Poor Placido Polanco. Two days before his first All Star appearance he injures his back. Now he thinks he’ll play but Jim Leyland isn’t so sure. And as much as I want for Polanco to have his moment, I don’t want it to ultimately hurt the Tigers.
I guess that’s one reason I find it a little strange that Leyland is batting his guys at the bottom of the order. I know he really doesn’t want to be perceived as playing favorites, but I don’t think anyone would really mind. Especially if it meant that Placido could still make the start and come out a little sooner after his first at-bat rather than potentially having to wait until the 3rd inning.
I did watch the Home Run Derby last night. My son was into it and that’s cool. Magglio Ordonez went out quickly, and it looked like his stance was considerably different than what he’s used this season. Hopefully that’s a good thing that he went quite different, easier to revert back to the old form. It looked to be less spread out and less closed. Of course it was hard to see on the split screen because it was important for ESPN to show us Barry Bonds head (make jokes about its size and such at this point) at that very moment.
I realized it’s less the HR Derby that annoys me than ESPN’s coverage of it. And it’s so drawn out. And Berman/Morgan seemed to barely pay attention to what was happening. Throwing it back to the studio was idiotic, but necessary since Baseball Tonight was banned from being there. And really, this is the time that John Kruk decides to advocate plate discipline and taking pitches?
can I just say that Berman had his day, and that day was about 15 years ago! I almost can’t stand to listen to anything he does, and his schtick really detracts from any event he is working.
The coverage was terrible…..I ended up not watching after Albert batted the first time (I’m a Cardinals fan). One guy they didn’t even show him batting on the main part of the screen-he was in a small box up at the top. And talking to Barry Bonds, come on, he said he just couldn’t do it because of his team, give me a break, what about past years???? And if he decided not to do it, why give him the airtime instead of the participants? Last years derby=10, this year=0000000
I can’t remember where I read the suggestion – though it’s hardly an original one – that the Home Run Derby would benefit greatly from reducing the number of outs a player gets.
You could crank through that contest fast if players had only three to five outs. I’m sure some players would say they need the extra at-bats to get warmed up (and the results probably back that up). But it just gets torturous around outs seven through 10.
They draw it out for one reason: sponsors. MLB, ESPN, etc. make big money selling commercials for the broadcast and ads around the stadium during the broadcast. Obviously, they don’t want it to go by quickly or be more concise.
And Bilfer, I agree…Leyland is going a little overboard in avoiding any “favoritism” for his Tigers. You’re supposed to show some deference to your guys: they earned the right to be given the benefit of the doubt by winning the AL and getting you the gig as manager! While its certainly wise to avoid the appearance of Ozzie Guillen, who would’ve chosen Ron Karkovice if he were eligible last year, but no one would’ve minded if he put his guys up in the order, or placed Bonderman and/or Sheffield on roster. It’s a right that he and his players have earned.
I kinda wish the derby selected participants more from the players not selected ala Howard. There are plenty of players with power that were not selected that I would have liked to see such as Thames, Sheff, Dunn.
Walt
Thames is probably the ultimate incarnation of the kind of player that would do well in this thing