Racism in Baseball?

So it's been a while since I've written anything to the blogging world. The Packers won Superbowl XLV, the SF Giants won the World Series and the Heat did not win the NBA Finals--I mean, the Mavericks won (which was pretty sweet to see Dirk hold the MVP while Kidd kisses his first Championship trophy) . But I didn't blog about any of that. Sorry. I might have been lazy, busy, or both. But today, I'm flushing the laziness out of my system and clearing my agenda just to bring up an important topic: racism in sports.

What sparks this? None other than Curtis Granderson, the Yankees' savior this season. Here's one of the articles about Granderson's observation, click here. I'm sure most of you have heard about it briefly being discussed on espn, Scott Van Pelt talked about it for a short bit.

Basically, Granderson sees a trend of an incredibly low number of black baseball fans. During games, he's played a meta-game with his fellow teammates where they count the number of black fans in the stadium (excluding the workers). The goal is to find 10 black fans. The average number of seats in a baseball park is 44,234. To be as realistic as possible, let's say that 38,000 persons attend a normal game Granderson goes to (keep in mind that the Yankee's always draw in a bigger crowd). If there are three decks in the stadium, I think it's safe to say about 15,000 fans are on the first deck around the entire field. From all of those fans, we'll say about 1/6th are visible behind and to the sides of the Yankee's dugout. That leaves us with about 2,500 fans that can be seen by the Yankee Center-fielder. Surely, he wouldn't be able to see all of these fans, and of course these figures are not accurate but the rough estimate would show that there is a fair-sized sample portion that Granderson has to work with. Yet when he turns his head and barely sees 10 black fans in the stands.

Sure, it depends what city you play in, New York and Chicago win this game over Texas any day; but there is (I'd like to unpack,) a potential deeper reason behind this trend.

On ESPN radio, Scott Van Pelt had an interesting debate on how it may be marketing. Apparently, baseball might just not be heavily advertised in the inner city areas, which is understandable. There are not nearly as much space to have a baseball field inside the city, especially when compared to suburbia. I'm not a Marketing Major, but I'm pretty sure it would be more advantageous to market a sport that's more accessible in the city--such as basketball. Here's where this gets interesting... On the Scott Van Pelt show, they discussed how there has been a sociological study done with ten Philly black kids. Of the ten, more than half (I believe it was seven) knew who Lou Williams was. For those who might not know, he's the 76'ers' 6th man. Those same ten kids were asked who Ryan Howard was, to which less than half knew the answer. Lou made less than 5 million last year while Howard is making 20 million, one is clearly much more valued than the other by their respective organizations. I highly doubt that Lou Williams is marketed more in the city more than Ryan Howard--regardless of the accessibility of baseball in urban settings. So there goes the marketing argument, down the drain with my laziness.

One of my good friends and I had a conversation about this and we attempted to attribute it to economy. For instance, all you need to play basketball is a basketball itself. The rims are provided in the parks. And not just one or two courts are available, millions of them. On any given day, there would be easily at least 50 people at the courts and only one person on each court needs a ball--it's accessible beyond belief. With baseball, a ball is needed (which normally gets lost so make that a few baseballs), a large area is needed, gloves, cleats, and a baseball bat--excluding batting gloves, helmets, hats, bases, plates, foul line, additional baseball luxuries and etc. The total cost of all of these items is far greater than an individual purchasing a basketball, isn't it? But my colleague brought up a great example of how kids in the Caribbean "play with sticks and cardboard mitts." Of course, this shows the determination and immense interest these kids have in playing baseball. I guess the argument would be, why can't our poorer inner city kids use milk carton mitts and find a good ol' branch? Well I think this fast forwards us to the next point of the lack of space.

Growing in Queens, I had the opportunity to play basketball all the time but it would be a rarity to play baseball--and if we did, it would be on asphalt, which everyone knows it not nearly as fun. To play baseball, a field is required with manicured grass and bases and foul lines, etc. Surely, kids play and make way without all of those details--but that would be like playing basketball with a free-throw line and a three-pointer, just not as fun. As kids, we have an urge to mimic our role models and grow into those figures. How can a kid try to act like Ray Allen when there's no 3-point line? How can a kid attempt to play like Derek Jeter when the ball takes dangerous hops because of the cement or asphalt? Then again, the inner-city areas might be more populated with black kids than suburbia, but it's not like all African-Americans live in urban areas.

But let's get back to the basic questions: is there a racial discrepancy in baseball? Why is baseball's black athletes down 8.5%? If 60% of the NFL players are African-Americans and over 80% of the NBA players are African-Americans, why the polar opposite in baseball?

It's not just money, it's not just marketing, it's not just context of their environment, I can't even firmly say it's all of the above. If it's a role model that black kids need to have in the sport, then what better role model than Griffey? Surely he's not the Michael Jordan of baseball (by that I don't mean how Michael Jordan played baseball, rather MJ's presence in basketball), but Griffey was the poster-boy of baseball selling more video games in his sport than any other player. Even if he is not seen on the field, he made guest appearances in shows, movies, you name it! No matter who you are or how old you are, you know Griffey. He was a famous black baseball player celebrity. But sure, kids nowadays might not remember Griffey because they were young, hell I was really young back then too but I know who had the most beautiful swing to ever play the MLB. But there are the Ryan Howards, CC Sabathias and Derek Jeters out there (Derek Jeter is still a black athlete to me regardless of his interracial background). The role models are there, but for some reason the interest isn't.

Ultimately, I can't definitively escort the blame for black disinterest in baseball. It may be attributed to numerous reasons, but I can say this... I don't think the MLB is at fault at all--if Jackie Robinson Day, Jackie Robinson's story, Griffey's popularity, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollin's presence in Philly (for those Philly kids) and Jeter's 3000th hit can't get black kids more into baseball, than what will other than parents forcing their children to participate in Little Leagues? The MLB has played their cards right, sometimes we just can't explain why things happen.

An A-Bomb That Shakes The Record Books

On August 4th, 2010, Alex ‘A-Bomb from A-Rod’ Rodriguez hit his 600th home run in his MLB career and became the youngest member of the seven players in the 600 club. After hitting 599 on July 22nd, A-Rod slumped (in terms of home-run progression and average) for 12 games. Number 600 developed into a grand distraction; Michael Kay had to “layer” every A-Rod at bat as if it was going to be number 600, the umpire would deliver the specially marked baseballs to the pitcher and of the most inconvenient occurrence—the Yankees went 6-6 during A-slump.

The Yankees are tied for the best record in Major League Baseball with 67-40; unfortunately they are tied with their divisional rivals the Red Sox—excuse me, I meant to say the Rays. A-rod’s drought was not the sole reason why the Yankees lost, but if the clean-up hitter goes on a 2-24 drought—not even Gatorade can quench that thirst. To get some breathing room, the A-599 had to tell the media to “get comfortable” because he was not going to be A-600 for a while. What do you know—the next game, he hits his 600.

Now all the Yankee business aside, the big news lies under Barry Bonds’ comment, "Congratulations Alex on hitting your 600th home run today, welcome to the club. Stay healthy and focused, you only have 163 to go. I'll be watching and rooting for you along the way. Good Luck."

Barry Bonds is rooting for A-600 to become A-763? Do I believe it? No, not really—it’s just good P.R., and hey… can you blame him? Being the home run king with a tainted mark of HGH on your bat kind of hinders any public relations*.

But beyond that; we have arguably the real home run king (Hank Aaron) saying the following; "When you reach that plateau, no matter where it is, whether you're playing in the majors or the minors, it's a tremendous accomplishment. It means an awful lot to whoever reaches this achievement. ... It really doesn't matter what kind of asterisk you put by it -- 600 homers is something special."

And it is special. Extremely special. So special that the debate goes to an even more special platform—will A-600 get to A-763 and become the home run king?

Tim Kurkjian, on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight mentioned that there is no doubt A-600 will evolve into A-700, and at one point, Kurkjian even thought he’d become A-800, but not even Kurkjian knows if he’ll surpass Barry Bonds* (only to become Alex Rodriguez*).

Well let’s see what we got in his numbers. By not counting 1994, (A-Rod’s 17 game, zero homer season), he has averaged 37.5 home runs per season. Or we could even take it a step further and not count his 1995 season where he hit 5 home runs in 48 games—then his average would bump up to 39.7. A flawed way to calculate how many seasons it would take A-Rod to get pass Bonds would be to divide 163 (home runs left to be the leader) by 39.7 (average per season), which would be about 4.1 seasons. Since he is 35 years old, I think it’s safe to say that he has about another 5 or 6 years left in him.

But that method of calculating how long it would take him is flawed because he is not as dominant as he used to be; the last two seasons—he hit 35 and 30 home runs. This season, he is on pace to hit less than 30 home runs (which he hasn’t done since 1997 in the Mariners!). The exhausting search of HGH in America’s past time might or might not have affected A-Rod’s performance drastically, but if it hasn’t—then the umpires have to stop putting some kryptonite on the balls. During the 3 seasons he claimed he used the enhancements, he hit 52, 57 and 47 home runs—that’s his highest 3-year average in his career. And after the steroid drama, he is approaching his lowest 3-year average (again, this is without counting his first two seasons where he played less than 50 games).

A-600 will probably average about 30 home runs for the rest of his career (give or take 5 homers each season), and if that’s the case, it’ll average him 5.4 seasons to beat the record. So there are plenty of A-Bombs ahead of us, but how long will he be the king before Pujols comes around?

Pujols is up to 393, and he only 30 years-old. And unlike A-Rod, Pujols has consistently been hitting homers since he was 21when he hit 37 homers in his rookie season. Give Pujols eleven years, and I guarantee he will reach the 800 mark (if he doesn’t get severely injured like Griffey).

Once that happens, the home run kings will be the following:
(1) Albert Pujols
(2) Alex Rodriguez*
(3) Barry Bonds*
(4) Hank Aaron

Chris Paul to NY, Dallas, Portland or Orlando?

ESPN analyst Chris Broussard reports from his sources that Chris Paul has a “50/50” shot of leaving New Orleans to either of the above mentioned teams. Paul is looking to enter a team that has potential to win a Championship and can be a contending team—whether it is for the future decade or for next year is unknown, but winning is the goal. Surprise surprise.

Paul cannot leave his current team the Hornets without their permission and decision—but because of the poor economic state of the team, they simply might not be able to afford to keep him. Paul was injured last season and since his All-Star value is immense, the tension arises as to how the Hornets could pin the hornet on the Paul. Plus, the rising star in Darren Collison fulfills a potential point guard role for the future of the organization. You might remember Collison last year when Paul was injured; Collision threw some serious numbers on the box score with a bunch of 20-point games and a few 30 point games. The 23 year-old also dished out multiple 14+ assists games—even one 20 assist game!

But I digress; so let’s go back to Paul, where will he go? Of course I’d hope that such a prized player lands in Madison Square for a New York future in Stoudemire and Paul. If Paul were to come to New York, New York’s economy might also increase by a billion dollars like it did in Miami after the free agent signing. The Knicks can actually compete in the league and make a dent in the playoffs, rather than eating popcorn during the first round.

Or will he go to Dallas with Nowitzki and learn tips from the Kidd. The Mavericks are unbelievably strong in terms of the players on paper and this could be Paul’s home. Besides, he would reunite with Tyson Chandler!

Or will he go to Portland? Much youth and potential in Roy, Oden, Fernandez, Aldridge, Bayless, Cunningham, Babbitt, Johnson, Mills—seems like everyone was born after 84’! There are good amounts of talented youth and they are a team that does damage—at least they have shown capabilities!

Or will he go to Orlando, the serious contenders in the East? With Jameer Nelson being a bit outsized and injure prone, this could be the right piece of the puzzle for Orlando to finally win a title. Imagine alley-oops from Paul to Howard over and over and over again. If Paul can turn Chandler into one of the most frequent dunkers in the league (during the season they had together), then what would Paul do with a player with the most amount of dunks in the league year after year?

Where is he going to go? I have no idea and I don’t have the sources that could tell me where he will go but what I do know is this—Paul in any team other than the Hornets instantly pushes team xyz to the playoffs and probably into the top 5 seeds (of course I mean in terms of the teams listed above). Either way, no matter where he goes—he will become a magnet for Carmelo Anthony’s “decision” next year. And that’s the draw owners might be thinking about.

Rocky Road To Cy Young?

Ubaldo Jimenez (15-1), the 26 year-old phenom had an ERA of 0.78 after 11 starts this season. Since then, his ERA has evolved to 2.38, which is not horrible but not nearly as impressive as the previous mentioned statistic.

The Rockies ace has been the most dominant starter in baseball after the first 14 starts this season. Since then, the Colorado pitcher has had a bunch of rocky outings.

He gave up 8 earned runs his first 11 starts and then a total of 27 earned runs his last 8 starts. Jimenez was such a overriding pitcher earlier this season that he overshadowed his no-hitter with his overall ERA and record. And although his record is tainted by only one blemish on May 9th against the Dodgers, where he lost even though he only gave up one run in seven innings, Jimenez is not as feared a figure—at least not compared to the other lights-out pitchers in the league.

Jimenez has had four outings where he has given up 4 or more earned runs, and in those four outings, he is 1-0. He gave six runs in one game and seven in another, yet his outcome was neutralized and unmarked on his record. This isn’t to say that Jimenez is not a great pitcher but what this does say is that records are deceiving. For example; at this point, the strongest pitcher in the league is arguably Josh Johnson. With a 1.62 ERA and 130 strikeouts to 28 walks, he shows command and supremacy—but his record is 10-3. Again, don’t get me wrong—it’s a great record but not nearly as exciting as 15-1. Yet Johnson’s loss was the only game he gave up 4 earned runs (which occurred in the first game of the season against the Mets). Since then his two losses happened once in Florida on May 29th, where he gave up one run (unearned) in seven innings. And the other lost happened on June 26 at the Marlins residence—this time he pitched eight innings and gave up two runs (both earned). In total, Johnson has given up 12 less earned runs than Jimenez and 12 more strikeouts than Jimenez.

But who is a better pitcher this year? Jimenez (15-1) or Johnson (10-3)?

When it comes down to who I would give the Cy Young to, it would be Johnson—unless Jimenez turns it around and revives the residue of starts he had earlier this year. I would think Johnson is in the lead of this candidacy. Sure, he doesn’t have the most innings pitched (he’s 15th in the MLB) and of course he doesn’t have the most about of K’s (7th in the MLB), but he does have the 5th best K/BB ratio (4.64—Cliff Lee leads the major leagues with a 13.86 K/BB ratio, which is twice better than the second leader Roy Halladay!) and Johnson has given up the fewest runs, Johnson has the lowest ERA, Johnson has the second best WHIP, Johnson has one of the best K/9 ratios and Johnson has one of the best H/9 ratios.

What does Jimenez have? A no-hitter, the best H/9 ratio, major league-leading 15 wins, one of the top ground-out inducer (no one tops Tim Hudson), 2 shutouts, and an unbelievable ability to not lose regardless of how many runs he gives up. Records speak volumes but Johnson is the mute button. Regardless of the phenomenal year Jimenez is having, I don’t know if he will win the Cy Young or at least deserve to win the Cy Young. The year of the pitchers has created the most competitive pitching duels in recent decades.

In all honesty, I’m not even sure if either of these two pitchers will win the Cy Young over Wainwright—who is 14-5 with a 2.02 ERA and has pitched in the third most amount of innings than any pitcher in the major league this year. With such outstanding competitive action among the pitchers, this year’s Cy Young candidate will be a great toss up (at least we can count out Lincecum this year--or can we?).

Hey, maybe ESPN will do another special on “The Decision” and explain how the MLB picked the Cy Young?

Steinbrenner

At the age of 80, George Steinbrenner passed away today in Tampa, Florida. Of course, we all know Steinbrenner as the the die-hard Yankee fan and owner who would stop at nothing on his pursuit to win a championship.

The Yankees have won 11 pennants and 7 World Series during Steinbrenner's reign, which began in 1973. He was known as "The Boss" in the sports world because of his great deal of interactions with the clubhouse activities.

He has hired, fired, rehired, refired managers and has traded and signed big named players. Yankee fans could always trust him because he was just as much of a fan of the team than any other New Yorker. Of course, sometimes his fan-impulse mind would deter good decision making. The controversy with Dave Winfield (the person The Boss made the richest player in the Major Leagues), when he said, "Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May. My big guys are not coming through. The guys who are supposed to carry the team are not carrying the team. They aren't producing. If I don't get big performances out of Winfield, Griffey and Baylor, we can't win." (Which is one of the reasons why Griffey never wanted to play for the Yankees).

Steinbrenner never took a back-seat, it was painful for the Managers but necessary for the fans. Except, Steinbrenner did take it too far at one point in his career and paid an individual named Howie Spira to find "dirt" on Winfield after Steinbrenner was sued by Winfield for not paying $300,000 of Winfield's contract.

Of course, The Boss returned to his owner position and continued his reign in 1993, except there was no more dictatorship. Steinbrenner played less of a role in baseball operations and did not dig up anymore "dirt" on other players. Steinbrenner let the farm system grow and groom players instead of trading prospects to win every year--which in turn developed Bernie Williams to become the promising center-fielder of the New York Yankees.

The team was flying high and although there was a drought of Championships for New York--he still is acknowledges as one of the most influential owners in sports history. Steinbrenner stepped down in 2006 and let his sons take over the team; again, proved to be helpful as the Yankees won in 2009.

The New York Yankees; one of the most successful franchises in sports history won 7 times under this owner. No matter what kind of owner Steinbrenner was, he is still a fan favorite in New York.

He becamse such a figure in New York that even the show Seinfeld had a Steinbrenner's character as a humorous figure. He was George's boss and although you never see his face, his mannerisms were mimicked and adored by all Seinfeld-viewers (COSTANZA'S IN THE BUILDING!).

So to the most powerful and passionate owner in the world; we recognize you today--the day of the 2010 All-Star game, and the day George Steinbrenner leaves his legacy: thank you for all you have done for NYC.

The Big Three

So it's done. The years of hype as to where LeBron is going--is done. During his 1 hour ESPN special, LeBron transformed Cavalier fans to barbarians, Knicks fans to LeBron haters, Bulls fans to either (a) disappointed or (b) happy that no one could try to overshadow Jordan, and the "self-proclaimed King"--as the Cav's owner Dan Gilbert would say, brought even more fire to the Heat.

James, Wade and Bosh are the new big three--completely trumping the tri-force of Allen, Pierce and Garnett. The Boston Three-party consist of a 35, 34 and 33 year-old. The hottest three of the Heat consist of three players in their mid-20's--at the peak of their career.

Suddenly, fans and sports-analysts have converted into believing that the Heat are now the team to beat in the East. Is it fair to the Celtics to count them out all of a sudden? If I felt strongly enough about the Celtics, I'd debate--but I truly dislike the Celtics so I won't really talk about that. Although I will say that the Celtics won games because everyone scored--I don't know if the fourth player in the Heat will average a double unless it's rebounds.

What I really want to talk about is how James' move affected his place in basketball history. Let's be blunt here; there was a bunch of analysts riding on the James ban-wagon claiming that he would be one of the best players to every play the game. I'm a part of that, I thought that if he continued to grow and mature as a player--he would be an unstoppable force. He still might be but it's no longer a true testament of challenge to him. He has now entered the realm of being a player who can win a championship (but not with his team). When marquis players move, it's interesting to see the dynamic of the players performance afterward. James is now a part of Wade's team. The king left his throne, he's now a court gesture.

Many people I have been talking to say that he took the "easy" way out. Well, I'd like to say no--he took the easiest way out. LeBron could have gone to Chicago and it would have been a great fit playing with Boozer (needed big man) and Rose (the Rondo-compliment to a star) and that would've been a very fun team to watch. Or he could have gone to the Knicks and played with Amare under the spotlight of MSG. Or he could have taken all the money he wanted in Cleveland and asked the owner to find another guy he wanted--he was the king of the city. But no, he decided to join two superstars in order to create a dynasty. He took a pay-cut and humbly became a South Beach player.

I am frustrated. As you can tell--all of this venting leads to no true point, it's a bunch of jub-jub (as Joe Buck would say). LeBron could never be the best player in the league, nor can he ever be considered as such a dominant force. Once a player leaves his legacy in a state after 7 years, there is a cloud above how dominant he was--and when that player leaves by taking a pay check for a team that signs two other stars, it shows that the player could not do it "on his own." Of course that figure of speech is ridiculous because no player could win a Championship on his own; you need an entire roster. But no matter how amazing Pippen was or how crazy Rodman was or how sharp Kere was--it was always Jordan's team and it was always Jordan being Jordan (a.k.a. winning another title). Jordan was a winner. James potential to win might have increased but he can never be a winner.

Of course James is nothing like Jordan and should/can never be compared to Michael, but things could have been different. James could have actually been a winner. But he's not.

Strasburg + All Star game = Helpful to NL?

Yesterday, I was sitting and watching some Around the Horn and they had a tab of conversation/debate on Strasburg being selected into the All-Star game. Should he be selected to pitch for the NL in the All-Star game? 3 of the remaining debaters said "yes" he should pitch an inning or two for the fans and because he will strengthen the NL pitching squad.

Now I'm an avid fan of Strasburg (aren't we all), and I even have him on my Fantasy team. But there were 15 pitchers in last year's NL All-Star team and I'd like to believe there there are 15 pitchers that deserve to pitch in that game before Strasburg. Not to take anything away from the young phenom but he simply has not pitched enough innings to qualify for such an honor, and overall pitching this year has stumped the past years of pitches. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com wrote an article showing how the ERA of this year's pitching was as low as 1992--pitchers are dominating the field once again (there is a plausible correlation to the steroid era). http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100620&content_id=11417974&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

Before Strasburg is even mentioned as an All-Star nominee, I'd think you have to put the following in;

(1) Ubaldo Jiminez (obviously--the Cy Young candidate, the best pitcher in baseball right now)
(2) Josh Johnson (ERA is 1.80; no further explanation is needed)
(3) Adam Wainwright (Second most amount of innings pitched, more than 100 K's, and tied for second place with amount of wins, 10-4 record, oh and he has an ERA of 2.23)
(4) Roy Halladay (Most innings pitched, as always. And don't let his record of 8-6 fool you, he still has an ERA of 2.43 and is still the most dominant pitcher in the past half-dozen years)
(5) Matt Cain (Might not have as many strike outs as the other top-guns, but he certainly gets the job done with an ERA of 2.16 after more than a hundred innings of work)
(6) Tim Lincecum (Back to back Cy Young winner who maintains dominance with his "freak"-style of pitching. With him and Cain, I still wonder how the Giants are a game and a half behind the Padres for 1st in the NL West)
(7) Chris Carpenter (8-1 record with a 2.83 ERA and 88 K's in over 100 innings of pitching)
(8) Yovani Gallardo (6-3 record might not be as eye catching than 8-1, but he has a 2.59 ERA and has struck out more than a 100 batters, only Lincecum, Haren and Weaver have more strike-outs)
(9) Mike Pelfrey (9-2 record and a save for good luck. He has been mentioned in NY sports radio as the Ace of the team over Santana. He has a 2.69 ERA and has been one of the main factors as to why the Mets are one of the hottest teams the past month. Excluding his last start--he went 5 wins in 6 starts and brought his ERA from 3.14 to 2.39)
(10) Jaime Garcia (The unsung hero of the Cardinals, the 3rd pitcher in their rotation after Wainwright and Carpenter--has an ERA of 1.79! The only reason I dropped him down to number 10 is because he pitches five or six innings and goes seven once in a while. He doesn't go too deep into games and doesn't strike out many, but he never gets bombed. He gave up 3 earned runs in one game this season, that has been the most earned runs he's given up this year. He has a 7-3 record and a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.)
(11) Evan Meek (He is a relief pitcher for the Pirates and he has pitched 40 innings with an ERA of 0.68 and a WHIP of 0.83; when your ERA is lower than your WHIP, it means you are loading the bases every time you get up to pitch or that you know how to close out innings without handing runs--it's definitely the latter for this guy. For such an atrocious baseball team, Evan has maintained and excelled in his job of relief pitching and I think he deserves to be recognized for that!)
(12) Brian Wilson (The Closer for Giants has 20 saves with an ERA of 2.05, and 42 K's in 30 innings--he is definitely one of--if not the top closer in the NL)
(13) Billy Wagner (5-0 with 14 saves and an ERA of 1.23; he is dominant. Wagner is pitching better for the Braves than he ever pitched for the Mets, and this is definitely an All-Star year for him)
(14) Jonathan Broxton (3-0 with 16 saves and 0.92 ERA; Broxton is a beast and I'd say the the most intimidating closer in the NL today)
(15) Carlos Marmol (2-1 with 13 saves and a 1.71 ERA; but what really sticks out for me is that he has 58 strikeouts in 31.2 innings of work--he almost averages 2 K's an inning! I don't care what you think, that's a closers real job--I want my closer to come in and destroy the hope of the other team. I want my opponents--especially the Red Sox, to feel like they lost the game because my closer stepped on the mound. And of course as a Yankee fan, we have that affect already in Rivera. But Marmol has been the best strikeout closer this year. I'd take him in my 15 pitchers)

All of these pitchers should be selected before Strasburg and I would also probably pick another 3 or 4 pitchers before I even entertain the idea of having Strasburg on my All-Star game pitching roster. There are simply, way too many good pitchers this year. Pitching has been amazing this year and practically everyone on this pitching roster has an ERA less than 3! I couldn't even pick the closer with the most amount of saves for the team (Matt Capps) because he has an ERA above 3.

Sure, Strasburg has an ERA of 1.86 and a 2-0 record with 32 K's; but he has only pitched an out over 19 innings of Major League Baseball in his life. He has great control, giving only 5 walks and yes he has been fanning practically every batter he faced. But he is a rookie and has not had enough outings to show his dominance over a vast stretch. There have been countless pitchers that have started off a un-hittable and than batters have caught on to their styles--it happens all the time. And I'm not saying that he's not the real dea; I'm not saying that he will not continue being amazing. All I'm saying is that he is not an All-Star pitcher yet. At least not before the 15 named pitchers and probably another 3 before we can even think of him being on the roster.

Strasburg is 21 years old and people are already saying that he will be in the hall of fame--he probably will be if he lives up to even half the hype people have set on him; but let the kid grow. Let him pitch an entire year before you declare him one of the youngest players to pitch in the All-Star game (after Dwight Gooden who pitched in the big game when he was 19!). Let the kid grow--funny thing is I'm calling him a kid when I'm his age. He will be an All-Star pitcher and heck, he might even start the All-Star game in his life; but let's not prematurely put him on a pedestal that people have already built for him.

Let someone else pitch in this year's All-Star game; don't waste a spot on a kid who has 3 stars under his belt. Strasburg + All Star game = I hope you mean him watching from the bleachers.