The 2010 All-Star Ballot is available on mlb.com. You can vote now. I decided to cast my first ballot based on looking at the numbers, instead of my usual batch of homer votes, and a few based on merit. So here’s who I voted for.
For the AL, I listed the Rangers player that’s on the ballot, said a few words about them, and then said who I voted for. The NL, I just said who I voted for. Here goes. Any remarks?
American League:
1B – Chris Davis – Good defense, no real serious hitting threat. Won’t even peak the top. I voted for Miguel Cabrera from the Tigers.
2B – Ian Kinsler – Hasn’t played a game yet this year, shouldn’t be on here. I voted for Dustin Pedroia. His numbers are the best now of any 2B in the league.
SS – Elvis Andrus – Off to an OK start, but “OK” doesn’t get you voted in. As much as it pains me to vote for a Yankee, I voted for Derek Jeter.
3B – Michael Young – Off to a decent start, but not enough to take this. I had to vote for Evan Longoria, his stats are better. Almost voted for Young for the homer vote thing, but went with the MLB 2K10 cover boy.
C – Taylor Teagarden – Oh yeah, right. I have a better chance of charting in this category. Despite the surprising numbers of Jason Kendall in Kansas City so far this year, you have to vote for Joe Mauer. There really isn’t another choice for AL starting catcher.
DH – Vlad Guerrero – He probably has a realistic shot at winning this. His numbers out of the gate were fantastic. But going by pure numbers, Jose Guillen is besting him, and Adam Lind is up there, too. But I had to vote for Guerrero. Homer vote.
OF – Nelson Cruz, Julio Borbon, & Josh Hamilton – Hambone is playing like 2009 again unfortunately, probably is too far removed from the HR derby to coast on that this year. Julio Borbon was dropped to ninth, and nobody outside of DFW really knows him anyway. Nelson Cruz is definitely deserving, I voted for him. Beyond him I voted for Shin-Soo Choo in Cleveland, & Michael Cuddyer in Minnesota. Vernon Wells is also doing well, this year but I picked Cruz over Wells. All three guys I voted for had their last names starting with “C”. :)
National League:
1B – It’s either Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols. Pujols will probably get elected anyway, so I voted for my Phillies guy, Ryan Howard.
2B – As much as I like to vote Phillies, you can’t argue with Chase Utley’s numbers. Utley is way out in front of everyone else, he should win this easily.
SS – This is a tossup for me. I like Troy Tulowitski overall as a player, but his numbers aren’t huge. Rafael Furcal has the highest batting average (with the most at bats), but has no HR/RBI numbers to speak of. Orlando Cabrera in CIN has no average, but the other numbers. I ended up voting for Stephen Drew from Arizona. Had Jimmy Rollins not spent time hurt already, I probably would have voted for him.
3B – I was surprised when I looked at the numbers here. Mark Reynolds is who I thought I’d be voting for, and he has the power numbers, but a bad average. Going on numbers, it’s a tossup between McGehee of MIL, and Placido Polanco from Philly. Polanco has a track record, so I went with him based on his veteran status, not because he’s from Philly.
C – I’m sorry. I’m voting for Pudge. Not going to have a ton of chances to do that much more. He does have good numbers too, so it’s not a total “Rangers homer” vote. :)
OF – Went with Ryan Braun from the Brewers, Matt Kemp from the Dodgers, & Josh Willingham of the Nationals. Look up the numbers. :)
I believe it’s the first time I haven’t voted for a Texas Rangers player in awhile. Granted, I did vote for Pudge, but he’s over in the NL.
G14: Rangers lose to Red Sox again, 8-7
Shit for a second game in a row.
Although Josh Hamilton had his first home run of the season.
G13: Red Sox Walkoff against Rangers, 7-6
Shit.
Edinson Volquez suspended 50 games
Former Texas Rangers pitcher Edinson Volquez was suspended today by Major League Baseball 50 games for violating the drug use policy. First up here is the official statement from Major League Baseball. My own statement will appear right after that in picture form.
The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez has received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The suspension of Volquez will be effective tomorrow, April 21, 2010.
G12: Rangers lose to Yankees, 5-2
As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.
G11: Rangers lose to Yankees, 7-3
As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.
G10: Rangers lose to Yankees, 5-1
As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.
G9: Late errors cost Rangers the CLE series finale
This was a pretty good pitcher’s duel.
David Huff tossed a complete game for Cleveland to get the win. 9 innings, just four hits and a walk. Was a great line. Matt Harrison went seven innings, giving up just five hits, a walk, and one earned run. It’s unfortunately the two unearned runs that cost him and the team the game.
There wasn’t much to the Rangers offense. Four hits total. Two of them by Michael Young, and one of those scored both runs. Was a two run home run in the fourth. The other two hits were singles by Elvis Andrus & Vlad Guerrero. Not much offense, but those two runs were holding up well.
We were only six outs away from the win. Then they made two errors in quick succession after having made just four in the first previous eight games combined. One was Elvis, and one was Michael Young, so it was pretty surprising.
Sadly the sweep got away from us.
G8: Rangers are strong against CLE, beat ’em 6-2
The Rangers got out early in this game, and never looked back. Colby Lewis started the game. It was supposed to be CJ Wilson, but he came down with a case of food poisoning and couldn’t start. So Lewis took the hill, and did a pretty great job.
He came out a bit earlier than I think he should have, but he did get into a bit of trouble in the sixth – mostly due to his high pitch count (117 in 5.1 innings) Overall, his line was not bad outside of that. 5.1 innings pitched, three hits, four walks, and two earned runs. However, the big deal in his line was the strikeouts. TEN of them in 5.1 innings. That’s sixteen outs on his ledger, and ten were strikeouts. Makes me wish he didn’t throw so many pitches, as he probably could have gotten way more than 10.
Dustin Nippert, Darren Oliver, Chris Ray, & Neftali Feliz came in after him. None of them allowed any runs. Although Ray allowed two walks in 0.2 innings. Feliz got his second save.
But this game was more about offense. First off, the Rangers had 15 hits total. Only Michael Young had none. He’s now batting .156 for the season. He’ll eventually be fine, but it is a very Mark Teixeira style slow start for him. Arias only had one hit, lowering his batting average to just .440 :) Josh Hamilton came alive. 3-4 this game. He drove in the first RBI of the game in the first inning. Elvis Andrus also had three hits. Pedro Borbon woke up a bit after being virtually asleep offensively so far. 2-4 with two RBI’s and a run scored. Chris Davis had two doubles. But the big exclamation point was Nelson Cruz, who had another home run. Sadly it was a solo shot, as Josh Hamilton was thrown out trying to steal third right before the home run.
The win felt good, and felt like a game we were going to win almost immediately. We’re now 5-3, and are in first place in the AL West. That’s quite cool. :)
G7: Rangers win out in extra innings 4-2 over Tribe
Rich Harden started his second game of the season. It went better than the first one, although it ended up with the same decision. That’s a no decision. Rich was wild again, walking three and giving up five hits in his six innings of work. The tribe scored one in the first and one in the sixth off of him. The first one though was a solo home run off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo. Given that came with nobody on, and most of the rest of the stuff he gave up led to just one run, one could say he did decently, all things considered. Technically it was a quality start, but it didn’t feel like one. Given the way Harden was presented to us, I expect 7 innings, 12 strikeouts, and 4 hits, maybe one run each game he pitches. Granted, the Harden we know before he signed here says we’re not likely to get that, but he is the guy most likely to strike out 15 or something. He did good, although it still felt like a letdown to me.
Dustin Nippert & Darren Oliver pitched the next two frames, and by this point, it was the bottom of the ninth. So Ron Washington brings in Frank Francisco. This is the same day that Washington said this to the press:
Rangers manager Ron Washington said on Monday he’s going to use reliever Frank Francisco in the sixth or seventh inning — preferably in non-pressure situations — while he gets himself together.
Uh, OK. Bringing him in in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game certainly qualifies for THAT. But, he did manage to pitch a perfect inning, although he had a liner to short, and a flyball that went to the warning track. It could have quite easily been worse.
The Indians threw out Fausto Carmona. He’s an enigma, he could be freakin’ fantastic, or he could be all over the place. We saw a bit of both today, but mostly the good pitcher. Carmona went eight innings (111 pitches), allowed five hits, four walks, but just two earned runs. Both coming in the fifth. And one of those was on a wild pitch by Carmona himself (the other was on an RBI single by Michael Young).
Overall, there wasn’t a ton of offense. The Rangers had eight hits. Two by Joaquin Arias, who has had a torrid few games here. Two by Nelson Cruz, who leads the league in everything. The rest were scattered.
The game went to extra innings, our first of the year, and I hate these. Long time readers of my site have heard me rant about how many times the Rangers lose in the 10th inning. Not this time. Josh Hamilton got on board, and Nelson Cruz hit another home run to win the game 4-2 in 10 innings. Neftali Feliz came in, mowed down the Indians in the bottom of the 10th for a save.
I would have preferred Harden get the win, but I’ll obviously take the win.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- …
- 521
- Next Page »