Category Archives: All-Star Game

July 17, 2024

All-Star Recap

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ESPN has the game story. Paul Skenes pitched well, allowing no hits in the first inning. The selfless Juan Soto worked his way on with a walk so people could see Skenes pitch to Aaron Judge. Judge grounded into a fielder’s choice on the first pitch.

Shohei Ohtani homered, Soto hit a two run double, and Jarren Duran won the MVP with his tie breaking homer as the AL got back in the win column with a 5-3 victory. Best of all, the game took just 2 hours and 28 minutes, so most people were able to stay up and watch the whole game.

There was a nice mix of young and veteran stars, with some big names doing well, and some new names showing off their skills. Still the best all-star game of any major sport.

July 14, 2024 July 12, 2024

Skenesian Economics

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The NL decided to start rookie pitcher Paul Skenes of the Pirates in the All-Star game:

Skenes received the news from NL manager Torey Lovullo, who surprised him during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday.

“That’s unbelievable,” Skenes said when he received the news. “That’s awesome.”

“So well deserved,” Lovullo told Skenes. “We’re super excited to make this announcement. You represent so many great things that this game craves. It’s such a great story the way you’ve come on the scene, the way you’ve done it with such humbleness. It’s noticeable. I’ll be honored to be your manager and I’m going to be honored to be watching you throw your first pitch.”

MLB.com

It’s also a great way to get fans to tune into the game. I suspect many people have not yet had a chance to watch Skenes pitch live. Most people don’t have Extra Innings, and the Pirates are not a mainstay of national broadcasts. Here’s MLB shining the spotlight on a player. That lack of player promotion by the league is a long standing complaint from the men on the field.

It’s a good job all around by MLB, and it’s a great reason to watch the contest.

July 7, 2024 July 4, 2024

The Limits of Offense

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One thing I like about the All-Star starting lineups for 2024 is how they demonstrate the limits on putting together a great team. The lineup analysis here shows the AL squad capable of generating seven runs a game. Imagine a lineup with Adley Rutschman and Vladimir Guerrero bat eighth and ninth!

If you put that team in a 4.5 runs/game league, you would expect them to post a winning percentage of .708 or a 115-47 record. I like that number, as it is the mirror image of replacement level. Forty eight wins is sometimes used as replacement level, as it is the theoretical floor for wins by a major league team. So it’s not surprising, if you put together a superstar lineup, the ceiling for wins should be around 114.

It’s also the reason most organizations don’t try to have a lineup packed with superstars. Ninety five wins today means a trip to the playoffs. There’s no need to spend the money on the extra 20 wins, unless maybe you really need to win a World Series.

You can try getting really extreme with the LAT. Make a lineup of your favorite hitters, or even who you think are the greatest players at each position. Take their best season, or their three-year peak, and put in the OBP and Slugging percentages, and see how many runs you can generate. Maybe when I get time I’ll attempt this lineup:

  1. Barry Bonds, lf
  2. Willie Mays, cf
  3. Cal Ripken Jr., ss
  4. Babe Ruth, rf
  5. Ted Williams, dh
  6. Albert Pujols, 1b
  7. Mike Piazza, c
  8. Mike Schmidt, 3b
  9. Joe Morgan, 2b

Substitute as you like.

July 3, 2024

All Star Starters

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The voting is over for the All-Star batting starters. Both teams are loaded.

Which offense is better? I plugged the AL starters into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT). The best lineup should generate 7.09 runs per game, with Yankees Juan Soto and Aaron Judge at the top of the order, The eight slot usually goes to the worst batter on the team, and in this order that would be Adley Rutschman. The worst lineup would generate 6.54 runs per game.

Here are the NL starters analyzed by the LAT. The best lineup generates 6.71 runs per game. Christian Yelich and Bryce Harper top that lineup, with Tatis in the eighth slot. The one constant in the top lineups is Shohei Ohtanti batting fourth. The worst NL lineup would generate 6.32 runs per game.

Plugging the best lineup runs/game into the Pythagorean formula, the AL should have a .527 winning percentage against the NL. Two bad we won’t see these orders g against each other for a full game.

June 27, 2024

Two Stars

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Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper win the first two spots on the All-Star team as they receive the most votes in each league in the first round of fan voting:

The pair were selected under rules that began in 2022 and give starting spots to the top vote-getter in each league in the first phase of online voting, which began June 5 and ended Thursday. Two finalists at every other position advanced to the second phase, which runs from noon EDT on Sunday to noon EDT on June 30. Votes from the first phase do not carry over.

An individual can vote once per 24-hour period.

Remaining starters will be announced on June 30. Pitchers and reserves will be revealed on July 7.

ESPN.com

I’m not surprised by Judge leading the overall vote. He stood number one in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings for a number of weeks. I’m a bit surprised that Harper beat out Shohei Ohtani in the first round. Ohtani plays in a bigger market than Harper, and MLB certainly promoted the two-way player a great deal. Looks like the Phillies fans came through.

November 16, 2023

Braves Get an All-Star Game

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The All-Star Game will be in Atlanta in 2025:

Critics complained then that the voting rights changes were too restrictive. Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star events and the amateur draft from Atlanta after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

ESPN.com

Since the law hasn’t changed, I guess all those critics were wrong. I hope they all apologize to the Braves and the people of Atlanta who would have made some extra money working the events.

July 11, 2023 July 11, 2023

Diaz Delivers

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Elias Diaz in his first All-Star game delivers a two-run, pinch-hit homer to give the National League a 3-2 lead over the AL. Although he hit 18 homers in 2021, he is not really much of a home run hitter. He overcame the low altitude to put the NL on top as they try to break their win drought.

July 11, 2023 July 11, 2023 July 11, 2023

Wall Ball

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The first two hitters in the National League lineup hit balls to the wall, and the American League Outfielders turn them into outs. Ronald Acuna Jr.hit a ball to rightfield, where Adolis Garcia battled the sun to make a reaching catch. The Freddie Freeman hits a ball to the wall in leftfield, where Randy Arozarena battles the sun to make a leaping catch. Gerrit Cole retires the side in order, and the AL comes up with no score in the game.

July 10, 2023 July 10, 2023 July 10, 2023

Cool Switch

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Adley Rutschman spends the first three minutes of his Home Run Derby time hitting left-handed. After taking the time out before an extra 30 seconds, he turns around to the right side and drives eight of ten pitches out of the park for a total of 27 home runs. His dad was throwing to him, and throwing right handed.

Update: Luis Robert Jr. hits 28 to win the pairing. Robert just crushed the ball and won with 44 seconds left on the clock.

July 10, 2023

The NL Lineup

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The National League All-Star lineup looks a tiny bit odd to me. Luis Arraez bats sixth. Based on 2023 statistics, Arraez ranks second to last to Orlando Arcia in slugging percentage, but first among the nine in OBP. Despite that, the NL is batting him in a power slot. In general, hitters who do a great job getting on base with little power serve as table setters. I would bat Arraez first and Ronald Acuna Jr second, rather than Acuna at the top and Arraez in the sixth hole.

The Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) puts Arraez at the top of the order often, but it’s not a slam dunk. When Acuna or any one else leads off in the top lineups, Arraez bats ninth. That makes a lot of sense, as Arraez, Acunca, followed by other sluggers looks like table setters followed by big bats most of the times through the order. Sixth seems like the worst spot one could place Arraez.

Note that the player the LAT places in the sixth slot the majority of the time is J.D. Martinez. The Dodgers DH is all power this year, with a .303 OBP and a .570 slugging percentage. In other words, the sixth slot is a power slot.

It’s only an exhibition, and the batters probably get on plate appearance, but Arraez deserves to be showcased early. Batting him and Acuna in the top two slots makes sense and shows off too tremendous talents to start the game.

July 2, 2023 June 29, 2023 July 19, 2022 July 19, 2022 July 19, 2022 July 19, 2022

Fantasy All-Star Viewing

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Lonnie Hanover of Rick’s Cabaret New York is a long time supporter of Baseball Musings. He wants readers in the New York City area to know the club will be holding an All Star Game viewing party in honor of Aaron Judge receiving the most All Star votes. I’m told the dancers are big sports fans. The club is located at 50 West 33rd St.

July 10, 2022

Pall Star Game

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Patrick Saunders at the Denver Post expresses his approval of the 2023 schedule that will have each team play at least one series against each team in the other league. He likes this because the Rockies don’t have a natural regional rival.

Rather than 16 interleague games, teams will have 46 such games on the schedule, four against their “geographic rival,” and three against the other 14 teams, alternating ballparks annually. The “geographic rival” for the Rockies is assumed to be the Rangers or the Astros.

MSN.com

This is the latest step in the path that stripped the leagues of their identities. It started with league presidents becoming figure heads and the separate league umpiring crews coming together under the MLB umbrella. It continues with the introduction of the universal DH and over a quarter of the games against the other league.

Should they really call them leagues anymore? When the American Football League merged with the National Football League, they dropped the league designations for the semi-final champions and went with the American and National conferences. There was no separate identity, as the AFC was made up of both AFL, and legacy NFL teams. I believe this makes it easier for the NFL to reconfigure divisions. Bug Selig had to blackmail the new buyers of the Astros to get them to move to the AL and even out the leagues.

So maybe it’s time for MLB to be “THE LEAGUE”, with the National Conference and American conference playing under the big league umbrella. It would then be easier to do some switching get rid of a few of the regional rivalries that aren’t that regional. If the Pirates and Tigers swapped leagues, then there would be a Pennsylvania rivalry, and a Detroit-Toronto rivalry. Also, if one of the Texas teams swapped with the Diamondback or Rockies, we could go back to a Texas rivalry and and add a mountain states rivalry.

With the identify of the leagues completely gone, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for the All-Star game anymore. Even before the DH, there were different approaches to pitching, different approaches to offense. Due to umpires wearing different types of chest protectors, the NL was a low strike league and the AL was high strike league. Players even saw themselves as members of the league. This is why the game was important to them; they won bragging rights for the league.

Today’s game seems much ado about nothing. Often times veteran players opt out so they can have a few days off. Managers try to showcase players, rather than all-out trying to win. I would personally be fine if the league just gave players a few days off.

In the past I suggested a winner-take-all monetary award to the winning team, maybe $25 million total. They don’t play for the love of the league anymore, let them play of the love of money.

April 6, 2021 April 2, 2021 July 9, 2020 July 3, 2020

No Stars

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MLB canceled the 2020 Al-Star Game.

This will be the first time since 1945 that no game will be held. Travel restrictions because of World War II kept the game scheduled for Boston’s Fenway Park and any player selections from taking place that year. It was pushed back to the next season.

The Dodgers hosted the only the Mid-Summer Classic in Dodger Stadium history in 1980, won 4-2 by the National League.

Chron.com

Next year’s event is scheduled for Atlanta, with the Dodgers likely to get the 2022 game.

March 24, 2020 July 11, 2019

Rating Tumble

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The All-Star Game set another ratings low:

The American League’s 4-3 victory over the National League on Tuesday night in Cleveland had a 5.0 rating and 11 share on Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. The game was seen by an average of 5.93 million households and 8.14 million viewers.

That is down from the previous record low rating of 5.2 and 8.69 million viewers for the AL’s 8-6, 10-inning victory last year.


The game averaged 8,302,000 viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming services, peaking at 8,592,000 viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. EDT.

It was the most-watched Fox prime-time telecast since February and the network’s most-watched Tuesday night since the World Series opener between Boston and the Los Angeles Dodgers last October.

Chron.com

So it was still a big win for Fox. I suspect that the combination of interleague play and the ability to stream all the games makes this event less must see. Almost every day we see the NL compete against the AL. With game available for streaming, we can see the best players anytime.

Put some money on the line. MLB should come up with a $50 million pot for the winning team. We might see a real game at that point.