Sal Perez has started the ASG six times, so he’s done pretty well. He is having a bit of a rough season.
Not this year.
Soto is a player who I don’t care if he’s hitting 180/275/390, I want him in the ASG.
Yeah, the play hasn’t warranted it yet, but he’s a face of the game. And, he’s an amazing talent, still time for him to get scorching hot by the ASG.
Even having a BAD year by his standards, Soto is a good player. He’s substantially above average; he leads the league in walks, is still hitting home runs, and his defense isn’t all that bad.
I have never agreed with the idea that the All Star Game should select as its players the guys who happened to have the best starts this year from April to June; leaving out guys like Juan Soto because some guy had a flukey first half and is marginally better just seems crazy to me. If a Juan Soto is having a legitimately terrible year, well, sure, but a balance must be struck between this year and a player’s genuine greatness. Juan Soto is a GREAT player; a five week dry spell doesn’t change that.
You have to find room for the guys who really blew the doors off this year, of course.
So do you include genuinely great players who are past their prime (e.g. Albert Pujols)?
I don’t think there’s an objectively right or wrong answer to that question. But if you want the ASG to feature the players who are the best right now or this season, how do you judge that except by their performance so far this year?
I think it depends. If you know it’s the guy’s swan song, sure,maybe.
I also would include people way past their prime who are truly baseball greats and heading to the HOF. The game is supposed to be fun. The ASG is during the deadest time of the sports calendar and the very casual fan gets one last chance to see a guy like Pujols one last time.
I might favor a so-so player who is having an incredible year over a superstar who’s having a subpar year. Why reward a mediocre start to the season? Give the chance to a guy who may never have it again.
Since one Nat must be chosen, Josh Bell is hitting 80 points higher than Soto, with 14 more RBIs.
I wouldn’t put Pujols in. I think I’d draw the line to include full time players, not someone only playing a couple times a week. Most huge stars like Pujols have the good sense to retire before that happens, but he’s chasing benchmarks/rankings.
If you thought crypto ads and gambling ads weren’t bad enough, now you can look forward to CBD ads in MLB…
I did think they were bad enough.
But I have a question (or two) about the umpires’ ads. Who gets the revenue for that? Do the umpires get more pay? Does it all go to MLB? What if a player (or umpire) doesn’t want to advertise for Monsanto or Hooters, for example. Can they opt out like they can for Pride Month?
about the ASG : what about having 2 games? like a legends game for those that’s been there a few times and are on their way out they would be chosen by popular vote and a 2nd game for the younger guys who are having a career who gets in based on current stats?
Judge hit his 26th and 27th home run tonight.
Though Monty was shakey tonight giving up 4.
The Nats lost the second of two games against the Orioles, 7-0, in six innings before the game was called due to rain, but the real story was Orioles leadoff hitter Austin Hayes.
He hit for the cycle, accomplishing four hits in four at-bats, in a game that lasted only six innings, mind you. Holy crap.
The only other two Orioles to achieve the cycle are Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr.
I opened this thread to post about Hays’ performance, but you beat me to it.
I’ll add that Jonathon Villar, Felix Pie, and Aubrey Huff also hit for the cycle with Baltimore.
Just in time for the 4th of July, Stars and Stripes baseball caps……for the Toronto Blue Jays!!
That makes my brain hurt.
In other not so welcome news, Fanatics, the company that handles most of the merchandising for the big 4 sports in North America, is in talks to buy……………you guessed it, a sports gambling company!
By 2030, there will be an absolutely mammoth sports gambling scandal involving athletes or officials altering the outcome of games to win bets.
Suppose you’re an MLB umpire, and you want money. Thirty years ago, to win in illicitly, you would have had to either place a huge bet in a casino - a super-ultra-high risk and unhideable move - and then find a way to alter the outcome of a game, which as an ump you can do but it’s not THAT easy.
Now, hey… an ump works behind home plate 30-35 times a year. Log into a few betting sites, and you can place enormous sums of money on things directly under your control this very evening. Bet the over on the number of strikeouts in the game, and expand your strike zone a bit, and you just made a hundred thousand dollars with three minutes’ of effort on your laptop. An MLB ump could make two million dollars in two months in an essentially invisible manner. The IRS would know, but they’re not telling MLB. To them it’s legitimate income.
All it takes is one corrupt asshole, and this entire thing will explode.