All-Star Game Fallout and Baseball Ramblings

I am no longer allowed to criticize the selection of the Home Run Derby participants.

Last Sunday, I was on the verge of pitching a fit for the ages when I heard Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau was invited to participate in the Home Run Derby. This happens every couple of years—some joker with 10 home runs gets the invite while some other player I like who has 20 home runs doesn't so much as get a glance (or at least one I'm aware of). And this season, there was Morneau and his 14 home runs standing among a mostly 20-plus home run crowd.

Morneau! What's HE doing here?! 14 home runs? Come on—he doesn't deserve to be here.

I like Morneau, but I didn't feel he was a worthy participant. Of course, he ended up winning the whole thing, and then I remembered why I'm a sports blogger and not a sports journalist or sports analyst, and I vowed to keep my giant mouth shut about such matters from that point forward. The vow lasted all of about three hours—during the Legends and Celebrities softball game, I said I thought Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal would be a lousy double play combination, and I was wrong about that, too!

Oh, and my pick to win the Home Run Derby? Why, it was none other than Cleveland Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore. Yeah, he was out in the first round. Apparently I'm not very good at this whole making predictions thing.

The All-Star Game was all right, but still disappointing because the National League JUST CAN'T WIN. Maybe next year. And at least Ryan Ludwick got a lot of playing time and made a cool diving catch out in left. I missed the fourth through twelfth innings (I think) because some buddies and I went to our friend Rick's softball game, but what I saw was a tightly contested affair, and that's what I like in an All-Star Game. Would still be nice to see the National League not screw it up, for once.

However, the whole managing aspect of the All-Star Game and the pressure of getting every player into the game still need to be re-examined. I really don't think managers should feel like they have to get literally every player on the roster into the game. Look at what almost happened this year—they put in the "winner gets home-field advantage in the World Series" stipulation in part to prevent the possibility of ties, and there we were in the 15^th inning with no usable pitchers remaining and the possibility that the game might not go on if it lasted much longer. If the All-Star-Game "counts," managers need to start managing to win the game, not for fan service. Of course, the managers all say they're managing to win, and yet most of the time we've already seen eight pitchers by the third inning. Sorry, but I'm pretty hard-nosed about this whole thing. If a player from my team doesn't make it into the game, I'm sure I'll be disappointed, but if they were holding him back in the event of a long-extra inning situation, I think I'd be pretty understanding about it. Maybe Kyle Lohse could have filled that role? Oh, wait, he wasn't on the team. But seriously, if the managers held back just one starting pitcher in case of long extra innings, we might avoid this in the future. It seems simple enough, but I'll go ahead and assume nobody will ever figure it out.

It's been nice seeing the Cardinals immediately on a tear going into the last two and a half months of the season. How long has it even been since we last saw a sweep (a 4-game sweep, at that)? The Padres aren't the toughest team around, but the Cardinals still had to make a few exciting comebacks to get these wins, so the victories weren't without their charm, even against a bad team.

Even though Jason Isringhausen did all right in relief on Friday night, he still blew it on Sunday. I'm about as forgiving of a fan as you'll find (mostly because I'm just a fan and usually don't feel I have the right to criticize when I can't do what these guys can), but this guy's gotta go. I don't care if he only needs eight more saves for 300 or whatever it is—he can't get them. He's done. Here's a guy in an already unstable bullpen who literally cannot save a game. If he comes into the game, we're looking at either a blown lead or a loss. Almost every time. If even one guy gets on base, Isringhausen can't stop the bleeding from that point forward. I like Isringhausen, but here again, we have a situation where the good of the team should come before getting Isringhausen his 300 saves. If he can't shut them down, he doesn't need to be in there.

And I'm spent.