After a very surprising Home Run Derby last night, where I picked Price Fielder to win, we have the All-Star game tonight. First, let me start by saying the whole “This one matters” thing is getting old. They’ve been saying that for a few years now. Unless you live under a rock or really don’t follow baseball at all you should already know that the All-Star Game gives the winning team home field advantage in the World Series in the fall.

With all that said I think tonight is going to shape up to be a really good game, as it should be. Both teams lineups are stacked with superstars, future stars, and sure fire Hall-Of-Famers. I think that the National League has an upper advantage on the American Players. I do like the pitching staff of the National League a touch more, and they have better all-around players than the American League.

It shouldn’t be that high of a scoring game with the staff’s that both teams are supporting. I think the final score is going to be National League 6 and the American League 4. The winning pitcher will be one of the closers possibly either Saito or Wagner…

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There is a good lineup of big boppers in tonights All-Star Home Run Derby on ESPN. The lineup for the National league is Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, Ryan Howard of the Phillies and Miguel Cabrera of the Florida Marlins. Cabrera withdrew because of a jammed shoulder and his replacement has not been announced yet. Finally, the American League roster is made of Alex Rios of the Toronto Blue Jays, Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins, Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels, and Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers.

Typically aren’t only All-Stars in the home run derby? Ryan Howard isn’t an All-Star. Perhaps because he won it last year, he is able to try to repeat his title? I think underrated player, Matt Holiday should replace Miggy for the final roster spot on the NL Squad. David Wright or Derrek Lee could also fill in for the last spot.

With all that side here are my thoughts on what’s going happen:

1st Round

2nd Round

Finals

Winner: Prince Fielder

Much like Ryan Howard’s first Home Run Derby, Fielder is going to…

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Early this afternoon Dice-K Mania will be in full swing when he takes the hill in the bottom of the first in Kansas City verus the Royals. This will be a pretty good first test for him. He’s a playing a pretty below average team with a little bit of talent in some young players.

I’m hoping for the fans, and the Boston Red Sox, that Dice-K has a really good game. After reading some more reports, it’s been pretty much confirmed that Dice-K is NOT throwing a gyroball. I pretty much figured as much. The gyroball has turned into an elusive manhunt similar to that of the Loch Ness Monster.

I know I’m eagerly awaiting to see the highlights of the game as I’m stuck at my day job while the game is being played. I’ll check on the stats through out the day to see how he’s doing.

Last season Marlin rookie pitching standout Josh Johnson found out the other day that he will be missing the first two months of the season with an irritated ulnar nerve in his elbow. He and the team are thankful that it isn’t more serious and he’ll only be a few months behind.

This is a bad start for new Marlin manager Fredi Gonzalez. You never want to have one of your start pitchers hurt at the beginning of the season, although it’s better than having your pitcher hurt during the playoff race. The Marlins have a good set of young arms that will be able to fill in for the hurt pitcher. Wes Obermueller, Sergio Mitre, and Chris George have the most experience of the group of hopefuls to take his spot, but with different teams. Obermueller has made almost 40 starts from 2003-2005 with the Brewers. Mitre was up and down with the Cubs the same years mostly working in long relief but has made about 20 starts over the years. Finally, George with the Royals has had a 14-20 record with an ERA over 6 from 2001-2004, but has not been on a major league roster the last two…

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I got to check out my first Spring Training game yesterday afternoon, albeit on television. The Cubs were playing the White Sox in Mesa, Arizona in HoHoKam Park. In front of a sellout crowd of about 13,000 people, there were a few brights spots in the Cubs team even though loosing 13-2. The White Sox are showing that they’re continuing to mash the ball much as they did last season. They pitched really well to. It looks like the White Sox are going to be right in the thick of things again in the AL Central.

Rich Hill pitched really well yesterday for his first time on the hill this spring. He only made the one mistake to Paul Konerko (Happy Birthday Paul today by the way) that got mashed over the left field wall. He struck out 3 in his two innings of work, including the first two batters that he saw. Hopefully Hill can continue his great pitching from the end of last season.

Alfonso Soriano, who is starting his 8 year $136 million contract with the Cubs this season, ended up the day 3 for 3 with one of the Cubs two RBIs. Derrek Lee had the other with…

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I was watching Sportscenter this morning while I was still waking up, and I saw that Phillies have given a Friday deadline to either have him signed or extended.Personally for me, I think it seems a tad bit ’silly’ for such young players to be signing long term contracts so early in their career. Let’s take a look at Carlos Zambrano for instance. He’s never signed a long term deal since coming up with the Cubs. He played his first few seasons making slightly over league minimum, then in his third year he got a bigger boost up to $3 million. The following it doubled, and now in his fifth full year in the league, he’ll be eligible for free agency at the end of the year assuming he and the Cubs don’t make a long term deal. He’s really going to take it to the bank in this one. He will be making $12.4 million this season, assuming that doesn’t get re-written much like Derrek Lee’s salary last year.

You can look at this in two different ways. This includes the view of the team/owners/managers and in the eyes of the player. Last season David Wright and Jose Reyes signed…

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Alright! Looks like Hendry has started off the offseason on a good note. Hopefully he keeps going in the right direction.

That’s right folks, Mr. Juicer himself, Jose Canseco is back in the world of professional baseball. It’s not the Major League or anything, but he’s paid to play, therefore making it professional. Canseco is playing for the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League (link).

He’s not actually doing that horrible for not playing for quite a few years. He did strike out his first 11 of 13 at-bats, but now he’s got a couple of taters, and seven RBIs.

The really funny thing is though he got traded from the Surf Dawgs to the Armada after only one game. The trade was due family circumstances and not his string of strikeouts. I just got a good little snicker about it.

Actually Canseco was named to the All-Star team, and was slated to pitch an inning. Unfortunately, he was only able to get one out.

I’m pretty sure this is just a gimmick to get more people to watch the GBL’s games. I never forsee Canseco back to majors.

Even though it’s as a replacement, Francisco Liriano is going to the All-Star game tonight. Jose Conteras bowed out because he pitched on Sunday and wouldn’t be able to pitch tonight anyway. It’s better than nothing, but I’m still a bit upset he didn’t make the team outright.

Now if Travis Hafner would have just made it, I would be a happy camper relatively speaking.

I’d look for the AL to still win the game tonight even though final two hitters in last night’s Homerun Derby were from the National League. It still should be a really close game, because the NL has really good balance in their lineup this year, but I don’t think their pitching is quite as strong as the ALs.

Who is going to win the MVP though, that is the true question. I’m not sure at this point. Typically it’s a hitter, and who hits the big homerun or drives in a few runs. If the American League wins, I think the MVP will be David Ortiz. If the National League wins, David Wright or Ryan Howard will bring home the award. There are too many good players to pick out of the bunch that will be slightly…

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Yesterday the Dodgers received catcher Toby Hall and pitcher Mark Hendrickson while sending over catcher Dioner Navarro, Korean pitcher Jae Seo, and a player to be named later.

I’m not sure who has the upper hand on this trade. Hendrickshon started off well and had a great shutout earlier in the season, but let’s face reality, he plays for the Devil Rays. Unless your name is Scott Kazmir, I don’t think you’ll really amount to much as a Devil Rays pitcher. Maybe since he’ll be on a “decent” team with some more overall talent, it might turn him into a better pitcher. Toby Hall is an average catcher, with a plus arm, and has thrown out 35% of stealer this season.

On the other hand, I’ve been a big supporter of Seo since he came up in the 2002 year. Last year he was 8-2 with a 2 something ERA for the Mets, and they traded him!!? Granted the Mets got stud setup reliever Duaner Sanchez in return. Seo has good stuff, so I don’t know why we wasn’t affective in one of the best pitcher’s parks in the league. Navarro has the potential of being a great catcher, with only being…

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