Even with all the overblown bs surrounding the All Star Game, I still love the showcase of the best MLB players, and still root hard for the American League as I always have. Your lineups:
American League
Mookie Betts (Red Sox) – RF
Jose Altuve (Astros) – 2B
Mike Trout (Angels) – CF
J.D. Martinez (Red Sox) – DH
Jose Ramirez (Indians) – 3B
Aaron Judge (Yankees) – LF
Manny Machado (Orioles) – SS
Jose Abreu (White Sox) – 1B
Salvador Perez (Royals) – C
Chris Sale (Red Sox) – SP
National League
Javier Baez (Cubs) – 2B
Nolan Arenado (Rockies) – 3B
Paul Goldschmidt (Diamondbacks) – DH
Freddie Freeman (Braves) – 1B
Matt Kemp (Dodgers) – LF
Bryce Harper (Nationals) – CF
Nick Markakis (Braves) – RF
Brandon Crawford (Giants) – SS
Willson Contreras (Cubs) – C
Max Scherzer (Nationals) – SP
Let’s hope there’s not a rainout.
I’m still a fan of the All-Star game. Baseball is baseball, pitcher vs hitter, and these guys are pretty effin good at it. The universal self congratulation gets to be too much, recalling Winston Wolfe’s famous line. But I’ll watch and enjoy.
“orioles”
hey jeets! betts should be in center (i know he plays right)
Can the A’s justify having the 6th best record in MLB?
I mostly agree with the second one, but there should be a punishment for being consistently on the payroll bottom as well as failing to compete. Just like there should be for consistently buying your way into the playoffs.
even last year they were not even close to the worst team. It sucked that they came in last place. just like it will suck this year being in the top 10 and not making the playoffs.
I’d tie the bottom payroll more to overall record compared to league rather than specifically the playoffs. Like bottom 5 teams in both payroll and record. But it would have to be beyond a single year. You’ve got to allow for rebuilding.
You are looking live at a big FU to Greg Papa.
good
Greg Papa is really good on the Raiders radio calls and pregame stuff. Prepared and well-delivered. He’s an actual Raiders fan which certainly helps given our, um, passionate core audience and randomly loony former stars. Not sure anyone else can handle drunk George Atkinson live every week.
Also I fucking hate Brent Musberger, man.
I hope musberger gets fired too. I always thought papa was a decent baseball pxp guy too, he is just such an ass
When I first saw this I assumed it was fake news, because Brent is 79 and so involved with his gambling network. Since the Raiders’ radio broadcasts are free on the Internet at the Compass Media site, I’ve often synced them with the TV just as I do with baseball. Papa is a good high-energy guy, very sharp on play-by-play, sometimes got too hung up on cheering for the Raiders but I could live with that, especially when I compared Papa’s work to Joe Starkey on Saturdays. If it’s Brent and Tom Flores, that booth is just too damned old, so I would hope they either bring Lincoln Kennedy up from the sidelines to be the main analyst or otherwise go with somebody younger.
And there goes Flores. You’re next, Fosse.
But who’s going to tell us what college everyone went to? Man, his shows will be even more brutal as he’ll have no one to talk favorably about. Good riddance.
Credible backstory on Papa’s Raiders career and tight relationship with Al (but not Mark).
The dingy Giants home unis look especially bad with the NL’s otherwise crisp home whites
It’s embarrassing.
Also the
NL’stwo-tone plus whitehomehats make a bunch of guys look like Expos.The washed out yellow panels on the A’s hats made our guys look pretty bad.
I’m such a damn sucker for believing mlb.com that this game started at 4:30.
As much as i like watching Scherzer, would love a hit here.
Am I the only one who thinks Crowded House instead of Smash Mouth when I see “Hey now..”?
I think of Iko Iko.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r0CD4dVYAEY%3Fstart%3D103” frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; encrypted-media” allowfullscreen>
That was sort of endearing in an extremely boring way from Trout.
I get why MLB wants to promote him and I too wish baeball’s stars were better known but there’s no getting past that Trout’s just dull.
See?
OK….
This was the “brand” Steve Garvey had in Southern California, before the affairs and illegitimate children were revealed.
my mom was shocked when cindy left him for marvin hamlish, years later we understood. There was a street named after him in covina (eastern LA county where there is a great italian deli named dimaggios after a cousin or something). It was named after him while he was still playing
Arenado’s easily one of the best third basemen of all time? That seems premature.
yes. very much so.
Repeat for six more years and we’ll talk, until then Schmidt Brett Chipper and Eddie Matthews say no effin way.
Throw in Beltre, Boggs, Robinson, and Santo to that list.
Arenado is currently at 31.3 WAR in 5.5 seasons, 810 games and 3417 PA with a 292/347/540/887 slash line. If he keeps up his current ~7 WAR/season performance for 6 more seasons he’ll be in Brooks Robinson territory.
Yes, at 30 WAR through his age 27 season, he is on the same pace as some of those all-time greats. So was Eric Chavez.
Of the 19 players with 30 WAR by their age 27 season playing primarily at 3rd base, 9 didn’t make the list above.
2 still could (Nolen Arenado and Manny Machado) and 7 never will (Dick Allen, Bill Bradley, Eric Chavez, Harlond Clift, Denny Lyons, John McGraw and Ryan Zimmerman).
“Home Run” isn’t his actual name, bbref.
OK that’s 3 ABs for Altuve. Lowrie time!
Nice to see Treinen have a solid inning.
Solid professional at bat Jed.
John Smoltz apparently thinks the A’s have never acquired players for a pennant push before.
Maybe he read that article.
Lawyerball
Are the big chains Machado and Lindor have just bling, or are they some new phiten type bullshit.
Ouch. Maybe that will haunt Diaz for the rest of the season.
I don’t want the dodgers to get machado before august 10
We gots Dingerz all righty.
And the American League now has the lead in ASG wins.
Mejia was a consensus top 20 prospect at the start of the season, ranked as high as #5 by BP. That’s a high price to pay for two relievers, albeit very good ones. Equivalent for the A’s would be Luzardo.
Mejia is (apparently) a poor defensive C who refuses to change positions. He reportedly hurt his standing with the Clevelands because he didn’t want to move to 1B or OF.
Also Hand’s contract is ridiculously friendly.
Thanks, and go As.
yup. all he asks for is quiet when he is teaching history
You dick!
Fangraphs rates Chappie as the 16th highest trade value in baseball, not that he’s likely to be traded any time soon (right Billy???). They also had Matt Olson as an honorable mention, not quite making the top 50.
Crazy fact from this Ringer piece on the A’s: Yusmeiro Petit has thrown the third most innings on the team.
I don’t like that article. make it more positive.
I missed this the other night. Down 10-6 in the bottom of the 9th, the Coliseum’s Rally Possum just wasn’t going to get it done for the Aces. I love how the count is 1-1 but all the players have evidently fled the field.
Well, yeah, I recognize those umpires, even with the purple shirt. The crew the A’s had in Houston last week was moonlighting in Mexico during the All Star Break.
I love that it’s the second pitch of the game.
That also makes sense, because it’s when he would first notice the rack behind the first base dugout.
Well, good.
Should have outright fired the entire crew. At least those that were involved.
Call this man up.
I got excited today when I saw all the “casilla released” tweets. Totally forgot he was already gone, and I was wating for the hatcher ones.
Poor Jairo, released and now needing emergency treatment at the burn ward.
That’s nice to hear on the TV ratings. I wonder how much is attributable to a young, competitive team and how much to a year+ of relentless Kavaling.
Attn: Vince
if the A’s drop out of contention, I know what I am rooting for this season
I’ve no idea how reputable “2080 Baseball” is, but they have a midseason top-125 out.
16. Luzardo
17. Puk
59. Murphy
96. Beck
97. Lazarito
123. Allen
Classic.
Luzardo’s last six starts at Midland: 5-0, 31 IP, 13 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 35 K
He should be in AAA. Or higher.
Slusser asked Beane on her podcast about whether there was a chance Luzardo could pitch in the majors this year. He downplayed the possibility because of the innings limit they have him on, but he didn’t completely rule it out.
Rather they not. This season isn’t worth the arm. Bring him up to AAA if he’s ready, but stay the course in terms of his innings and all that. And even if he were ready for the majors and under the limit, not sure I’d want that either. Gives too many opportunities to want to break that limit.
Have him take a month off and then debut in the wildcard game. What could go wrong?
Wait, would that even start his service time? I know technically, a player is not playoff eligible if they’re not on the roster August 31, but there’s always “injury” exceptions. But, I mean, hypothetically?
I read the CBA (Article XXI.A.1) to say that would not start his service time:
(The “championship season” is the regular season.)
Mark Kiger says hi.
This could be interesting.
Yeah I’ll take one of those.
Brodie just said Mt Davis is now 100% sold.
People are trying to get $40, $50, $60 bucks for those seats on reseller apps. Amazing.