2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[sfmarine]

I'd expect better base running from Swisher...he's been thrown out twice today.

[Batman1980]

Goodness, the Twinkies simply cannot beat the Devil Rays and it's really grating my nerves.

[sfmarine]

Anyone know if there's a max on how many times you can vote for the final vote for the all star game? I thought it would be 25 like the regular voting but I've voted for Swisher at least 50 times already lol.

Oh well..if you haven't voted..here's the site.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[Batman1980]

I'm not voting for the All Stars, I think online voting is a joke and I don't know enough of the players. I do hope the Twins hit their annual post-All Star break stride and start winning a bunch of games.

[sfmarine]

It enables the fans to send their favorite players into the All Star Game..granted, it is mostly a popularity contest.

I appears as though there is no limit to how many times you can vote in the final vote. I gave Swisher enough love for one day lol..

Mo blew the win allowing the Jays to tie it up...hopefully it ends with pie.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

It enables the fans to send their favorite players into the All Star Game..granted, it is mostly a popularity contest.

I appears as though there is no limit to how many times you can vote in the final vote. I gave Swisher enough love for one day lol..

Mo blew the game and the Jays tied it up...hopefully it ends with pie.

Go Boo Jays, make me feel better about my Twinkies getting pounded yet again.

[supersix4]

Damn all-star voting... I want the AL to lose for having TY piggington on the team , and I want the NL to lose for not taking Strasburg

[sfmarine]

Thhhheeeee Yankees win!!

[Jellybeans]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Thhhheeeee Yankees win!!

Indeed

[Louisville Slugger]

Welcome back Marcus Thames!

Happy birthday George Steinbrenner!

Have a wonderful 4th everyone!

[Ashamed Pegasus]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Anyone know if there's a max on how many times you can vote for the final vote for the all star game? I thought it would be 25 like the regular voting but I've voted for Swisher at least 50 times already lol.

Oh well..if you haven't voted..here's the site.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

And this is why the fans have no business voting for the All-Star players... Seriously, the Yankees already have 6 players going to the All-Star game and you're voting that many times to send another one?... Especially when 3 of those 5 players have much better stats than Swisher does...

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by Ashamed Pegasus

And this is why the fans have no business voting for the All-Star players... Seriously, the Yankees already have 6 players going to the All-Star game and you're voting that many times to send another one?... Especially when 3 of those 5 players have much better stats than Swisher does...

Agree he shouldn't be anywhere near the All-Star game.

[toef]

Count me on the side that hates that fans can vote for the All-Star games. Managers and players should be the only ones with votes, otherwise the All-Star game becomes a popularity contest.

Granted, I'd probably prefer seeing a game full of stars, but it cheapens the whole "All-Star" thing if half the team is there because of their name, not their stats.

[Hi-Def Steve]

Aren't pitchers voted in from managers? Why isn't it the same with position players? I hate that fans are able to vote, because quite frankly most of them are ignorant.

[Hi-Def Steve]

And don't get me started on the winner of the All-Star game determining home field advantage for the World Series.

[toef]

Originally Posted by Hi-Def Steve

Aren't pitchers voted in from managers? Why isn't it the same with position players? I hate that fans are able to vote, because quite frankly most of them are ignorant.

Yeah, I think with pitchers it's harder for them to allow fans to vote, because they'd have to know ahead of time who is eligible (based on how rested they'd be going into the game). So it seems like it's handled by managers simply because of the lack of time involved in making the decisions, but I'm sure MLB wishes they could let the fans vote for the pitchers as well.

Originally Posted by Hi-Def Steve

And don't get me started on the winner of the All-Star game determining home field advantage for the World Series.

I think it's a dumb way to handle it, but I'm not really sure of a better alternative. The whole "better record" thing works somewhat ok when within the same league (since schedules are fairly similar, though not exactly) but when comparing AL and NL it's hard to determine the "better" team by looking at the record, because the leagues are fairly different.

By using the ASG, the idea is the better league should win, and therefore earn the home field advantage. The alternative is to go by records, with the "better" team getting home field advantage. But if the "better" team's league can't win the All-Star Game, then maybe their league as a whole isn't very good, and that's why they were able to achieve such a good record.

I'm just making up thoughts at this point to try to explain it, even though I know Selig probably didn't think about it for more than 1 second. It's pretty clear it was just a reaction to make up for the tie-game fiasco.

[Hi-Def Steve]

Originally Posted by toef

But if the "better" team's league can't win the All-Star Game, then maybe their league as a whole isn't very good, and that's why they were able to achieve such a good record.

You can't determine who is the better league from one game. That's like saying the Pirates are the better team because they won a game from the Yankees. And what happens if the leaders of both leagues are neck and neck nearing the end of the season? The home field from All-Star would take any drama away from attaining that goal. It's not like home field is some silly thing that doesn't matter. It's a huge factor, just ask the Lakers.

[toef]

Originally Posted by Hi-Def Steve

You can't determine who is the better league from one game. That's like saying the Pirates are the better team because they won a game from the Yankees. And what happens if the leaders of both leagues are neck and neck nearing the end of the season? The home field from All-Star would take any drama away from attaining that goal. It's not like home field is some silly thing that doesn't matter. It's a huge factor, just ask the Lakers.

I agree that one game doesn't necessarily tell the difference, but it mostly does...

World Series winners from the last 12 years (starting with last year)

AL
NL
AL
NL
AL
AL
NL
AL
NL
AL
AL
AL

So 8 AL, 4 NL. AL seems mostly better, and happened to also win the All-Star Game each of those years.

In the 7 years that the home-field advantage rule has been in effect, the home-field advantaged team has only won 4 of the 7 World Series, so it doesn't seem to matter much, as 5 of the 7 have been decided in 5 games or less.

Additionally, there have only been 2 game sevens in the last 12 years (since, when talking about home field advantage, we're really just talking about who gets the extra home game). So it's not like it plays a huge role most of the time.

I actually hate the home field advantage set-up, as it currently is, because if a team is really good (like the Yankees in the late 90s) they end up winning the WS on the road, in the 4th or 5th game. I'd rather see a 2-2-1-1-1 setup, but that'd kind of ruin the flow of baseball I guess.

[Hi-Def Steve]

Oy vey, you sound like a baseball manager playing with all these stats.

Yes we all know the AL has dominated the All-Star game for years. But in the end the World Series is about 2 teams. Those 2 teams should dictate who gets home field, not a bunch of players not even on their own team. And yes game 7s are a rarity but they still happen sometimes. And I know personally I want that one game to be played in the city where the team involved earned it from the regular season.

I hate the 2-3-2 format with a passion. It's just unfair to have a team spend over a week in the opponents city during the playoffs. I don't buy the "ruin the flow of the game" argument. These are big boys getting paid big bucks. So be it if they have to fly back and forth for a couple weeks.

[toef]

Originally Posted by Hi-Def Steve

Yes we all know the AL has dominated the All-Star game for years. But in the end the World Series is about 2 teams. Those 2 teams should dictate who gets home field, not a bunch of players not even on their own team. And yes game 7s are a rarity but they still happen sometimes. And I know personally I want that one game to be played in the city where the team involved earned it from the regular season.

I agree that it'd be better if the two teams dictated who got home field advantage, but unless the two teams played identical schedules, each team's record can be nitpicked apart, in terms of debating which team was actually better. So I think no matter what method is used, there are always going to be some issues with it. In the case of the All-Star Game, I think more people dislike it, because it seems like the teams that end up playing in the WS had so little influence on the outcome of the ASG.