MLB All-Star Week: All-Star Game Preview

Tonight's MLB All-Star game is being played at 8pm on FOX as the visiting American League takes on the National League at Citi Field in Flushing, NY, home of the New York Mets.

This game determines which league will have home-field advantage in this year's World Series. This game will mark the 11th year that the All-Star Game decides this and through 10 years the league that went on to win the All-Star Game is 7-3 in the World Series.

In my opinion the American League has the better hitters and the National League has the better pitchers. While I believe the NL has a better pitching staff, for this type of game I think the AL has a better chance at winning because of who they can turn to late in the game. When it comes down to it, no one in the NL wants to see #42 come in to pitch in the ninth inning. No one.

For this reason I am predicting that the AL will come out on top. My guess is that the AL will win this game 6-4 with Manny Machado winning the game's MVP. I know going with Machado is pretty random, but he will likely hit a late-inning double that will drive in a couple runs that give the AL either the lead or push them out far enough to end this game. Just seems like whichever player comes off the bench late and makes an impact is most likely to win the game's MVP.

The NL won this game last year and the two years before, while the AL won seven straight after the 2002 fiasco that ended in a tie. That tie is why the game now "matters" as Major League Baseball wanted to make this game worthwhile for the fans and make this game actually worth something.

While I like the idea of the MLB making the All-Star game determine home-field advantage, I just think one game isn't enough to decide it. The MLB season is 162 games long and they allow one game in the middle of the season to determine which league's team will have home-field advantage.

I would like to see the game actually turned into a three-game series with a slightly larger roster. The MLB could extend the All-Star week into an actual week which would help players be fresher for the second have of the season. The series would probably become something bigger than the game already is and would allow both teams to have more players on their rosters. It would also give pitchers more innings to work with and allow hitters to play more than just three innings. With players only playing as little as they are in this game, it just isn't a real game to me. (Trust me if there was something else going on with sports today I would write about it. This is the most miserable four days for any sports fan of the year.)

As for tonight's game both lineups are listed below as well as my comments on five players from each league that should have made the All-Star game as well as five that shouldn't have.

American League:
Starting Lineup:
1) LF Mike Trout (Angels) - .322 BA, 15 HR, 59 RBI
2) 2B Robinson Cano (Yankees) - .302 BA, 21 HR, 65 RBI
3) 3B Miguel Cabrera (Tigers) - .365 BA, 30 HR, 95 RBI
4) 1B Chris Davis (Orioles) - .315 BA, 37 HR, 93 RBI
5) RF Jose Bautista (Blue Jays) - .254 BA, 20 HR, 55 RBI
6) DH David Ortiz (Red Sox) - .317 BA, 19 HR, 65 RBI
7) CF Adam Jones (Orioles) - .296 BA, 19 HR, 67 RBI
8) C Joe Mauer (Twins) - .320 BA, 8 HR, 32 RBI
9) SS J.J. Hardy (Orioles) - .251 BA, 16 HR, 52 RBI
0) SP Max Scherzer (Tigers) - 13-1, 152 K, 3.19 ERA

Reserves:
C Jason Castro (Astros) - .269 BA, 12 HR, 31 RBI
C Salvador Perez (Royals) - .284 BA, 4 HR, 38 RBI
1B Prince Fielder (Tigers) - .267 BA, 16 HR, 69 RBI
2B Jason Kipnis (Indians) - .301 BA, 13 HR, 57 RBI
2B Dustin Pedroia (Red Sox) - .316 BA, 6 HR, 56 RBI
2B Ben Zobrist (Rays) - .260 BA, 6 HR, 48 RBI
3B Manny Machado (Orioles) - .310, 7 HR, 45 RBI
SS Jhonny Peralta (Tigers) - .303, 8 HR, 46 RBI
OF Nelson Cruz (Rangers) - .277, 22 HR, 69 RBI
OF Alex Gordon (Royals) - .283, 9 HR, 49 RBI
OF Torii Hunter (Tigers) - .315, 7 HR, 44 RBI
DH Edwin Encarnacion (Blue Jays) - .264, 25 HR, 72 RBI

Pitching Staff:
SP Felix Hernandez (Mariners) - 10-4, 140 K, 2.53 ERA
SP Justin Masterson (Indians) - 10-7, 137 K, 3.72 ERA
SP Chris Sale (White Sox) - 6-8, 131 K, 2.85 ERA
SP Matt Moore (Rays) - 13-3, 108 K, 3.44 ERA - Replaces SP Yu Darvish (Rangers) - 8-4, 157 K, 3.02 ERA
SP Chris Tillman (Orioles) - 11-3, 89 K, 3.95 ERA - Replaces SP Justin Verlander (Tigers) - 10-6, 125 K, 3.50 ERA
RP Mariano Rivera (Yankees) - 30 SV, 32 K, 1.83 ERA
RP Joe Nathan (Rangers) - 30 SV, 42 K, 1.36 ERA
RP Steve Delabar (Blue Jays) - 5 HD, 58 K, 1.71 ERA
RP Brett Cecil (Blue Jays) - 5 HD, 55 K, 1.94 ERA
RP Glen Perkins (Twins) - 21 SV, 47 K, 1.82 ERA - Replaces SP Clay Buchholz (Red Sox) - 9-0, 81 K, 1.71 ERA
RP Greg Holland (Royals) - 22 SV, 60 K, 1.80 ERA - Replaces SP Hisashi Iwakuma (Mariners) - 8-4, 113 K, 3.02 ERA
RP Grant Balfour (Athletics) - 25 SV, 41 K, 1.63 ERA - Replaces SP Bartolo Colon (Athletics) - 12-3, 70 K, 2.70 ERA

Going to be the last time we get to see this at an MLB All-Star Game.

5 Players Who Shouldn't Have Made It:

1) C Salvador Perez (Royals) - The numbers he's putting up aren't all-star caliber. How'd he make it?

2) 2B Ben Zobrist (Rays) - The AL already 3 second basemen. Why'd they add a fourth?

3) OF Torii Hunter (Tigers) - His numbers are okay, but it seems like he got here more because of who he is.

4) SP Chris Sale (White Sox) - He's pitching well, but if you have a losing record, how are you an All-Star?

5) RP Steve Delabar/Brett Cecil (Blue Jays) - Both guys are pitching really well right now, but since when are middle relievers All-Stars, especially two from the same ball club?

5 Players Who Should Have Made It:

1) C Carlos Santana (Indians) - .275 BA, 11 HR, 43 RBI. He should have easily made this team over Perez.

2A) 3B Josh Donaldson (Athletics) - .310 BA, 16 HR, 61 RBI and he was left off the roster for some reason.

2B) 3B Adrian Beltre (Rangers) - .316 BA, 21 HR, 55 RBI. Same as Donaldson. Both should be here over Zobrist.

3) OF Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox) - .305 BA, 59 R, 36 SB. He's a lot more deserving and I can't stand the Red Sox.

4) SP Hiroki Kuroda (Yankees) - 8-6, 84 K, 2.65 ERA. Outside of strikeouts he has better numbers than Sale. It's not like he's getting more hitting than Sale either as the team in the Bronx isn't really Bombing lately.

5) RP David Robertson (Yankees) - 22 HD, 51 K, 2.11 ERA. Somehow lost out on the last spot to Delabar. He's the main reason the Bronx Bombers are able to get from starting pitchers to Rivera. I don't know how he was left off.

National League:
Starting Lineup:
1) 2B Brandon Phillips (Reds) - .266 BA, 12 HR, 74 RBI
2) RF Carlos Beltran (Cardinals) - .309 BA, 19 HR, 53 RBI
3) 1B Joey Votto (Reds) - .318 BA, 15 HR, 42 RBI
4) 3B David Wright (Mets) - .304 BA, 13 HR, 44 RBI
5) LF Carlos Gonzalez (Rockies) - .302 BA, 25 HR, 64 RBI
6) C Yadier Molina (Cardinals) - .341 BA, 7 HR, 49 RBI
7) SS Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies) - .332 BA, 16 HR, 52 RBI
8) DH Michael Cuddyer (Rockies) - .330 BA, 16 HR, 55 RBI
9) CF Bryce Harper (Nationals) - .264 BA, 13 HR, 29 RBI
0) SP Matt Harvey (Mets) - 7-2, 147 K, 2.35 ERA

The video below is from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as Matt Harvey interviews Mets fans in New York City about Matt Harvey.

Reserves:
C Buster Posey (Giants) - .325 BA, 13 HR, 56 RBI
C Brian McCann (Braves) - .291 BA, 12 HR, 32 RBI - Replaces 1B Freddie Freeman (Braves) - .308 BA, 9 HR, 61 RBI
1B Allen Craig (Cardinals) - .333 BA, 10 HR, 71 RBI
1B Paul Goldschmidt (Diamondbacks) - .313 BA, 21 HR, 77 RBI
2B Matt Carpenter (Cardinals) - .321 BA, 9 HR, 45 RBI
2B Marco Scutaro (Giants) - .316 BA, 2 HR, 22 RBI
3B Pedro Alvarez (Pirates) - .250 BA, 24 HR, 62 RBI
SS Everth Cabrera (Padres) - .291 BA, 4 HR, 25 RBI
SS Jean Segura (Brewers) - .325 BA, 11 HR, 36 RBI
OF Domonic Brown (Phillies) - .273 BA, 23 HR, 67 RBI
OF Carlos Gomez (Brewers) - .295 BA, 14 HR, 45 RBI
OF Andrew McCutchen (Pirates) - .302 BA, 10 HR, 49 RBI

Pitching Staff:
SP Madison Bumgarner (Giants) - 10-5, 122 K, 3.02 ERA
SP Patrick Corbin (Diamondbacks) - 11-1, 109 K, 2.35 ERA
SP Jose Fernandez (Marlins) - 5-5, 103 K, 2.75 ERA
SP Cliff Lee (Phillies) - 10-3, 125 K, 2.86 ERA
SP Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers) - 8-6, 139 K, 1.98 ERA
SP Travis Wood (Cubs) - 6-6, 86 K, 2.79 ERA
RP Aroldis Champman (Reds) - 21 SV, 64 K, 2.79 ERA
RP Jason Grilli (Pirates) - 29 SV, 63 K, 1.99 ERA
RP Craig Kimbrel (Braves) - 26 SV, 54 K, 1.53 ERA
RP Mark Melancon (Pirates) - 25 HD, 46 K, 0.81 ERA - Replaces SP Jeff Locke (Pirates) - 8-2, 73 K, 2.15 ERA
RP Edward Mujica (Cards) - 26 SV, 34 K, 2.20 ERA - Replaces SP Adam Wainwright (Cards) - 12-5, 130 K, 2.45 ERA
RP Sergio Romo (Giants) - 21 SV, 38 K, 2.86 ERA - Replaces SP Jordan Zimmermann (Nationals) - 12-4, 95 K, 2.58 ERA

5 Players Who Shouldn't Have Made It
1) C Brian McCann (Braves) - Replaced a Brave with a Brave. Must have been that simple.
2) 2B Marco Scutaro (Giants) - He's batting over .300, but he's not scoring or hitting guys in. There's two guys more deserving.
3) OF Bryce Harper - Outside of him being a young phenom he just isn't having an all-star season. If you put his numbers up against the best five outfielders that didn't make this team they are all much more deserving. Only reason he made it was because of the fans vote. It helps when we've all known who he was since he was 16 (He shouldn't have been in last night's Derby either and he somehow almost won the thing).
4/5) SP Jose Fernandez (Marlins) & Travis Wood (Cubs) - Both guys are .500 on the year. Neither guy plays for a team that has any run support so I understand why their records are so poor. What it comes down to is that at least one player from each roster makes the all-star team and the MLB settled for these two on the Marlins and Cubs respectively. I know they are both playing well, but I think pitchers on winning teams deserve this spot more.

*) OF Yasiel Puig (Dodgers) - .391 BA, 8 HR, 19 RBI. Through one month of his MLB career he has been amazing. That's the reason for why he shouldn't be here. He's only played ONE month. Playing in 1/3 of this year's season shouldn't be enough to get you into this game. He's also 22 years old so if he keeps this up I'm sure he'll have a few more opportunities at playing in this game. For all we know he could fall off in the second half (I doubt it'll happen, but it could) and then we'd question putting him on this team. If he had come up at the beginning of May instead of June then I would say he should be on this team if he had numbers like .360 BA, 15 HR, 35 RBI. I just don't think anyone should make an all-star team after playing that little in a season (I still don't understand how Yao Ming made every NBA All-Star game. That guy rarely ever played.).

5 Players Who Should Have Made It
1) C Wilin Rosario (Rockies) - .276 BA, 13 HR, 46 RBI. He has been more productive than McCann.
2A) 2B Daniel Murphy (Mets) - .270 BA, 6 HR, 39 RBI, 52 R. The game is being played at Citi Field and that should have been enough to get him on this squad over Scutaro.
2B) 2B Chase Utley (Phillies) - .272 BA, 11 HR, 30 RBI. He has more power than Murphy and is a much bigger name. I'd take him or Murphy over Scutaro any day.
3A) OF Starling Marte - .291 BA, 9 HR, 28 RBI, 59 R, 28 SB. Not only is he playing phenomenally right now, but his team has the second best record in the National League. 
3B) OF Shin-Soo Choo - .287 BA, 13 HR, 31 RBI, 66 R, 11 SB. I'd put Marte slightly ahead of him, but he should definitely be in tonight's game as well. Why couldn't he get all of those same votes that Yao or Ichiro used to get? (I know Yao is Chinese, Ichiro is Japanese and Choo is Korean. Just seems like every time an Asian player is playing well they make all-star games easily.)
4/5A) SP Shelby Miller (Cardinals) - 9-6, 112 K, 2.92 ERA
4/5B) SP Mike Minor (Braves) - 9-4, 115 K, 3.02 ERA
4/5C) SP Gio Gonzalez (Natonals) - 7-3, 114 K, 3.03 ERA
All three of those pitchers have a winning record, over 100 strikeouts and an ERA that is right around 3. Any two of those three guys should be in this game over Hernandez & Wood (Wood's on my fantasy team and I still don't think he deserves to be here).

MLB All-Star Week: Home Run Derby

I think Major League Baseball did a great job this year of showcasing the New York teams for this year's MLB All-Star game at Citi Field. Having David Wright and Robinson Cano as captains of the Home Run Derby has definitely made it slightly more interesting.

There's a couple of things I would change about the HR Derby but the main thing is that there should be more players involved. I like that they put captains on both teams with the captains being members of the host team and closest rival like they did this year with Wright and Cano. I think letting the captains pick four other players for their squads would be great and then the MLB should give the fans the opportunity to vote for the sixth spot on both teams.

If you look at both teams it appears to be a little completely one-sided. I'm not expecting anybody from the National League to actually win this thing as all of the best HR hitters are on the American League's team. I really don't know if both captains made the best picks for their teams either with Wright really dropping the ball.

National League:

David Wright 
Season: 13 HR, Career: 217 HR

Bryce Harper
Season: 13 HR, Career: 35 HR

Michael Cuddyer
Season: 16 HR, Career: 173 HR

Pedro Alvarez
Season: 24 HR, Career: 74 HR

Carlos Gonzalez is currently leading the National League in home runs with 25 but had to be replaced by Alvarez due to injury. Alvarez should have been on this team from the get go as he is currently in second place in the NL with 24 home runs. So far with Wright (the captain) and Alvarez the team is only half right.

The other two guys on the NL's team should not be swinging away tonight. Harper only has 13 home runs this year and has only hit 35 total in his career. I don't know if he's right for this kind of competition as he is a similar hitter to Wright. Cuddyer happens to play in home run happy Colorado where everyone seems to become a home run hitter and if he had to play at Citi Field all season long he would probably be closer to 10 home runs right now.

When I look at who should replace these two guys, I would have been okay with any two from these next four: Domonic Brown (23 HR), Paul Goldschmidt (21 HR), Jay Bruce (19 HR) and Carlos Beltran (19 HR). I would have especially liked to have seen Wright pick his former teammate Beltran to have the chance to put on a show once again at the ballpark he once called home.

I wouldn't be shocked if all of these players didn't make it to the round 2 of tonight's Derby. Wright and Harper aren't home run hitters (I'm a Mets fan and I don't have much hope for Wright.), Cuddyer doesn't have friendly Coors Field helping him and Pedro Alvarez will likely fall flat under the bright lights. Don't expect a winner to come from here or any of them to really challenge for this year's title.

^

I hope they don't plan on raising this guy after every single home run. The apple isn't used to home runs.

American League:

Robinson Cano
Season: 21 HR, Career: 198 HR

Prince Fielder
Season: 16 HR, Career: 276 HR

Chris Davis
Season: 37 HR, Career: 114 HR

Yoenis Cespedes
Season: 15 HR, Career: 38 HR

Robby Cano could have completely stacked his team for this year's competition, but for some reason he added underachieving Yoenis Cespedes to the AL roster (Trust me he's underachieving. He's on my fantasy team and I've been wanting to drop him for two months.)

Cano was right in adding Chris Davis who might be the first player to hit more than 61 home runs and not take steroids (Can someone just "randomly" drug test him please? We need to make sure he's clean before another guy jacked up on steroids beats out Roger Maris again.).

The other no-brainer was Prince Fielder who's the defending champion. Fielder also won this competition in 2009. If Fielder wins tonight he will join Ken Griffey Jr. as the only players to ever win three MLB Home Run Derbys.

So with three guys on the team all you have to do is replace Cespedes who only has 15 home runs this season. Coming into the break there are 10 guys in the AL who have over 20 home runs and somehow he chose Cespedes over them.

The obvious pick would be to add Miguel Cabrera who has 30 home runs so that we can watch him in potential showdowns with Davis and teammate, Prince Fielder. Cabrera and Davis are currently competing against one another for the Triple Crown and if Davis slows down in the second half we could possibly see a repeat Triple Crown winner.

Because I'm a Mets fan I'll be picking David Wright tonight. You shouldn't be allowed to root against a guy from the team that you root for 162 games a season. The easy picks are to go with Davis or Fielder, but I wouldn't be surprised if Cano came out and won his second HR Derby. He was terrible last year when he put up an egg so expect him to actually show up tonight. Again if you have to choose anyone just stay away from the guys suiting up for the National League.

NBA All-Star Game Weekend: Celebs & Rising Stars

Tonight we get to watch celebrities, retired NBA players and current WNBA players play in the Celebrity Game as well as rookies and sophomores playing in the Rising Stars game.

Tonight is usually the least watched night of the NBA All-Star Weekend. The big game is played Sunday night and the skills competitions all occur tomorrow night.

Headlining tonight's celebrity game are former NBA greats Dikembe Mutombo, Clyde Drexler, Bruce Bowen and Sean Elliott along with current WNBA players Maya Moore and Tamika Catchings. 

Of the celebrities playing, the one person most are interested in seeing is Usain Bolt. While I'm not expecting him to go out there and start hitting jumpers all night, I'm really looking forward to seeing him use his speed to run up and down the court. He's 6'5" as well so I'm expecting him to be able to throw down a couple of dunks as well.

Outside of Bolt the only other celebrities I'm looking forward to seeing play are last year's MVP Kevin Hart, ESPN's Ryen Russillo and rapper/actor Common. Outside of those three and Bolt the list of "celebrities" is very weak. Hopefully in the future they can bring in some bigger names that more people actually want to see play.

The other celebrities featured in tonight's game include Ne-Yo, Nick Cannon, Josh Hutcherson, Trey Songz, Arne Dunca, Terrence Jenkins and Josh Schriffen.

My MVP prediction: Usain Bolt

For tonight's Rising Stars game the two teams have been split up by Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley who drafted their teams a week ago.

#teamShaq is led by guards Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. To go along with those small guys they also have Harrison Barnes, Chandler Parsons, Dion Waiters, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Tyler Zeller and Kemba Walker. The last member of their team is Andrew Nicholson who is replacing the injuring Andre Drummond.

#teamBarkley is led by bigmen Anthony Davis and Kenneth Faried. To go along with the two frontcourt players Kawhi Leonard, Bradley Beal and Ricky Rubio rounded out their first five picks. The last five guys chose for this team were Tristan Thompson, Nikola Vucevic, Brandon Knight, Isaiah Thomas and Alexey Shved.

All-Star games usually have very little defense played and it usually turns out to be a guards game with a lot of shooting and dunks. With the backcourt of Lillard and Irving along with Waiters and Walker I think #teamShaq will come out victorious tonight. 

If this game was played as a real game where teams actually focused on defense and rebounding I think #teamBarkley would have the better chance due to their size advantage but in a guards game you have to give the edge to #teamShaq.

My prediction: #teamShaq wins 136-118 & Kyrie Irving wins MVP

Is the Pro Bowl Fixable?

Today is the last Sunday before the Super Bowl which means it's the day of the dreaded Pro Bowl. While I believe all-star games are a necessity in all sports and something that each sport benefits from, the Pro Bowl is so painful to watch and it always lets people down. 

The idea behind the Pro Bowl is to have the best players in both conferences playing against each other. If you look at the original rosters for this Pro Bowl and compare them to the current rosters you would more than likely be confused as to what happened. Both rosters are completely different now because of injuries, fatigue (their team lost last weekend) and the Super Bowl. The idea that the two teams in the Super Bowl, who are usually the best two teams and send the most amount of players to the Pro Bowl, aren't sending the players they were supposed to because they play the following week hurts the game. We never get to see the best players all playing against each other in a game that matters because frankly this game happens at the end of the year and has no merit for the NFL season. 

The only sport that currently has an all-star game that matters is baseball. The MLB has it so that the league that wins the game ends up with home field advantage in the World Series. The NBA all-star game is basically a better version of the And 1 mixtape tour. The NHL all-star game is creative in that it's basically an old school pickup game where the captains pick the players that they want but the game doesn't actually matter and all that happens is scoring after scoring. The difference from those all-star games and the Pro Bowl is that all of those sports send their best players to the all-star game and very rarely (only due to injury) do they not play in the game.

While there may be no right solution for what the NFL might consider doing, there are a few options I could see the NFL doing. Everyone knows that these players aren't going to go out there and give it there all, so why even have them wearing uniforms and pads. I honestly think something that would be possibly be successful and worth watching is going the route of the NHL all-star game. I say you get two captains and allow them to pick their teams. 

Now here is the major twist... Instead of having them play a regular football game where everyone already knows it's a joke you bring back the old drills that they used to have the players compete in. You have passing drills, receiving drills, speed drills and an obstacle course to earn points. The last part of Pro Bowl weekend is the actual game that is played in a flag football style of play. This would make this all-star game more similar to that of the NBA and NHL and would make the weekend a whole event instead of just one boring game that no one cares about.

My 2013 Pro Bowl Prediction: This will be the last Pro Bowl ever played. I have no idea what they might do after this year, I just see this being the last game of it's type ever being played.