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Rocking the vote Fans have some screwy choices for All-Star starters so farPosted: Monday June 30, 2003 12:09 PM
You put a bunch of ballots in the hands of baseball fans and you know what you get? Well, you get fans voting, of course. And that's not always pretty. There are only a couple of days remaining in this year's balloting for baseball's All-Star Game -- Motto: This Year, It Counts, Kind Of, Which Means Last Year Didn't Mean a Thing and, Really, The Silly Thing Hasn't Meant Much of Anything for a Long, Long Time Now -- and, as usual, fans seem to have made a mess of it. Now, there's still time for people to make things straight. Fans have until Wednesday at midnight to vote online. A lot of things can change in these next couple of days, especially considering fans can vote up to 25 times online. And, honestly, things should change. They darn well better change. There are some injustices out there that need to be fixed, some real cockeyed voting being committed.
American League, second base -- C'mon, you Yankees wankers. Get off the vote already. And where are all those loud Seattle fans when it really counts? New York's Alfonso Soriano led the voting last week and probably will lead it this week when the numbers come out Monday. But this one belongs to Seattle's Bret Boone. Look up the numbers. They all (and I mean all) belong to Boone. And here are some more. In June, Soriano is hitting .271. Boone is hitting .337, with three more homers (8-5) and 14 more RBIs (23-9). This vote shouldn't be close. AL, third base -- Anaheim's Troy Glaus is the fan favorite, so far, in a decidedly unglamorous group. But Glaus, in June, is hitting .207 with a miserable .293 on-base percentage. Texas' Hank Blalock doesn't have the power, but he's hitting .331 overall (to Glaus' .262) and still has a better on-base and slugging percentage than Glaus. For the name of Brooks, click on Blalock's name instead. AL, shortstop -- I can't knock Texas' Alex Rodriguez, the leading vote-getter at SS so far (at least through last week). But for you late vote-holders, go with the best shortstop in the league right now. Boston's Nomar Garciaparra is on fire. He's hitting near .343 (to Rodriguez's .296) and he has 10 more RBIs than A-Rod. No-mah is hitting .398 in June, with 17 of his 45 hits going for extra bases. He deserves your vote. AL, outfield -- Ichiro Suzuki didn't deserve to be in the starting three a month ago, but after a .400 June, he's worked his way in. The question is, who else should be there? I'm clicking on Toronto's Vernon Wells (.307, with 75 RBIs, best among all OFs, including a .364 mark in June) and, still, Baltimore's Melvin Mora (.357 overall, with the highest combined on-base and slugging percentage of any AL outfield regular, though he has been achy lately). You are free to disagree on this tight, tight race. But one note: Hideki Matsui's fine June (.410, six homers, 28 RBIs) doesn't get him there. But he's closer. National League, first base -- Houston's Jeff Bagwell is giving Colorado's Todd Helton a run but c'mon, folks! This isn't a lifetime achievement thing (or it shouldn't be, anyway). Helton (.336, 13, 63) owns Bags. And Bagwell is hitting only .255 in June. Give it to Helton. NL, second base -- The Braves' Marcus Giles has played himself out of a starting spot, and that may be reflected as soon as the NL voting is updated on Tuesday. Giles hit .222 in June and has been overtaken, in this view, for the starting spot by both Jeff Kent of the Astros and Jose Vidro of the Expos. Maybe even San Francisco's Ray Durham. The starter ought to be Vidro, who is hitting .328 and has a better combined on-base and slugging percentage than any of them. NL, third base -- Wake up! Mike Lowell. Mike Lowell. Mike Lowell. He plays for Florida. He leads the NL with 25 home runs. He has better numbers than Scott Rolen of the St. Louis Cardinals. And the fact that Lowell trailed Atlanta's Vinny Castilla in the voting as of last week well, something's awfully off there. NL, shortstop -- Yeah, the Braves are taking a beating. The leading vote-getter at SS last week, Atlanta's Rafael Furcal, shouldn't be up there anymore. He's hitting a miserable .196 this month, and he's starting to boot some balls around, too. Take St. Louis' Edgar Renteria (.339 with 56 RBIs, best among NL shortstops), Florida's Alex Gonzalez (.309, 12 homers, 51 RBIs, all better marks than Furcal) or even Montreal's Orlando Cabrera (.302, 11 homers, 45 RBIs). The pick: Renteria, who is hitting .356 in June. NL, outfield -- The Cards' Albert Pujols didn't make the top three last week, but we're thinking with those sick numbers (.391, 23 homers, 72 RBIs), people will snap out of their voting stupor and he'll be there this week. The correct starting outfield is Pujols, Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield, but with Sammy Sosa pulling down all those votes (please, no stuffing the ballot box jokes), someone is going to get left out of the starting lineup. Sorry, Sheff. Can we say DH, maybe? Ever since fans started voting for the starters in the All-Star Game -- Secondary motto: The Stakes are Raised, Except for the Bunch of Guys Who Will Never Play in the World Series, and for Them, The Game is a Nice Perk But They Maybe Could Have Used the Three Days Off -- there have been some funky decisions made by Joe Q. Public. Undoubtedly, there will be more this year. But, what the heck. This voting is a fans' thing, after all. It's for fun. It doesn't hurt anybody. Sometimes it's not pretty, true. Sometimes, in fact, it's downright confusing. But as long as fans have a say, at least it'll never be dull.
• Late Saturday night, the Pirates released a tearful Kevin Young, who was hitting .202 this year after struggling badly his past two years. It's probably better for everyone involved. Young can get on with his life and the Pirates can see what kind of young talent they have. • Since being no-hit by a gaggle of Houston Astros pitchers June 11, the New York Yankees are 15-2. They have won seven straight now, 10 straight in interleague play and they just swept the six-game season series from the Mets. Hey. Take it easy. I'm just the messenger here. • So, the Red Sox are liable to go with Byung-Hyun Kim as the closer in their beat-up pen. To which we say: What the heck took you guys so long? • Low-key, meet high-key: Ben Grieve, Lou Piniella. We knew Sweet Lou would take losing hard. But, sheesh. What did he expect?
This week, comments on no-trade clauses, the last on Roger Clemens' lid, All-Star voting and some other stuff I have criticized you in the past because I have perceived you as being "pro-player, anti-management," and maybe you have been. However, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the article you just wrote about the negative (my word) impact that no-trade clauses are having on baseball. Perhaps I'm thrilled that you appear to agree with me (and a lot of baseball/sports fans, I would think), but I'd prefer to think that the continually escalating costs/impacts associated with the game are starting to be more vividly demonstrated. I have noticed more than one cynical comment from sportswriters of late, and even the cheerleaders on ESPN and FOX are taking off the gloves (albeit only somewhat). The pendulum has swung well past even the most extreme position, and the rhetoric thrown at us by owners, league officials, players, sponsors, union reps and the media has worn thin. New stadiums with luxury boxes don't offset crappy teams, and the seemingly neverending greed of the aforementioned group is more and more obvious to even the dimmest of bulbs. In my home state of Wisconsin, they are actually going to have a meeting to address the sacrilegious topic of naming rights for Lambeau Field. I can't begin to overstate the outrage that will cause among Packer fans, but if Mr. Tagliabue and his cronies want it to happen (and they do), it will. How much money does this group need? When is the public going to rise up and quit being pressured into tax-supported stadiums and arenas, all the while being unable to afford game tickets and simultaneously being threatened with the prospect of all the games eventually being shown on some form of pay-per-view set-up? I don't know, but I really don't think it's a "chicken little" thing at all. -- Chuck Schell, Salt Lake City Well, Chuck. Wow. I know these things can build up sometimes. Glad you got that off your chest. Now I take a little offense to the pro-player, anti-management shot. Let's be honest, here. It's hard to relate to either of those sides. And, I'll tell you, I'm fed up with the paying for millionaire's stadiums things, too, and the ridiculous salaries and ticket prices and all that. Something needs to be done about it. All of it. The power, as you say, still resides in the fans' hands. Until the fans stop paying (or watching on TV), the millionaires will keep charging. I think we all feel your pain. Here's my opinion: No-trade clauses will continue to be granted at roughly the same rate as before, and it is naοve (or wishful thinking) for any baseball executive to suggest otherwise. Why? Well, no team really wants them, but, whenever more than one team is bidding for a player's services, at least one of them might decide that it has to offer or agree to a no-trade clause. That's simply a fact of negotiating life. Also, no-trade clauses are often included when a player magnanimously agrees to a "hometown discount." In such cases, the clause often makes sense, because the player wouldn't have agreed to the reduced salary if he wasn't going to be playing at "home." We all know that certain teams have more allure to free agents than others. Given this unequal playing field, which will always exist in baseball, some teams simply have to try to be more creative, accommodating and flexible to attract players. -- Jon V. Buerstatte, Eugene, Ore. Yeah, some teams need to use no-trades and others don't. Haves and have-nots and all that. It's hard to say, even as most teams cry about losing money, whether they'll become more prevalent or not. There are some executives that think they're simply not that big of a deal. Many teams feel that they can get around them just by getting a player's OK. And if a team is trying to trade a player, or it's a lousy team the player is on, or another team is willing to sweeten the deal no-trades can be waived. And they have been. If more execs think they're easy to get around, you're right. The clause may be around a while. I am one of the many fans in Arizona who never gave up on the Diamondbacks. This is a great team and they just dug themselves a big hole early on and it has been difficult to climb out. The climb is not over by any stretch of the imagination, but it's going to be an interesting and fun ride! It is nice to see many of the sports writers taking a second look and even eating a little crow! I'll never stop believing in these guys! What a ride, indeed!! I'm just glad I'm not Brenly and having to decide who goes back to Tucson! The youth have been unbelievable with all their contributions - all of them! We have seen the future -- and the future is now! -- Susan Harty, Peoria, Ariz. The Diamondbacks were going to have to rebuild sooner or later, anyway. Probably as soon as next year. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling aren't getting any younger, you know. Or Luis Gonzalez for that matter. The thing is, nobody in Arizona figured that they'd have to break in these young guys so early. They certainly didn't figure that they'd have to break in so many of them so early. But injuries happen, and the kids are coming through. For now. There are bound to be some rough times ahead. But the way the young players have responded early this season bodes well for the D'backs. If teams are dumb enough to gives guys like Juan Gonzalez no-trade clauses, then they have to live with the consequences. If it's part of these guys' contracts, then it is well within their rights to veto any deal that sends them to a team they don't want to play for, so no bellyaching! Did Texas really think that Juan just put the clause in there just for the fun of it? And if I know that he's going to reject that Expos deal two seconds after I hear about the trade don't you think that his team should? -- Mitch Rothbardt, San Francisco It's a part of the enormous collective ego in the game that players, coaches and managers all think they can make something out of nothing and team officials, as a rule, think they know more than anyone else. Yeah, Mitch, you weren't the only one to guess that Gonzalez was going to can that deal. You missed, or at least didn't give enough attention, to a key point. Teams that agree to give a player a no-trade clause aren't giving them away for free. You've cast it as though fat, greedy players feeding at the MLB trough have the audacity to ask for a second scoop of ice cream on their pie. In fact, when a team gives a no-trade clause, they generally do it so they can pay LESS in real, guaranteed dollars. The player gets a little less salary, and a lot more freedom. Like everything else in a contract, a no-trade is a negotiating tool. But the Braves clearly have it right. Pay what it takes to keep or obtain the player, but don't tie your hands. -- Walt Cherniak, Woodbine, Md. True, Walt. Very true. That is often the case. Though I find it a little hard to think of players as NOT fat and greedy just because they accept a couple of million dollars less per year. But, you're right, you're right. Roger's claim that he earned his way into the HoF while in a Yankee cap is absurd. Certainly he did indeed reach the 300-win milestone, won a Cy Young and was a part of World Series teams as a Yankee. However, he had 192 wins as a Red Sox, two Cy Youngs as a Blue Jay and added to those numbers as a Yankee. Roger is still mad at Dan Duquette for letting him go and saying he was washed up and the reaction (boos) he gets every time he goes to Fenway. Maybe if Roger hadn't taken three years off while with the Red Sox, let himself go physically and pitched to the level he's always been capable of during those three years things would have turned out different. Hey, Roger should be mad at himself. Had he maintained the type of career he had in his early years in Boston, and later, when he "rededicated" himself in Toronto and N.Y., he'd be a figure of mythic proportions, probably approaching 350-400 wins, 4,400 K's and would be the beloved icon of Boston as Cal Ripken is in Baltimore. -- George Flaherty, Mount Union, Pa. Yep, George. Lots of comments on the Cap Flap. There are more below. What's up with Florida's Mike Lowell getting absolutely no attention this season? Let's face it: The sixth-year third baseman is having the year of his life, and nobody seems to know about it. Take, for example, your Payoff Pitch last week on Albert Pujols. Lowell received one passing mention in the article, and heck, why not? He's only LEADING THE MAJORS IN HOME RUNS with 23! He had 24 dingers TOTAL in 2002, and he will almost certainly surpass that before the All-Star break in 2003. In addition to this, Lowell is on pace to boast career highs in both RBIs (61 as of Tuesday) and batting average (.291--16 points above career BA). Still, the effects of playing for the small-market Marlins loom over the slugger's head going into the All-Star Break. As of Tuesday, not only was he was 400,000 votes behind front-runner Scott Rolen in National League third basemen voting, he was another 6,000 votes behind the Braves' Vinny Castilla!! By the way, Castilla is batting .259 this season with 11 homers and 33 RBI--hardly All-Star material. Heck, even Rolen's numbers don't stand up to Lowell's (.291, 51 RBI, 12 HR). When will baseball fans get their heads out of the clouds and realize that Lowell is the only logical choice for starting NL third baseman in the All-Star Game? Actually, I take that back -- let them leave their heads in the clouds. As hard as Big Mike's been hitting, that's the best vantage point. -- Joel Weckerly, Midland, Mich. Mike Lowell will be making a well-deserved trip to the All-Star Game, one way or the other. Vinny Castilla will not. Roger Clemens When he's at home, he can decide what cap to wear and all that. But the HoF, it's not his decision to make. He should be happy to be IN the Hall of Fame. I know I would be. -- Michel Borduas I made this point last week: The Hall should be an accurate representation of the game and the people who have made it what it is. The Hall should make the call on which cap will appear on Clemens' head on his plaque in Cooperstown. The Hall also, of course, should acknowledge his contributions to other teams. People have been writing now for quite awhile back and forth about which caps Roger Clemens should wear when he goes into the Hall of Fame. The discussion boils down to one TRUE issue. Unfortunately for most of those who are arguing it has nothing whatsoever to do with Time Served, or Statistics Gained. It has everything to do with what the Hall is. The Hall of Fame isn't FOR Roger Clemens. It's for the fans. It's for posterity. Roger will never only be remembered as a Red Sox. He will be remembered as volatile, emotional fireballer who pitched for three teams in the same division and pitched brilliantly for all of them. But he needs to realize that because he came to prominence as a Red Sox that's the image we're always going to associate with him. It's not for them to decide what their legacy is. Legacy is interpreted by others, not yourself. -- Travis P. Bedard Absolutely. And with that, I am putting a cork in this issue. If the starting AL outfielders in this year's All-Star Game are Ichiro and Matsui, can we seriously start looking into the voting process? I mean if that moron Selig is going to make the game count, then shouldn't we have the best players and not two players that have an entire NATION voting for them on the basis of their ethnicity? -- Chip Schrager, Mount Vernon, N.Y. Well, Matsui is not liable to make it, though he had a heck of a June and will get lots of votes. But Ichiro probably will. You could make a case that he shouldn't be among the starting three, but it's becoming increasingly tougher to do (see the start of this column). Still, Vernon Wells, Juan Gonzalez and Garret Anderson deserve some loving. Not to mention Melvin Mora. How many players have to go on the DL before these players and coaches smarten up? Every time I turn around, a star player (any player on a roster is a loss) gets hurt sliding headfirst! Jeter, Rolen, Marrero are three who come to mind to me right away this season already, and I am sure there are more. Players ought to be trained to slide feet first (hey, who wants to eat spikes for dinner?). More of them will be safe in the play they are making because the fielder will be less likely to block the base, and fewer of the runners will get hurt. Now some of these guys are going headfirst into first base!! There is no way they are getting to the base any faster when they leave their feet like that!! -- Paul Vinnedge Purists hate the headfirst slide. But some players love it. Roberto Alomar of the Mets swears on the slide into first. You're right, though, Paul. No way Jeter dislocates his shoulder on Opening Day if he slides into third feet first. Maybe he breaks an ankle, sure. Busts up a knee, maybe. But shoulder? Noooo. The fact is, these guys do what they're comfortable doing. They are a stubborn bunch. Why is Jeff Weaver still a New York Yankee? Sure, he's a promising young pitcher, with a ton of potential. But not in N.Y. His body language is the worst I have ever seen, and he looks like a little leaguer who just got sent to right field. When are the higher-ups going to realize that Weaver cannot handle the pressure of playing in N.Y., and more importantly, cannot handle the pressure of being in a rotation with Clemens, Mussina, Wells and Pettitte? Weaver is an easily awestruck kid who will only flourish in non-pressure situations, such as Detroit. If the Weaver for Giles rumor is true, MAKE THE DEAL. -- Brian Goldberg Well, the Yanks have the luxury of waiting Weaver out. And they have a bunch of coaches who think they can fix the poor kid. Still, you have to think that if Weaver stays in New York and he's not contributing by August, you won't see him around next season. My thinking: Just hold on for a bit. He looked good Sunday, although it was against the Mets. Weaver might still work out. John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.
Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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Organizers in Baltimore last weekend put together a charity home run derby pitting members of the 1983 Orioles against the '83 Phillies. The problem was, the biggest names there, a pair of Hall of Famers in Philly's Mike Schmidt and Baltimore's Eddie Murray, failed to go yard at Camden Yards. The MVP of the '83 Series, Rick Dempsey, won. And the crowd went wild.
"Time determines a person's career. If Pujols plays for a long period of time, he definitely has a chance to do some wonderful things in this game of baseball because he has the ability. [But] time plays with all of us."
