HOME RUN DERBY & ALL-STAR GAME

"The All-Star Game was invented for Willie Mays" - Ted Williams

Anytime you get to see Willie Mays on a baseball field it's going to be a great baseball game, one to be remembered. It seems like they tried to recreate the Ted Williams event in Boston, but to honor Willie like that was a great thing for baseball to do.

The game itself almost, almost becomes anticlimactic after that, but hey, this time it counts, right? I'm not so up in arms about having the All-Star game winner determine the World Series home-field advantage. Any system you use will have its flaws. The alternating years system wasn't doing much for anyone. I've heard using the winner of inter-league play, but that system would not be perfect either.

If this gets a little more interest and intensity in the game, that's fine. It's still the best all-star game of all the major sports.

Regarding the Home Run Derby:

It just goes to show how good Bonds has been the last few years, when the best home run hitters couldn't conquer Pac Bell Park. Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder with no splash shots and very few homers, IN A GLORIFIED BATTING PRACTICE!!! INCREDIBLE.

If I had known Matt Holliday was that good though, I might have voted for him as well. He's going to be something and if they can somehow shut down the humidors for a year or so, he might hit 60+ dingers.

from ESPN.com

NL Starting Lineups Salary $52,015,260 total, $5,779,473.33 average
AL Starting Lineups Salary 120,207,164 total, $13,356,351.55 average

It's not quite the Yankess vs. the Devil Rays, but this may help explain why the NL hasn't won much of anything in a decade or so.



It's a good time to look at my pre-season predictions and where they stand at the break:

My pre-season Divison winner predictions:
NL East: Mets 48-39 record 1st place 59.9% chance to make playoffs
NL Central: Cardinals 40-45 record 3rd place 1.2% chance to make playoffs
NL West: Dodgers 49-40 record 2nd place 57.7% chance to make playoffs
Wild Card: Giants 38-48 record last place 1.7% chance to make playoffs

Al East: Yankees 42-43 record 3rd place 14.5% chance to make playoffs
AL Central: Tigers 52-34 record 2nd place 92.2% chance to make playoffs
AL West: Angels 53-35 record 1st place 79.3% chance to make playoffs
Wild Card: Indians 52-36 record 1st place 63.2% chance to make playoffs

World Series: Giants vs. Yankees
World Series Winner: Giants

Over/Under on Bonds breaking Aaron's record: September 3rd.

The precentage chance to make playoffs figures are from the aptly named, Coolstandings.com:
http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_standings.asp?i=1

Giants and Cardinals are obviously kiling me so far. I must have really been drinking the orange and black Kool-Aid in the pre-season. Giants have been terrible, when Bonds looks like the most vibrant player on the field most days, your team is getting old. The offense is anemic and the bullpen horrible.

Missed on the RedSox in the AL so far, Yankees are given a better chance to make the playoff then the second place BlueJays, probably justified. They can't be as bad as they looked in the first half. But just like Bonds with the Giants, the Yankees fortunes ride on one man, Mariano Rivera. If he goes down, or continues to look frayed around the edges,as he did in the first half. The Yankees are the most expensive .500 team in history.

If baseball truly wants a level playing field, players and owners need to get together and work on some form of "payroll parity". I know money doesn't guarantee success, but clearly the lack of it guarantees failure. Or at least the feeling that your team should be named the Washington Generals. Ask the Devil Rays, Royals, Pirates, etc. And some of the other teams are just cosmetically competetive.

The playoffs are becoming a party where realistically only about 1/3 of the teams have a realistic chance of making the playoffs annually, 1/3 need so many thing to go right each year that realistically it's not possible and 1/3 have no chance after April or May at the latest.