Monday, July 4, 2011

WHAT????!?!?



You're shitting me. How did they overcome his absence? Shortstops with no range who can rake to the tune of .260/.324/.324 don't just grow on trees, you know. He's actually accumulated -0.1 Baseball-reference WAR so far this year. The Yankees should have been expected to get ever so slightly better simply by having him get hurt.


So of course he's going to start the All-Star game, why wouldn't he? And of course there are people out there (who aren't from Yonkers or Jersey) more than willing to justify his All-Star selection, why wouldn't they? YOU KNOW WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT IT'S THE ALL *STAR* GAME- ONLY STARS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PLAY. AND ONLY GUYS WHO HAVE PLAYED IN THE ALL STAR GAME BEFORE COUNT AS STARS, WHICH CLOSES THE LOOP AND MAKES THIS LINE OF LOGIC FLAWLESS:

AL shortstop for life: Despite a subpar season, Trenton Thunder shortstop Derek Jeter was voted into his sixth straight Midsummer Classic and 11th overall. Just as you're sure to read plenty of profiles of Vogelsong's time in Japan, you're also going to hear plenty of bellyaching about Jeter's spot on the team with a 77 OPS+. Whatever. It's always been my position that the All-Star game should feature "stars" and there isn't a bigger one in baseball right now than Derek Jeter. With all apologies to Asdrubal Cabrera -- who could start the game anyway if Jeter isn't up to the task — no one's tuning into the game to watch Asdrubal Cabrera.

There "isn't a bigger (star) in baseball right now than Derek Jeter"? Fuck you, Yahoo Sports blogger. Regardless of the validity of this line of logic, you can't say that. I'm not having it. Even if you make "how many fans know who he is" your #1 qualification for stardom, Jeter's almost certainly not even the biggest star on his own team. He's probably in the top 10 in the league, but still. C'mon.

Now, Chris W and I discussed this today and we agree that the ASG is for the fans (insert snarky comment about how stupid it is for the game to determine WS home field advantage here), so if they want to see Jeter, they should vote to see Jeter. Of course, Chris then went on to make a number of important points that supersede that point:

1) Fans don't really know what's best for them or for the game. Which is better for both: letting the fans restrict themselves to a narrow and aging base of superstars who are about to be put out to pasture, or forcing the fans to acknowledge that younger better players like Asdrubal Cabrera are budding stars who are really actually good at baseball in the year 2011 and will be for the next 10 years? But don't bother telling any of that to Selig and his merry band of asshole owners, because

2) MLB is run by a bunch of fucking morons who let fans determine who gets coverage. The attention balance in MLB as compared to the NFL blows my mind. I shake my head in sadness at the fact that Colts vs. Jaguars or Chiefs vs. Chargers can get great ratings on Monday Night Football (provided those teams are playing well of course), but if a baseball game involves any team other than the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, or Cubs, 90% of sports fans don't give a shit. This is partially on media giants like ESPN and FOX, but more significantly it's on the league itself, which rams the GREATEST RIVALRY IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS EVER (you know which teams I'm referring to) down our throats every year at the expense of developing any number of other available and compelling storylines. Fuck you, MLB. Fuck you with an oar, Bud Selig. You suck ass. And of course, on both the fan and ownership sides, the problem is accurately generalized by Chris when he points out that

3) The problem with sports (and really all of entertainment... but I'll skip ranting on a broader subject because this isn't Gruntland) today is that people won't let their perceived enjoyment now be lowered even if that means they'll be able to enjoy things more tomorrow.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And that pretty much sums up how talking about this with Chris/writing this post made me feel. Good luck to you in the ASG, Jeter. I hope you somehow ground into twenty double plays and get a standing ovation after each of them.

4 comments:

Adam said...

Baseball has to be the sport with the most retarded All-Star selections. Every year multiple washed up and over rated players get selected and young stars get legitimately shafted.

Andrew McCutchen is third in all of baseball in WAR and he doesn't even have the opportunity of being voted in by the fans. Naturally the selection for the Pirates? Joel Freaking Hanrahan. "But he leads the league in saves" *Puke*

Larry, I totally agree with what you're saying and I think the coverage leads to fans' disproportionate opinion of players in MLB. If we did a list of most overrated players it would probably be almost all players from the teams you mentioned.

Derek Jeter
CC Sabbathia
Alex Rodriguez
Jorge Posada
Jonathan Papelbon
Jimmy Rollins
Ryan Howard
Placido Polanco

As an example.

Prior to this year:

Jose Reyes
Curtis Granderson

But we'll see about them.

Chris W said...

Or how about Paul Konerko missing out so that Carlos Quentin could be voted in at...DH? (still tryng to figure that out since the game is in AZ. I guess I could research it or read AN article, but fuck it)

Also, never mind 'duk. He's a Cub fan. He doesn't see baseball in terms of winning or losing, good players or bad. It's all about who the hottie you're with in the left field bleachers (RIGHT FIELD SUCKS) might recognize so she can tell all he friend she saw the great Darren Jagger get a hit off Kenny Woods and then ,aybe you'll catch a dry handie later

Larry B said...

What if Duk's wrong? What if left field sucks? I've heard people make that argument before.

Adam said...

Interesting info I looked into today after hearing about the All-Star "Final Vote".

Look at the markets from which the players who have been selected came.

AL NL

2002 Boston Atlanta
2003 Boston Milwaukee
2004 New York Philadelphia
2005 Chicago Houston
2006 Chicago Los Angeles
2007 Boston San Diego
2008 Tampa Milwaukee
2009 Detroit Philadelphia
2010 New York Cincinnati
2011 Chicago Philadelphia