The Outlaw
07-02-2005, 08:28 PM
I don't know if I needed to put this in the official MLB thread or make another one, so whatever.
On Sunday night, we'll all see who won the close race for first base. The New York Yankees' Tino Martinez held a sizable lead for much of the balloting period until Monday, when Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers jumped ahead.
The other tight race in the AL had Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon nipping at the heels of the other top three outfielders. Damon, with 1,550,810 votes, was catching up to Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, whose recent slump had him only 13,850 votes ahead of Damon.
It was still looking good for the top two ranking AL outfielders: leader Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox and second-place Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels.
At second base, there was still a race, but Baltimore's Brian Roberts increased his lead over Alfonso Soriano -- last year's All-Star MVP and top overall vote-getter -- to more than 100,000 votes.
And while the rest of the leading vote-getters in the AL -- Boston's David Ortiz for designated hitter, Baltimore's Miguel Tejada at shortstop and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez -- looked like locks to win the balloting, there were some possible surprises on the horizon in the NL.
First base was the closest race in the Senior Circuit, with Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs battling it out since the balloting opened.
Pujols led the whole way, but Lee continued to put up Triple Crown numbers and continued to cut into Pujols' lead.
And at shortstop, the race was too close to call when the ballots closed.
Cesar Izturis of the Los Angeles Dodgers was pushed by his team for a starting spot since the voting began and maintained a late lead over scrappy St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein, but Izturis' lead had shrunk to about 44,000 when online-only voting began. Otherwise, the rest of the NL spots seemed like a done deal, with catcher (Mike Piazza, New York Mets), second base (Jeff Kent, Los Angeles Dodgers), third base (Scott Rolen, Cardinals) and all three spots in the outfield (Bobby Abreu, Philadelphia Phillies; Jim Edmonds, Cardinals; Carlos Beltran, Mets) apparently locked up. Piazza? Rolen? Beltran? WTF?
It seems like the All Star roster gets more ridiculous every year.
Rolen is hitting .255 with 5 homeruns and 21 RBI's. Morgan Ensberg anyone? 21 homeruns, 58 homeruns, .286.
Carlos Beltran is even worse. .259, 9 homeruns and 38 RBI's. And he doesn't have the excuse of being hurt.
Oh yeah, Piazza is also killing the ball. .267 with 9 dingers and 34 RBI's.
Some guys that deserve to be there ahead of these guys:
Morgan Ensberg
Carlos Lee
Andruw Jones
Miguel Cabrera
I guess Piazza does deserve to be there, considering there aren't many quality catchers in the NL.
Off the top of my head anyway. Yeah, discuss.
On Sunday night, we'll all see who won the close race for first base. The New York Yankees' Tino Martinez held a sizable lead for much of the balloting period until Monday, when Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers jumped ahead.
The other tight race in the AL had Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon nipping at the heels of the other top three outfielders. Damon, with 1,550,810 votes, was catching up to Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, whose recent slump had him only 13,850 votes ahead of Damon.
It was still looking good for the top two ranking AL outfielders: leader Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox and second-place Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels.
At second base, there was still a race, but Baltimore's Brian Roberts increased his lead over Alfonso Soriano -- last year's All-Star MVP and top overall vote-getter -- to more than 100,000 votes.
And while the rest of the leading vote-getters in the AL -- Boston's David Ortiz for designated hitter, Baltimore's Miguel Tejada at shortstop and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez -- looked like locks to win the balloting, there were some possible surprises on the horizon in the NL.
First base was the closest race in the Senior Circuit, with Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs battling it out since the balloting opened.
Pujols led the whole way, but Lee continued to put up Triple Crown numbers and continued to cut into Pujols' lead.
And at shortstop, the race was too close to call when the ballots closed.
Cesar Izturis of the Los Angeles Dodgers was pushed by his team for a starting spot since the voting began and maintained a late lead over scrappy St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein, but Izturis' lead had shrunk to about 44,000 when online-only voting began. Otherwise, the rest of the NL spots seemed like a done deal, with catcher (Mike Piazza, New York Mets), second base (Jeff Kent, Los Angeles Dodgers), third base (Scott Rolen, Cardinals) and all three spots in the outfield (Bobby Abreu, Philadelphia Phillies; Jim Edmonds, Cardinals; Carlos Beltran, Mets) apparently locked up. Piazza? Rolen? Beltran? WTF?
It seems like the All Star roster gets more ridiculous every year.
Rolen is hitting .255 with 5 homeruns and 21 RBI's. Morgan Ensberg anyone? 21 homeruns, 58 homeruns, .286.
Carlos Beltran is even worse. .259, 9 homeruns and 38 RBI's. And he doesn't have the excuse of being hurt.
Oh yeah, Piazza is also killing the ball. .267 with 9 dingers and 34 RBI's.
Some guys that deserve to be there ahead of these guys:
Morgan Ensberg
Carlos Lee
Andruw Jones
Miguel Cabrera
I guess Piazza does deserve to be there, considering there aren't many quality catchers in the NL.
Off the top of my head anyway. Yeah, discuss.