Chris Capuano (10-8, 3.29) vs. Wade LeBlanc (1-1, 1.50).
Hello, second place. Did you miss us? Because we weren't gone long.
I don't like pitchers named Wade. Last time we saw one, he knocked us into second place. Will today's Wade bog us down further?
And speaking of LeBlancs, have you seen "Episodes" on Showtime? Matt LeBlanc is doing a great job on that show.
photo from Whoa, Nellie!
Old Milwaukee's made a name for itself in the advertising world by dropping oft-bizarre spots (often featuring actor Will Ferrell) and running them in one, usually small, television market.The mysteries continued last night as two local cable ad buys on ESPN in the Kansas City market became the domain of Jose Canseco, who preached about the "better days" of baseball while clad in a uniform emblazoned with his own name. We've pointed out his self-awareness before, but the "Locker Room Speech" spot is especially ironic.(It's hard to hear, but what isn't.)
Or Aroldis Chapman and Jose Altuve...
I didn't watch much of this year's All-Star Game, and only caught snippets of the Home Run Derby. But the lasting brouhaha (besides the National League's 8-0 drubbing of the American League) has been Robinson Cano's relentless booing during his last-place effort at the Home Run Derby.
Cano is a wimp. But his swipe did help reveal to me deeper ills in the All-Star Weekend and format.
Firstly, witness the booing. Cano, the Yankees the winner of last year's Home Run Derby, was named captain of the American League team for this year's Derby. The choices for his league's teammates on the four-man squad were left to him. One month earlier, Cano said he would choose a Royal to his squad.
Cano didn't. And the hometown crowd let him have it.
In the aftermath of this decision, Cano revealed he couldn't handle the abuse. He claimed that his family was threatened, but more importantly, he claimed that his decision to go back on his word was sound:
"It was a tough decision," Cano said. "It's easy to understand how fans want to see the kid from their hometown. But the fans need to understand, we're not doing it because we don't like other players. We just want to pick the people we think are going to put on a good show for the fans."Cano picked [Prince] Fielder, now of the Tigers, Jose Bautista and Mark Trumbo for the AL derby squad at the expense of Butler. They finished 1-2-3 in the competition.
And there lies the problem. Cano is clueless about what All-Star Weekend means. He blew the decision, he went back on his word, and now has buckled under the consequences of the decision.
Weak sauce, Cano.
Don't get me wrong. MLB came screaming to Cano's rescue, saying that they might change the Home Run Derby rules altogether. Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan made a half-hearted attempt to chastise the behavior of his hometown.
But the truth is, the whole All-Star weekend is an exhibition. And even though the All-Star Game itself "counts" (only in so far as the outcome awards home-field advantage, which has benefited the winning league in six of the nine times since that custom started), the Home Run Derby...is meaningless.
The winner of the Home Run Derby gets recognition, sure. But there is no impact on the regular season.
Which makes it ridiculous that Cano didn't keep his word and give the Kansas City hometown fans someone for which to cheer. The outcome doesn't matter. The players DO matter, to these fans (who pay good money to attend a batting practice event). Why not give them a local hero?
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I didn't watch the Home Run Derby short of Matt Kemp's appearance (but once the booing started for Cano, I held on a bit longer). And I cared about Clayton Kershaw's inning of work last night in the All-Star Game.
The rest of the Derby and Game? Without a Dodger out there, or a compelling storyline elsewhere for this event, I didn't give a hoot about watching it. I mean, sure, the home-field advantage will be great for the Dodgers in October, so that's nice. But it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the game itself (especially since watching the flubber on Pablo Sandoval nauseates me).
Because there weren't any players from my beloved team. All I cared about was watching them.
The All-Star Game has a rule which specifies that every team must have an All-Star representative. It's a great rule, a rule for which I've gained a profound appreciation after this year. For the hometown city hosting the All-Star Game, that representative becomes even more important.
For Kansas City in particular hosting the All-Star Game, it's frickin' vital to have a hometown representative. This is a city which hasn't had a winning Royals team since 2003. It hasn't had a playoff appearance, or even a divisional pennant, since it won the World Series in 1985, almost 30 years ago. Throw these guys a bone, please.
Robinson Cano, you blew it, and you deserved the boos. The hometown fans deserve better, and you promised it to them and then went back on your word. Like it or not, you've just played right into the villainous Yankee stereotype. Congratulations.
And nice job in the 2012 Home Run Derby, by the way.
Starting pitchers: R.A. Dickey Matt Cain (9-3, 2.62) vs. Justin Verlander (9-5, 2.58).
Not to be Oscar the Grouch about this, but aside from seeing Clayton Kershaw get in the game to pitch, I am not very interested in watching this year's All-Star Game. Although it would be cool to see Oyster Pubes meet a Pete Rose-like play at the plate.
Dodgers bullpen catcher Rob Flippo did his best to tie up Matt Kemp in knots tonight, consistently gunning fastballs inside on Home Run Derby participant Matt Kemp, who only scored one HR and didn't get out of the first round.
Luckily for Kemp, Robinson Cano's father Jose also developed a mean fastball in the offseason, completely tying up his son, who ended up homerless in last place.
That's okay, Matty! Save the HR for the second half!
A note about Matt Kemp and the Home Run Derby: opposing the idea of Kemp participating tonight is the easiest position to take. If everything goes fine, you can just say you have the best interests of the team in mind. If he gets hurt, then it's all I TOLD YOU SO. Kemp should definitely be playing tonight. If he's going to get hurt basically taking BP tonight, then he's going to get hurt playing full speed Friday. Let's just enjoy his reentry into the 2012 season.
Chris Capuano (9-3, 2.62) vs. Trevor Bauer (0-1, 9.82).
Today is part 2 in the Diamondbacks' Attack of the Trevors, with former UCLA Bruin T. Bauer taking the mound for the Diamondbacks. Hopefully Duke (ugh) product Capuano can help the Dodgers enter the All-Star break on a winning note.
Speaking of fireworks: Matt Kemp has chosen his teammates for this year's Home Run Derby.
The Home Run Derby can be seen on MLB.com and ESPN at 8 p.m. ET on July 9. The All-Star Game is on FOX at 8 p.m. on July 10. [...]
As for the NL squad, though Kemp has been sidelined since May 30 with a strained left hamstring and will miss the All-Star Game, he still plans to take his cuts in the Derby. In just 36 games this season, Kemp has mashed 12 home runs.
"I'm going to participate in it," Kemp said on Sunday night. "It's just like batting practice. I've been doing that the past three weeks, so I'm ready for that."
Beltran sits in second place in the NL with 20 homers, while Stanton has 19 and Gonzalez has 17. Reigning NL MVP and current NL home run leader Ryan Braun will not participate.
Kemp noted that teammate Andre Ethier was going to be selected before he strained his left oblique earlier this week.
"I had to find a replacement," Kemp said. "I wish he could. That would have been exciting. I think his kids would've enjoyed dad in the Home Run Derby. The kids seem to enjoy it the most. I'm pretty disappointed he can't participate in it. Hopefully next year."On Sunday night, Kemp announced he would compete alongside first-timers Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Gonzalez in the 2012 State Farm Home Run Derby at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
You three kids just make sure that Matt Kemp gets through the Derby safely, you hear?
Oyster Pubes' candidacy aside, it's nice to see San Francisco getting called out for blocking more sensible and worthy All-Star Game starters. As Buster Olney puts it, voting Pablo Sandwichoval and Melky Cabrera in are two unpardonable sins (link insider only):
The NL lineup is far sillier than the AL one, primarily because of the voting push in San Francisco that put three Giants in the starting nine, none of whom belongs there. Buster Posey is a fine choice as an alternate behind Yadier Molina or Carlos Ruiz. Pablo Sandoval over David Wright, a longtime star having an MVP-caliber bounceback season now that he's healthy again, is atrocious. And I'm not remotely a fan of putting a BABIP-fluke hitter such as Melky Cabrera in the game on that basis, let alone having him start over an established star such as Andrew McCutchen; Cabrera's roster spot should have gone to Michael Bourn or, preferably, re-emergent Jason Heyward, who appeared in the All-Star Game as a rookie in 2010. Rafael Furcal is the other poor choice among NL starters, a shadow of the player he used to be, hitting .280 AVG/.346 OBP/.377 SLG with fringy defense, chosen over Jed Lowrie, hitting .261/.347/.486 with average defense or now-injured Troy Tulowitzki.
At this stage, we can only hope for the best. Like Sandoval pulling one of his common baserunning gaffes (see below), while Cabrera pulls something else.
I know Broxton's line of 20 SV, 2.05 ERA, 30.2 IP, 23 SO, 1.34 WHIP isn't too shabby. But does this former Dodger look happy to be a candidate for the All-Star Game in KC? I don't think so.
From "Dodgers' Matt Kemp to return July 13" by Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times:
Matt Kemp said Saturday that he intends to return to the Dodgers lineup July 13 against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium, the first game after the All-Star break.Welcome to the longest two weeks of the season. How many games out of first will the Dodgers be on July 13?
"I'll be ready," Kemp said.
Kemp has played in only two of the Dodgers' last 45 games because of a strained left hamstring.
He is planning to go on a minor league rehabilitation assignment in the coming week. The assignment could start as early as Tuesday with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. He is expecting to miss the All-Star gamebut will take part in the Home Run Derby on July 9.
"I'm doing it," Kemp said of the derby.
Bullpen catcher Rob Flippo will pitch to Kemp in the home run-hitting exhibition, in which Kemp will captain the National League team.
Kemp is expected to take part in a team workout at Dodger Stadium on July 12, the final day of the All-Star break.
Wow. Matt Kemp leads early NL All-Star voting, despite the fact that he's on the DL for another long stint:
Balloting remains open until June 28 and it'll be interesting to see how Kemp's numbers hold (or don't) now that he's again on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.The early All-Star results are in and the ballot boxes have been stuffed in a way you might expect. After scorching hot starts to their seasons, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers (2.58 million votes) and Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers (1.91 million) lead their respective leagues in voting.
Vote early! Vote often! And vote #AJ2KC!
Still working on a post about this, but why not start the campaign now: Send #AJ2KC ! Vote @AJEllis17 into the ASG! atmlb.com/IXbBUm -N
— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) May 2, 2012
Additionally, despite managing only six home runs in more than 800 Pacific Coast League at-bats, Ellis has added enough pop to his game (five doubles, a triple and three home runs this season) that he is slugging .512 and has an OPS of .974, the latter figure tops among all major league catchers. This despite playing two-thirds of his games this year in the relatively stifling hitting environments of Dodger Stadium and San Diego’s Petco Park.
"To be honest, I didn't think A.J. would be lighting it up offensively," manager Don Mattingly said. "He's really swinging the bat well. We expected the defense, the way he's handled the staff, all the preparation. What we're getting offensively, honestly, is more than I thought."
What about hitting fifth instead of eighth with Kemp out of the lineup? Do you have to change your approach now?
Donnie [Mattingly] talked to me when he made the switch, and he specifically said, "Don't change your approach. Be you, be who you are." I think that's all part of the adjustment to becoming a full-time major leaguer. Just becoming secure in my identity, in who I am as a player. In the past I tried to impress people by doing more things than I was capable of. I'm 31 years old, my growing years are behind me. Now it's about molding, honing my craft, being who I am.
If Ellis is going to make it, he’s going to need votes. Today, you can help. Through June 28, you can head on over to the MLB All-Star balloting page and vote for Ellis (and any other Dodger you like) up to 25 times per email address… and who among us has just one email address? Besides, as I’ve been reminded by the wonderful commenters of this site, there’s ways around that; reportedly, you can use the same email address many times from different devices, and if you have a gmail account, well, it’s a fun fact that gmail completely ignores periods even if other sites don’t. That is, the voting process will read ladodgers@gmail.com differently from la.dodgers@gmail.com and lado.dgers@gmail.com… even if it’s all the same account.
Vote early, vote often, as they say. And don’t stop there. Spread the word as much as you can, to friends, family, whomever. Use the Twitter hashtag #AJ2KC as often as you can (hat tip to Sons of Steve Garvey for that one).
Download the campaign button you see above in this post and always on the right sidebar – helpfully provided by the wonderful Stephen Caver, who designed this site – and put it on your blog, on Facebook, make it your Twitter icon, put it anywhere you can. If you’re a blogger, feel free to steal it and use it on your own site. Just make sure to link it back either to this post or to the MLB.com voting page directly.
They unveiled the 2012 All-Star Game logo yesterday, and I have to say I think it's pretty sweet. I like the color, the crown, the symmetry, and the majestic font. And I think Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw will love wearing this logo's patch on their sleeves next year.
On top of that, it's pretty cool to have awarded this to the Royals, given Kaufmann Stadium isn't one of the new-fangled stadia that usually get the All-Star Game prize. And clearly, MLB and the Royals are both excited:
The logo suggests the recognizable shield shape of the famous Kauffman video board, and is topped with a gold crown bearing the year "2012." "On behalf of the 29 Major League Clubs, on behalf of commissioner [Bud] Selig, I have to tell you we could not be prouder to bring the All-Star Game to Kansas City," [MLB executive vice president of business Tim] Brosnan said. "And on a special note, to bring the All-Star Game to the Glass family, which has worked selflessly on behalf of Major League Baseball and on behalf of the Royals to keep the Kansas City baseball tradition alive and thriving here in Kansas City."
What do you think of the logo?
