Mariano Rivera will be making his last appearance of his career as a Yankee this upcoming weekend as he is finally hanging up the pinstripes.
Rivera played his last game at Yankee Stadium this past weekend as the Yankees honored him with a fifty-minute tribute which included becoming the first Yankee to have his number retired while still a member of the team.
Rivera played his entire 19-year career for the Bronx Bombers and will go down as the greatest closer in MLB history, totaling over 650 saves. At forty-three years of age he's still the best closer in the MLB today.
But, why should we stop there when looking at Rivera? Can you name a player who has been as outstanding as him over the last 25 years that hasn't been tied to PEDs?
When you look at his career you see all kinds of awards. He's a 13-time MLB All-Star, five-time Reliever of the Year and won five World Series Championships (MVP of the 1999 World Series against the Atlanta Braves).
His career stats are phenomenal. He came up as a starter in 1995 and wasn't exactly someone that was making people go "wow." The following season Rivera was moved to the bullpen full-time and then the most recent Yankee Dynasty begun. He spent the 1996 season season as the set-up man to John Wetteland, but after that season Rivera was the Yankees closer for the following 17 seasons.
Trevor Hoffman is the only pitcher besides Rivera who has saved more than 500 games. Rivera's career ERA is 2.21 which is over .3 points better than the second best pitcher of the live-ball era (post-1920, Hoyt Wilhelm had a 2.52 ERA).
As great as "Mo" was in the regular season he was that much better in the playoffs. In 96 games in the playoffs he had an 8-1 record with 42 saves and a 0.70 ERA. In his 141 playoff innings he only allowed 11 earned runs over that span. Some current pitcher allow that in one week.
In his nine career innings of work in the MLB All-Star Game he didn't allow a run. How does a pitcher not manage to give up a single run when he's pitching against the best hitters in baseball year after year.
All of these stats and accomplishments wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the pitch he made his own, "the cutter." When he learned how to throw the cut-fastball opposing batters started having to carry more bats. The way the pitch works is that it's very similar to that of a normal fastball except at the end it has a late cut that comes in towards lefties and tails away from righties.
When Rivera's career comes to an end this weekend, he should go down as more than the greatest closer of all-time. He should really be considered the greatest baseball player of the last quarter century as his dominance at his position will likely never be matched. It's crazy to think that as great a player as Rivera really was, he's still way too underrated. Exit Sandman.
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.
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).
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.
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.
The Mets are on the road today as they take on the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in a split doubleheader with games at 1 & 7 PM.
This game doesn't really have much merit to it for the Mets present as they are 14.5 games behind the NL East division leading Braves, but this game matters a lot for the team's future.
Matt Harvey will taking the mound in game one for the Mets and has been the most dominant Mets pitcher I have ever gotten to watch. This season he has posted a 5-1 record with a 2.04 ERA and 102 strikeouts through 14 starts.
Zack Wheeler will be on the mound in the second game of the day for the Mets as he is making his Major League debut. The young Wheeler has posted a 4-2 record with a 3.93 ERA and 73 strikeouts through 13 starts at AAA Las Vegas.
While Wheeler's numbers haven't been spectacular at the AAA level, he is still considered the number eight prospect in baseball by Baseball-Reference.com.
Both Harvey and Wheeler have yet to hit the age of 25 and could end up being the one-two punch for the Mets for the next 10 years. With the Mets sitting in fourth place in the NL East, Mets fans can only really look to the future at this point in the season.
In Harvey's 14 starts this year, only three have them haven't been quality starts. His 5-1 record doesn't do him enough justice as he has pitched at least five innings in each of his 14 starts this year with only two of his starts not lasting at least six.
The Mets haven't been the biggest run producers this far in the season as they are currently only outscoring the Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers. With such poor hitting, Harvey has had to keep opposing offenses from scoring any more than two runs in hopes of the Mets walking away with a win.
While I'm expecting Harvey to keep up the numbers he's been posting for the rest of the season I am still unsure of what to expect from Wheeler in his Major League debut.
Wheeler will likely only go five or six innings tonight and all I am looking for out of him is to maintain control and not let the game get out of hand. He will likely become as good as Harvey, but I'm not expecting him to come out the gate like Harvey did at the end of last year.
At the end of last year the two guys I expected to see at the front of the rotation are now gone (R.A. Dickey) or likely never going to pitch again for the Mets (Johan Santana), so today's doubleheader will at least give me some hope going forward as a Mets fan.
This team isn't going to contend this year or the next, but two or three years from now Harvey and Wheeler might be leading the Mets back to the postseason for the first time since 2006.
