Kuzul

When your favorite team stinks, it leads to a heated discussion over who should be the “best of the worst” and be the representative for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The rule requiring that one player from every team must be in the event has lead to healthy debate and getting somebody like Ron Coomer to rub elbows with people who deserve to be there.

With the Minnesota Twins stuck at the bottom of the American League Central with a 24-35 record, the debate has opened as to whom should represent the team in Kansas City on July 10.

In my mind, there are three players that have the credentials to be put on the All-Star roster.

The first player, and most likely the front-runner, is Josh Willingham. “The Willinghammer” is currently second among American League outfielders in OPS (.969) behind Josh Hamilton. His .289 average is third on the team behind Ben Revere and Joe Mauer

Willingham has also provided several clutch hits for the Twins and has become the first Twin to solve the mystery of Target Field as he’s hit eight of his 12 bombs at the Twins’ home ballpark. For a team that has had it’s fair share of weird excuses, Willingham has been a pure power hitter.

The second candidate for the Twins could be their closer, Matt Capps. Capps is not a fan favorite in Minnesota, but he’s been having a solid season outside of a couple bad outings.

Capps is 14-for-15 in save opportunities this season and has boasted an opponent average of .233. Although Capps has made several games interesting late, he’s done his job well and could be rewarded with a trip to Kansas City.

Finally, there’s the pitcher that’s lead the Twins to a better stretch of play recently in Scott Diamond. The Twins acquired Diamond prior to the 2010 season and stashed him in Triple-A for a couple of seasons.

After making seven starts for the Twins last year (1-5, 5.08 ERA), Diamond made adjustments and is arguably their best pitcher with a record of 5-1 in seven starts.

No rookie pitcher has had a better start to their career than Diamond has, as his 1.61 ERA is a franchise-low for a rookie pitcher. Diamond has also cut down on the runners he’s let on base total including walking just four batters in 44.1 innings entering Tuesday.

While the Twins haven’t set the world on fire in the first half of the season, it’s safe to say that they’ll be sending somebody more qualified than Coomer was when he made his 1999 All-Star appearance. If it’s up to you, who would you choose to represent the Twins in the All-Star game?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Monday marked the beginning of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft for Major League Baseball. Oh, you didn’t hear about it? That’s because of the four major sports, the MLB draft operates in complete anonymity. Over the next three days, there will be 40 rounds of players being selected, and you’ll probably hear nothing about it.

Today, we’re going to try and change that. Bud Selig better be listening because it’s time to look at ways that the MLB Draft can be just as exciting as its counterparts.

It won’t be easy to do, but there are several things MLB can do to get this going in the right direction.

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Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton became the 16th player in Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in a single game on Tuesday night. The assault by Hamilton came against the Baltimore Orioles and was a majestic display of his power—similar to his performance in the Home Run Derby a couple seasons ago.

The comparison that a baseball fan could make is that Hamilton did the hitters equivalent to a pitcher throwing a perfect game. Both feats are incredibly rare, as there are just 21 perfect games in MLB history.

That brings up a different question. Which feat is more impressive? A perfect game or hitting four home runs in a single game?

I tend to lean toward the hitter in this argument, and here’s why. In baseball, the pitcher dictates everything before the climax of a sequence. To this, the hitter has no idea what’s coming about 90 percent of the time. That would lead you to believe that the act of hitting one home run is difficult. 

There are other factors on top of that. After a hitter has hit his first home run, he waits approximately an hour before taking his next at-bat. During that time, the pitcher has been able to face eight other hitters and may have gotten himself into a groove. That rhythm usually is beneficial to a pitcher.

At the time of the hitter’s second at-bat, the landscape is completely different. In Hamilton’s case, the sun was starting to set in the outfield and there was a different backdrop for him to pick up the ball.

Of course, that doesn’t matter, as he hit home run No. 2 despite the pitcher looking into the same backdrop that he had been delivering to in Hamilton’s first at-bat. (I could even throw in a blue sky, blue eyes joke, but I’m sure the readers have already figured this out.)

That brings us to a hitter’s third at-bat in a four-home-run game. By this time, if the manager has any sense of sanity, the opposing team will decide not to pitch to the hitter who’s burned them with two bombs.

Of course, some teams use the “pitch to contact” philosophy and will bury it into the barrel of the bat, but in most cases the Barry Bonds effect prevails and the hitter finds himself on first base with a free pass.

The Barry Bonds effect is the biggest obstacle for a hitter getting home runs No. 3 and 4, as they won’t be able to see a hittable pitch. If the hitter does make contact, it usually doesn’t leave the ballpark unless they’re a great bad-ball hitter.

Another obstacle at this point is that the hitter may be facing a different pitcher in his third and fourth at-bats. The hitter needs to find his own rhythm at this point against two pitchers he hasn’t seen earlier in the game. To pick up a guy coming out of the pen (who may have the same handedness) is a difficult task for any hitter.

There may even be more obstacles that a hitter faces en route to a four-home-run game, but it’s probably best if I keep it short. Hamilton’s accomplishment is something that deserves a tip of the cap, and with all due respect to Phil Humber, it’s the most difficult accomplishment of the season.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball has started its annual All-Star voting campaign for the July 10 event in Kansas City. Over the years, I have been strongly opposed to having the voting start so early.

However, the voting for the starters is more of a popularity contest where Yankees fans would probably vote for Derek Jeter 25 times if he were hitting .200.

All of this puts several players at a disadvantage when trying to get an accurate lineup of All-Stars for the Midsummer Classic. Regardless, we’re going to try, as I will show you my current ballot for the 2012 American League All-Star team so far.

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Since 2002, the Minnesota Twins have made of habit of having their prospects making some sort of impact on Major League Baseball. While not all of them have panned out (and what team has?), there are always some diamonds in the rough that not only help the major league club but become household names across baseball.

Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and even former Twin Matt Garza have made an impact around Major League Baseball during their careers. But with the Twins in rebuilding mode, they’ll need to look to a new wave of prospects to revive the struggling franchise.

Here is a list of Twins prospects that can not only make the Major Leagues by 2015 but excel enough to become well-known across Major League Baseball.

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The MLB offseason can get pretty boring for its fans sometimes. Between rumors that couldn’t be further from the truth, to stories about how Kansas City Royals pitcher Jose Mijares has changed his delivery, things can get pretty redundant. That’s where the media tries to stir the pot a bit.

Some MLB personalities can get baited into saying something that just makes you go, “That is the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard.” The result of this is baseball somehow getting put on the front burner. (Oddly enough, it’s also the result of ESPN completely ignoring the NHL All-Star game as well.)

Here are some of the dumbest quotes we’ve heard this offseason.

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