Month: July 2005

Here’s a link to the team picked so far for the American League.

I have no real beef with any starter voted on the AL side.  I was pleased to see Mark Teixeira eke out a ballot victory over Tino Martinez who was leading for most of time.  Teixeira had a very good season last season but this year he is showing superstar potential.

I’m surprised Hideki Matsui was left off the reserve list.  As much as I like Garret Anderson, I think Matsui has better stats this year not to mention making the difference in a lot of Yankee games.

The starting pitchers picked for the AL all seemed to make sense.  Buehrle, Colon, Halladay, Rogers (yeah, well, we’ll see if he actually pitches), Santana, are all having solid, if not great years.  Picking relievers, I think, is more something that is left to discretion.  Case in point, Justin Duchscherer.  Granted his stats are there.  But I’m a little surprised.  I’m sure Francona had a reason for picking him though.

 

I found this and thought it was somewhat funny. 

Fark.com had a photoshop contest entitled “Theme:  If real world problems were handled by umpires…”

 

I’ve noticed that USA Today has made some slight changes in their format on their baseball web pages.  I should like it but as usual, I’m resistant to change. 

The change specifically is that they have rolled the box scores, the play-by-play, and summaries into one page.  Before, they just had box scores one after another.  They also spruced it up with a graphical format. 

The one thing I have appreciated about USA Today’s stats format is the ease of seeing current MLB stats.  They’re all on one page separated by teams for each league.  No unnecessary graphics. No need to click back and forth for each team.  Nice and simple.  The same could be said for the their box score page.  One simple text page full of box scores. 

I can get used to their new format and probably even grow to appreciate it. 

As long as they don’t feel the need to “modernize” their other stats pages similar to the other sports media’s web sites which I personally find less user-friendly. 

Also, since they updated their format on Thursday, their box scores haven’t been updated since.  Maybe they have a few bugs to work out.

I’m going to resist using the requisite “Gambler” references in my headline.  They’ve all been used.

There’s not a lot to say.  About the same time that one Ranger pitcher gets his sentence in court for his outburst against a fan, Kenny Rogers decides to take on a cameraman.  The cycle just continues with the Rangers pitching staff.  Their PR department must be working overtime.

I’m sure there will be those out there that will say that the cameraman had it coming.  Feh.  From all I heard, all the reporters and photographers, including the cameraman, were in their proper spot designated for media.  From the footage I saw, Rogers clearly came after the cameraman and most certainly had a bug up his butt.

For those who want to see a pitcher on a rampage, here is the link.

Update:  Rogers received a 20-game suspension.  He plans to appeal and will play during the appeal process.