past couple weeks, so I’m hopeful that will sustain them through the upcoming Swoon…
Looking at the June schedule for both SF and LA, the two teams should be just about in the same relative places to each other at the end of the month. Reasonably, based on who they are playing, SF should go 20-7 for the month, while LA goes 21-7.
Of course, now that I’ve said that both teams will terminally slump while the Rockies go on a tear.
Have Royals fans orchestrated their All Star voting sabotage yet? Last year the Red Sox had their one mandatory rep at the game, Brock Holt. He won’t be going this year, but I could see at least 5 others. David Ortiz is a lock. Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr should be very near locks. Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia have a strong case. Even Travis Shaw and Steven Wright aren’t out of the question.
The Sox start the day 3 games ahead of the O’s in 1st place, having just taken the first 2 games of 4 in Baltimore. David Price has a nice W/L record and a lot of K’s, but the rest of his numbers are mediocre. Hopefully he’ll improve. Eduardo Rodriguez had a nice first start of the season last night, which is very encouraging. So yeah, I’m pleased with where they are.
Marlon Byrd suspended 162 games for a second failed PED test.
Bad blow for the Indians. I guess Byrd thought it was worth the PED risk to squeeze another season or so into his career.
Xander Bogaerts, .350/.401/.516 and 2.9 WAR, is currently leading Alcides Escobar, .267/.297/.312 and 0.0 WAR, by a mere 5,000 votes. So I’m going to go with yes.
In his case, I almost understand. He probably wanted to squeeze out one more million dollar year (I think his contract was literally for $1M this year) and he’s not in danger of jeopardizing a shot at the HOF. He’s 38 years old and this is most likely a career ending suspension. But if it was a choice of PEDs or retirement, I hate to say it, but I get it.
Toronto is 29-26. The bullpen has lost fourteen games, which is kind of amazing.
I’m optimistic, and think they have a good chance to do better. I like the chances of a team that has really massive, obvious problems as opposed to a general weakness, and Toronto has obvious problems. The middle infielders were an offensive tire fire, the catchers have hit about as well as Ralph Wiggum, and, well the bullpen lost 14 games. All of those things are self-correcting; players will either play less and be replaced with superior players (Devon Travis is replacing Ryan Goins) or players will simply play better because it’s just extremely unlikely they are actually this bad (Russell Martin, Drew Storen.)
Conversely, no regular player is playing out of his mind.
If I had an MVP vote to this point I’d pick Manny Machado in the AL and Clayton Kershaw in the NL.
The Giants lost in extra innings (because the tying run scored in the 9th on a wild pitch) and the Sharks lost in OT. Not a good day for Bay Area sports. Go, Warriors.
And Hunter Pence is on the DL with a hamstring.
The June Swoon is on. (OK, that may be premature.)
By the way, Mookie Betts has as many home runs in the last 2 days as the Braves hit in the entire month of April (5).
Well, I’m certainly glad I didn’t write a celebratory post about the Mariners embarrassing the Padres on Tuesday …
Tue: SEA 16, SD 4
Wed: SEA 6, SD 14
I wonder if a player has ever hit seven homers in three games? I’d like to see Betts do it.
Aside from being an excellent ballplayer, you just have to like an athlete named “Mookie.” Everyone liked Mookie Wilson.
They’re tied!
Shawn Green did it May 23-25 2002 for the Dogers
Been done twice, I think. Ralph Kiner in 1947, Shawn Green in 2002.
Madison Bumgarner pitched 7.2 innings, struck out 11, and hit a 2-run homer in a 4-0 win over Atlanta.
I was about to remind you the the Jays’ next game is against Boston, but then I realized that just because Toronto has an off day today doesn’t mean that the Sox do. :smack:
Unusual game between Baltimore and Boston last night.
The Red Sox hit five homers to the Orioles’ none, and Baltimore still won by 5 runs.
Betts is named for Mookie Blaylock. His mother apparently liked basketball better.
He was also the Tennessee state high school champion bowler. He’s played every position for Boston except P and C, and very well, too. It’s almost a shame to waste him in RF. He learned the game from his uncle as much as anyone - maybe you remember an infielder, played for everyone, named Terry Shumpert.
If they can heal in the 2nd half of the season, the Giants should be set up well for another even-year run. Three good starters and still a pretty solid bullpen. I kinda miss Romo as the closer, though. Definitely one of the more entertaining victory dances of all time.