The Philly Phanatics

It's been a while since Kyle and I have posted anything on this blog. I'd love to say we've both been busy, but I would be lying to you. I have been wasting time like usual and trying to figure out what I should be doing now that I cannot use the excuse "I have time, I'm still in college" anymore.

But enough about the long hiatus. We plan on fixing that. Soon we'll be putting stuff up and producing more than Carlos Ruiz...which I know is not saying much.

While Kyle works up a little mid-season recap for the All-Star Break, I think I'll cover the actual All-Star teams.

In the NL, Cubs fans stuffed the ballot boxes. No question. Then Clint Hurdle just made this overkill. I realize that the Cubs are the best team in the NL, but do they really deserve to have 7 players (including those selected, but not playing) on the NL roster? Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome surely do not deserve a spot on this team. Soriano has decent numbers considering only playing in 51 games thus far, however seems less deserving simply because he has not playing in over a month. Soriano is going to miss this season's All-Star game due to a broken bone in his left hand. Fukudome is an absolute joke. While I think he is a good player, he is not of the same caliber as some of the players left off of the NL roster, like Pat Burrell who has 22 home runs and 54 RBIs.

Finally, I think Hurdle's hometown move of the week was putting Aaron Cook on the roster. Granted, his 11-6 record is good, but what about some other guys who seem worth a look like Marlins' starter Ricky Nolasco (10-4, 3.74) or the surprising Kyle Lohse (11-2, 3.39). In my opinion, that looked like a move made by a manager who wanted to honor his own player more so than honor the tremendous years being had by more deserving candidates.

While there were some questionable decisions in the NL by fans and managers alike, the AL team looks like it was picked by a bunch of people with black ski masks over their faces. Do AL fans watch any baseball outside of their hometowns? Who can name a baseball player not in Boston or New York? I am not so sure baseball fans can from the looks of this roster.

David Ortiz as DH? The pickings were slim, but who picks a guy who has not picked up a bat since May? That is an absolute joke and makes me ashamed to be a baseball fan.

Has anyone in the AL heard of Ian Kinsler? Please. Look into it. I think I could argue for him to be in the top 5 in MVP voting, and he finished behind Dustin Pedroia in the voting for starting second baseman. Here's a quick comparison:

Pedroia: .313, 9 HR, 46 RBI, 66 runs
Kinsler: .330, 14 HR, 53 RBI, 82 runs

Oh, and Kinsler's numbers make him the AL league leader in runs, hits, batting average and extra base hits. Pedroia's selection is an absolute abomination.

Again showing a big city bias, Michael Young's statistics are better than Derek Jeter's. But I am not going to complain too loudly here simply because he and A-Rod are the faces of Yankee baseball today and this is the last season in The House That Ruth Built. Still unfair, but more understandably so than voting in half of the Red Sox lineup. (Yes, the BoSox have 6 of their starting 9 on the team. Tell me that Francona couldn't make that a little more obvious that he kissing the asses of his own players.)

I would like to thank the fans though for electing Evan Longoria to the All-Star Game in the final vote. Leaving him off of the roster would have been ludicrous. Can someone tell me how the best team in baseball needs a final vote selection to put three guys on the roster while the team behind them in the AL East standings somehow gets 6 position players and a pitcher on this team? If you can, please explain it. If it were not for the rule that stipulates that every team must have a representative and the players being allowed to vote for the reserves, I am certain that Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, and Hideki Okajima would be on the AL roster so that the team would be more Red Sox than the rest of the AL.

A few sidenotes:
- The last time the NL won an All-Star Game was 1996 in Philadelphia.
- The last two All-Star games have each been decided by one run
- Overall all star game record: NL 41, AL 35, with 2 ties.
- The sites for the next two All-Star games will be Busch Stadium in St. Louis (2009) and Angels Stadium in Anahein (2010).