Kuzul

We are officially less than a week away from the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The 81st annual midseason exhibition will definitely be one to watch, as there are several dynamics to look forward to: a cluster of new faces, a bunch of superstars coming back, and the question of whether or not the National League can beat the American League for the first time in since 1996.

With that being said, there is one experienced veteran who is probably not going to see his name on the roster. He has made six consecutive All-Star appearances, and would love to see his streak continue with a seventh this year.

He is none other than the Texas Rangers’ Michael Young.

To this date, the 33-year old California native is on the verge of making it to the 200-hit plateau for the sixth time of his career.

Not only is he presently fourth in hits in the American League (106), but he is also ranked sixth in total bases (170), 10th in extra-base hits (38), and ninth in runs scored (56). He’s also hitting .306 with 12 home runs and 53 RBI.

“I love going to the All-Star Game,” Young said. “I have a great time every time I go. But we have five guys. Whether I go or not, it never changes, my goal. It’s always to have a big year and help our team win as many games as I can.”

Young finished in third place among third basemen in this year’s voting, behind Evan Longoria and Alex Rodriguez, respectively.

Four years ago, Young was the hero for the American League winners, hitting a game-winning two-run triple in the top of the ninth inning. That earned him the prestigious Ted Williams MLB All-Star MVP that year.

Young has quietly made a name for himself as one of the best contact hitters in the game today. His stellar offensive season so far for the Rangers has helped keep the franchise in first place in the American League West—not to mention lead them to the best 75-game start in franchise history.

And here is a fun fact: Michael Young’s six appearances in a row are third-most among active players, only behind Ichiro (10) and Albert Pujols (8).

However, when it comes to the 2010 All-Star Game, there is almost no chance of him making it off the Final Vote ballot.

Although he is a hitting machine, Young is surprisingly not needed to represent the American League. As consistent and productive as Young has been, there are three third basemen who deserve to be in the All-Star Game more than Young.

But what is coincidental is that all three All-Star third basemen play for the top three teams in the American League East. Let’s take a look at the third basemen who have already team.

First in line is Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, who is leading his team in a push for a possible playoff berth with 13 homers and 61 RBI.

His WAR (wins above replacement) is also fifth in the American League. His power, speed, and defense continue to make this young star one of the best in the game. There is no way Michael Young is making the All-Star game if E-Longlorious doesn’t.

Another man at the hot corner playing in the All-Star game is a man who puts up big numbers year after year: Alex Rodriguez.

He is making his 13th appearance at the midsummer classic, and rightfully so. Third in the American League with 67 RBI, A-Rod just keeps piling up numbers which epitomizes why he is one of the best to ever play the game.

Unless he had missed a significant part of the first half, it would have been shocking if A-Rod didn’t put up a decent season and find himself in the All-Star game.

Rounding out the list is Adrian Beltre, who is contributing quite well to the Boston Red Sox’s run for the playoffs.

His first All-Star appearance is well deserved, as he has maintained a .334 batting average (good for fifth in the American League) and has hit 12 homers and brought in 54 runs.

Not only is he in the top five in batting average so far, but he is currently in the top five in hits (105), doubles (25), and range factor (both per game and per nine innings); he’s also in the top ten in total bases (168) and extra-base hits (38). Statistically, he is arguably the most successful Red Sox player offensively.

Does Michael Young deserve to be on the All-Star roster instead of Beltre? No.

But teammate Ian Kinsler doesn’t agree.

“Numbers-wise, he’s probably better than two of the guys who are going. I don’t know what Longoria’s numbers are or Alex’s but I can’t believe they’re better than Mike’s. He’s the leader of our team. He’s basically the glue that keeps our team together. All of us want him to go.”

Letting go of the aspect that the American League is already loaded with decent third basemen, there are still several reasons why Michael Young doesn’t stand a chance in winning the Final Vote. Take a look at the other four players in competition with him: Kevin Youkilis, Nick Swisher, Paul Konerko, and Delmon Young.

Youkilis and Swisher are currently neck and neck, and Paul Konerko recently passed Michael Young for third place on the ballot. My guess is that Young is going to be fourth on the list once the final results come out. With the huge Red Sox and Yankees fanbases, and the years that both Swisher and Youkilis have put up so far, I’d be shocked if one of them didn’t win it.

Personally, I believe that Kevin Youkilis deserve the nod out of all five of them. We’ll just see what happens.

He’s had a marvelous year, leading the league in runs scored (66) and cracking the top five in a myriad of statistics, including: wins above replacement (3.3), on-base percentage (.409), slugging percentage (.574), on-base plus slugging percentage (.983), walks (51), adjusted OPS (156), runs created (71), adjusted batting wins (2.3), offensive winning percentage (.764), and win probability added (2.6)…not to mention that he is a spectacular defensive first baseman.

If that’s not enough for you, I don’t know what is.

The Rangers are doing everything they can to get Michael Young as much support as possible. The Rangers and Nationals just announced a voting alliance—the “Third Base Ticket”—that they hope will benefit Young and Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman. This was after finding out that Nick Swisher is using his Twitter account to do the same thing.

“If I was making a commercial, I wouldn’t be in it. I’d hire someone to do it,” Young said. “That’s really not my style. I’ve been really fortunate that all the fans here in Texas have been so supportive of me. So we’ll see how it all shakes out. I’d love to go, but I’m not going to do any campaigning or anything like that.”

He went on saying that he’d be honored to go, and that the All-Star Game is always a lot of fun.

Will Young be the third consecutive third baseman to win the AL Final Vote, following Brandon Inge last year and Evan Longoria the year before? There are several reasons why one would vote for him, but are they good enough to beat the other four on the list?

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Yesterday we did the All-Time National League All-Star Game Starting Lineup, based on which players had the most All-Star Game starts, by position.

Today, we look at the American League team.

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The All-Star Game rosters usually have a way of working themselves out. Usually at the end of the day, thanks to injuries and whatnot, the players who are supposed to be there get there.

Two closers who many felt were snubbed when the original rosters were announced have found their way into the game.

With Milwaukee Brewers RHP Yovani Gallardo and New York Yankees RHP Mariano Rivera pulling themselves from the game, San Diego Padres closer Heath Bell and Tampa Bay Rays closer Rafael Soriano have been named to the NL and AL rosters respectively.

Soriano is 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA and 23 saves in 24 opportunities this season, and this will be the second straight All-Star selection for Bell, who was the loser in last year’s All-Star Game. He is tied for the NL lead with 23 saves and has a 1.72 ERA.

I feel bad for Gallardo that he won’t be able to pitch in this game, but Bell not being on the original NL roster was a joke. Really not sure how Brian Wilson got the nod over him, but like I said, these things usually have a way of working themselves out.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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Each year, one question rises to the surface following the announcement of the American and National League rosters for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game: who got snubbed by the All-Star managers?

Today, I take a look at the other side of the coin. Since 2000, a number of players have been selected by their own managers as All-Star managers, despite the fact that they were having less-than-spectacular seasons.

Here are 10 All Stars Who Owe their Managers One.

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Many choices in the 2010 All-Star Game were validated through various ways over the last few days.  And all season.

And one major snub will be validated for the same duration.

The Chicago White Sox have surged back to contention in the American League Central.  Great hitting by the likes of Paul Konerko and others, paired with the unbelievable pitching of the starters and bullpen alike, have the Sox 20-5 over the last 25 games.

But the real key in all of it has been the superb all-around play of outfielder Alex Rios.  He has played unbelievably in center, has shown great speed along the basepaths, and has been as consistent a hitter as anyone in the American League.

But for some reason, Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees selected Jose Bautista and Vernon Wells from the Toronto Blue Jays and Torii Hunter from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to back up a solid starting outfield.

Hunter, a perennial all-star, isn’t a problem.

But what I have a problem with is not one, but two players from the fourth best team in the same division as the AL manager get the nod over a much more deserving candidate from a team that has a legitimate shot to make the playoffs.

As a baseball nut, I watch every highlight of every game, and try to catch as many games on MLB.tv as I can.  I also know how to read statistics.  And both of these ways to evaluate talent makes this choice absolutely despicable.

When I watch a White Sox game, I see Rios and Konerko consistently wreaking havoc on opposing pitching, whether there are players on base or not.  Now that Juan Pierre is reaching base and Alexei Ramirez has turned into a solid No. 2 hitter, the runs are flowing and the team is starting to win frequently.

I also see Rios stealing bases with frequency, gliding from gap to gap in center field, robbing home runs, making perfect pegs to all the bases and cut-off men, and hitting in the clutch.

I’ll watch a Blue Jays game, and I’ll see Jose Bautista go 0-for-5 with three strikeouts one night.  The next night he will go 1-for-4 with a solo home run and two strikeouts.  I’ll see him miss a cut-off man, show little to no speed on the basepaths, and strikeout on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run on third.

With Vernon Wells, it is almost the same story, just strung out over time.

He gets off to a super hot start, hitting home runs with regularity and driving in runs like it’s nothing.  Then he has stretches like the one he just snapped on Wednesday, where he finally singled to end an 0-for-21 slump.

Now, he’s a fantastic fielder and he has decent speed, so I won’t complain too much about Wells.  I’ll just let the numbers tell the story.

Here are the offensive statistics through July 7 for all three:

Rios – .302 AVG, 14 HR, 47 RBI, .354 OBP, .510 SLG, 22 SB, 41 K, 21 BB

Bautista – .238 AVG, 22 HR, 54 RBI, .363 OBP, .538 SLG, 3 SB, 67 K, 52 BB

Wells – .272 AVG, 19 HR, 49 RBI, .326 OBP, .542 SLG, 4 SB, 50 K, 24 BB

So, looking at those numbers, what do you see?

I see Rios with a higher batting average, way more stolen bases, and a pretty even clip on everything else.

Bautista is hitting .238, people.  Sure, 22 home runs jumps at you.  I know that.  But it’s kind of peculiar how he has eight more home runs than Rios, but only seven more RBI, right?  So he draws walks.  Big deal.  Not helping a ton that he strikes out 26 more times than Rios with that argument.  Even with the high walk total, his OBP is barely higher than Rios’s.

Wells is in the mix for several reasons, but his numbers could be argued as even more subject to criticism.  Especially in an event that offensive numbers are put on such a pedestal.  Rios has 15 more stolen bases than both of them combined, and is probably in the top five defensive center fielders in the American League—of course, behind Wells.

Now, back to the AL East bias argument.

It’s not like Joe Girardi hasn’t seen Alex Rios play.  Rios was a member of those same Blue Jays into August of last year.  He was putting up sub-par numbers until this season.  Especially for all that talent he brings to the table.

So does that give Girardi the “he wasn’t good when we played ’em, so he’s not in consideration” argument?  Very well could be.  It is difficult to follow every major league team when you have to manage a single club everyday, but when a decision like choosing the all-star team comes into play, shouldn’t he get some help, or possibly even go to an MLB.com or a bleacherreport.com to see who’s most deserving?

I’m not upset that two good players on an average team are going to play in the all-star game.  I’m just upset that there was at least one player well above the offensive protocol for such an event, and he gets left out due to either a lack of knowledge from the manager, or because he plays in the wrong division.

We see legitimate snubs every year in the MLB All-Star Game.  But rarely does one like this stick out so much.  Now the game has an interesting look:

July 13, 2010, be sure to watch FOX as the National League tries to defeat the American League East All Stars!

Man, what a watch that will be!

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Don’t get me wrong.

Ubaldo Jimenez’ no-hitter counts for something. So do his major league-leading 14 wins. Same goes for Roy Halladay’s perfect game and major league-leading seven complete games.

But the pitcher who deserves the starting nod for the National League All-Star team plays for the Florida Marlins.

That’s right, the same team that rarely captures national attention unless the manager gets fired or it trades away a star player. 

Josh Johnson is the most dominant hurler in baseball during the “Year of the Pitcher.”

Ask the Los Angeles Dodgers, who failed to score a run on him through eight innings in a 4-0 loss Wednesday night.

Johnson did not allow a hit through the first four frames. He held the Dodgers to six hits and one walk. He struck out eight and lowered his earned-run average to 1.70.

For those keeping score, the second-best ERA in the majors is Jamie Garcia’s 2.17 clip. 

That’s 47 points higher. 

To prove how dominant Johnson, June’s NL Pitcher of the Month, has been look at the other statistics.

The 6’7″, 250 pounder hasn’t allowed more than two runs in a start in almost two months. He’s given up four runs in a game only once all season, which was during the opener at Citi Field against the New York Mets.

Every Johnson outing since then has been a quality start. Over the 15 games his ERA stands at 1.38.

His 123 strikeouts are third in the majors, behind only Tim Lincecum and Jered Weaver. 

Although his record shows that he’s just 9-3, it’s not his fault. Until Wednesday night’s four-run second inning, the Marlins had scored just five runs over his last four starts.

During that span, JJ struck out at least seven batters during each of those contests—33 in all—while walking two.

Even more remarkable is the history attached to what he has accomplished.

From May 13 to June 26, Johnson went eight consecutive starts throwing at least six innings and giving up no more than one earned run. Only two other pitchers had accomplished that over the past 100 years: Bob Gibson (11 straight in 1968) and J.R. Richard (eight straight in 1979).

When Halladay pitched his perfect game, what got overlooked was Florida’s ace’s line: seven innings, seven hits, six strikeouts, one walk, and an unearned run in a 1-0 loss.

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has seen the Marlins pitcher enough since his return from Tommy John surgery in 2008, which came in less than 11 months, to convince him.

And if all of this was not enough reason for the 26 year old to become the National League starter in Anaheim, the outing against the Dodgers closes out his half.

Last year when he made the All-Star team for the first time in his career, Johnson remained in the dugout because he had pitched on that Sunday.

Come Tuesday, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Hey Bleacher Creatures! I’m Chris, co-owner and operator over at TheScoreBoards. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write anything on here, but I miss hearing from you folks.

I think I’ve found a way to contribute here without having to spend as much time on it as I used to. While I will certainly do my best to offer some of my own original work on a somewhat regular basis, I would also like to start sharing some of the discussions going on at my site.

Of course, I’ll hand pick the good ones. I certainly wouldn’t ask you readers to spend time indulging in something that wasn’t worth your time. 

That being said, here’s what’s turning into a pretty good one on the MLB All Star Rosters. It begins on the topic of snubs:

Follow this discussion here, or post in the comments section below. Talk to you soon folks! Nice to be back!

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It is clear that some baseball players refuse to participate in the Home Run Derby because they are afraid of the negative impact it will have on their swing during the second half of the season.

Clearly, guys like Alex Rodriguez, who are paranoid, and even players who have experienced negative results like David Wright and Bobby Abreu are off-base.

For there is no apparent correlation between participation in MLB’s signature event and future results.

The Hardball Times did a study last July, using projections rather than actual second-half performance as the parameter of the study.

The reason they used projections, as opposed to actual results, is very reasonable.

For one thing, if a player over-performs his true talent level in the first half, he stands a better chance of being selected to the Derby.

Naturally, if he is over-performing, he is likely to face a regression to his true talent level in the second half of the season.

Based on their expected Marcel projections, the Home Run Derby hitters seemed to outperform their preseason Marcels every year except 2008, 2004, and 2002 (though the latter two only showed small differences).

In other words, it doesn’t look like derby participants play any worse in the second half of the season (on the whole). If you’re looking for the results in terms of percentages, 57 percent of derby participants outperform their projections in the second half.

Another theory might be that players who last longer in the Derby or hit more home runs during it are more likely to decline.

Yet the study done by THT says that no matter how long a hitter lasts or how many home runs he hits, there is still no sign of a second-half decline.

So why do some hitters continue to be afraid to participate?

Well, for one thing, because the 50 percent mark often occurs a couple weeks before the All-Star Break, “first half” totals can look inflated if compared directly to “second half” totals.

Also, the 2008 results are recent and fresh in everyone’s memory.

But perhaps the best explanation for why the fear continues is that once players start talking and complaining, it makes other players less likely to want to participate and draws more attention to the situation, creating a snowball effect.

So while the conventional wisdom might support sluggers who refuse to participate in the derby due to fear of negative results, the data simply does not agree.

If only perception wasn’t reality, we might see the A-Rods participating in the Home Run Derby.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

What in the name of Babe Ruth is Jason Heyward doing on the National League All-Star squad? Were the voters drunk when they voted or what?

Did he make the starting team because of his stellar performance? Don’t make me laugh, eh.

Let’s look at his numbers for a minute. Currently, he is ranked 74th in the NL in batting with a .251 mark. That’s impressive, yes?

He is 42nd in the league with 11 HR and 31st in RBI with 45.

He ranks dead last in starting right-fielders in the league in AVG, is in a three-way tie for fifth place in HR, and ranks fifth in RBI. We are talking right-fielders only folks, not all outfielders.

What about those numbers has an All-Star ring to it?

He started out the gate with a full head of steam, hitting a HR and driving in four in his pro debut.

He has been as inconsistent as can be imagined, fluttering between .176 and .300, but has been in a nose-dive since June 10, dropping from .272 daily to his current .251.

His reputation certainly preceded him, as everyone thought he was “all that.” The fans seemed to rush to the MLB sites to cast their vote for the “J-Hay Kid.”

This particular case clearly gives credence to having the voting only for a couple of weeks, maybe in late June. The first few weeks of a season are not nearly enough to allow someone to make a valid decision on the “best of the rest.”

It must be disappointing to a player who has worked his ass off (enter Jonny Gomes) and is finally one of the leaders in the three basic statistics for the outfield.

Heyward has no business whatsoever being associated with the game. He is currently on the DL and I believe should be still on the shelf for the ASG. All that notwithstanding, the man has not earned a place on the squad. It will show in his resume that he made the All-Star team in his rookie year.

Many people, myself included, are crying about the legalized thuggery perpetrated on Joey Votto by voters and Charlie Manuel alike. Even as much as Votto belongs there, I believe that Heyward does not belong there perhaps more.

The entire procedure for selecting an All-Star team needs to be reworked. Fans, by and large, aren’t knowledgeable enough to make educated choices, as the curious case of Jason Heyward illustrates in living color.

If the fans should be able to vote, no more weight should be given to it than say, 25-30 percent.

The game was originally intended to showcase the best players in both leagues, not rookies who have “great prospect” written all over them, or players who usually have good seasons (hi Joe Mauer and Ryan Braun).

Players are pulling out of the game and the HR Derby at an alarming rate. It is getting to be the Midsummer Disgrace instead of Classic.

Bud (Judge Landis wannabe) Selig messed it up a few years ago by allowing the winning league to host the World Series opening game.

So far the only thing that has been done that makes sense is having Arthur Rhodes selected to the National League team.

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The MLB All-Star Lineup has garnered a variety of reactions, ranging from cheers and sighs of relief to whimpers and shrieks of disbelief.

When the 2010 MLB All-Star lineups were released, there were undoubtedly as many elated fans as there were bitter fans.

No matter where the stadium is located, fans maintain an unceasing allegiance to their favorite teams and players.

Being chosen to play in the All-Star game represents the ultimate recognition that fans, coaches, and players alike have observed, reveled in, and appreciated every moment of a player’s season thus far.

However, examining the all-stars chosen from the NL West has generated a surge of controversy over just who earned their position.

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