My American League All-Stars (so far)

We're a little over a third of the way through the season, so I figured it was a good time to post my AL All-Stars if the game were today. I'll try to post the NL ones in a couple days, but for now, well, hopefully this is enough.

Catcher: Jorge Posada (NYY)
Victor Martinez has been good as well, but the mini-Renaissance from Posada puts him in front. Martinez has more HR and RBI than Posada, but Posada has a huge doubles edge which actually gives him the advantage in SLG, to go along with a 30 point edge in OBP. Joe Mauer would have been his recent injury knocks him out of it.

First Base: Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
This was a bit of shocker for me when I was doing research, but Youkilis has been outstanding (if only I could have bet on that at the sportsbook). I imagine there could be some disagreement because he doesn't have the HR and RBI numbers of some other guys (such as reigning MVP Justin Morneau), but Youkilis gets on base at an excellent .428 clip, and his .536 SLG is nothing to sneeze at. He is actually 6th in the AL in OPS.

Second Base: BJ Upton (TB)
He's not quite a defensive whiz at 2B, but his offensive effort has been quite sterling. His OBP is nearly .400, his SLG is in the mid 500s, and he's even stole 13 bases. Maybe he's not a Gold Glover defensively, but his offense more than makes up for it.

Third Base: Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
This one doesn't even really need any explanation. A-Rod has been far and away the best 3B in the AL so far.

Shortstop: Carlos Guillen (DET)
The talent in the AL at SS is not nearly as strong as the NL talent, but the cupboard is not totally bare. Really, any of Carlos Guillen, Jhonny Peralta, Derek Jeter, and Orlando Cabrera are viable choices here, but I go with Guillen. Jeter gets on base more, Peralta hits more HR, and Cabrera plays better defense, but Guillen combines them all the best.

Outfield: Magglio Ordonez (DET)
Magglio has been the best hitter in the MLB so far, so of course he gets the nod in one of the OF spots. His average is great, he's getting on base a ton, and he's hitting for lots of power (over 40 XBH). At age 33 Ordonez is having by far his best year and is the AL MVP at this point.

Outfield: Vladimir Guerrero (LAA)
Magglio has been the bestr, but Guerrero isn't too far behind. Guerrero has been very patient at the plate so far, and surprisingly is first in the AL in OBP right now. Of course, he's still hitting for power, just not as much as Ordonez.

Outfield: Torii Hunter (MIN)
Gary Sheffield's recent surge has him way up there, but Hunter gets the nod for his offense and defense. He's having a career year at the plate, and as his foot has healed from last year he has returned to his great form in CF. He doesn't get on base as well as Sheffield, but has hit for more power than him so far this year and has made up the rest of the difference in the field.

Designated Hitter: David Ortiz (BOS)
Regular readers of this blog might know I'm a big fan of Travis Hafner, but Ortiz has just been clearly better so far. His power is down a little bit from last year, but he is 2nd in the AL in OBP and is still slugging over .600. He has been excellent in picking up the slack for Manny Ramirez.

Starting Pitcher: Dan Haren (OAK)
Haren's the easy choice here, with his ERA currently sitting at 1.70. He has a very good 3.33 K/BB ratio, is striking out 7 hitters per 9 innings, and is just not giving up many hits. His DIPS ERA suggests that this won't quite last, but he's been really good so far, best in the AL.

Any disagreements?

Spurs win Game 1

As was pretty much expected, the Spurs won Game 1 fairly easily, dominating the 3rd quarter in route to an 86-75 win.

But while the Spurs win wasn't surprising, the complete nonfactor of LeBron James was a bit surprising. LeBron was only 4/16 from the field, scoring 14 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and doling out 4 assists. While he probably won't struggle like this all series, I think this is going to be a major problem for the Cavs.

Game 5 notwithstanding, LeBron still isn't that great of a jump shooter. His offensive game is more predicated on getting to the rim, and he's just not able to do that too effectively against the Spurs, the best help defensive team in the NBA. Even if LeBron gets by the strong on-the-ball defense from Bowen or Ginobili, he'll still have Tim Duncan, Fransisco Oberto, Robert Horry, & Co. at the rim. That's hard.

One more note on the Cavs, and that's to say that Larry Hughes should not be starting, and at no time should be guarding Tony Parker. I'm not big on Hughes anyway, but with him being hobbled a bit Parker can drive by him at will, as he showed. The less Hughes plays, the more Gibson plays, the better. Gibson was outstanding in Game 1.

For the Spurs, it was the same story as usual. Aside from a stretch in the 2nd quarter they were efficient offensively and superb defensively. Tony Parker was the high point scorer and he did play a terrific game, but Tim Duncan was the MVP. The numbers were impressive... 24 points, 13 rebounds, 5 blocks, but as is the case with Duncan the whole game was great. He was great in help defense at the rim, he didn't force things, and is always in the right position. Just a brilliant game from him.

This is how I think the series will go... both teams are strong defensively so the scoring will be low, but the Spurs are just too good and efficient to be beat in a 7 game series. I still believe LeBron will be good enough to get them a win or two, but beyond that, there's too much Tim Duncan and too much Tony Parker.

Thursday Debate: Should the MLB All-Star Game "Count?"

There's a little segment on here called The Thursday Debate... today we look at whether or not the All-Star game should "count."

It's not that hard to see why Bud Selig and the MLB came up with the rule that the League that won the All-Star game would have home-field advantage in the World Series. After the tie game a few years back, the All-Star game ran the risk of becoming irrelevent, like so many other All-Star games do.

But the question here is, do you like the rule? Should the MLB All-Star game really mean anything?

Again, I understand why the rule is in place. It makes sure that the game remains relevant and makes sure that the players have something to play for. But still, I have some problems with the rule.

One, the fans vote in the starters. In and of itself, I have no problem with this. The All-Star game is something for the fans, and the fans should be able to vote into the game who they want. That is why, even though the best players are not always starting, I don't really have a problem with them voting in the starters.

But if the game is really going to count, shouldn't the best players be playing? If the game is going to decide who has home-field advantage in the World Series, does it make sense to not have the best players out there?

Secondly, why should the fact that Michael Young (team not in the playoffs) hitting a 2-run triple to win the game mean that the American League got homefield advantage? Why are players who might have no part in the World Series decide this?

So as you can tell, I like the All-Star game, and I like fans voting for the All-Star game, but I don't like the fact that it actually counts for something.

But what do you think? Should the MLB All-Star game count? Place your vote and leave your reasons in the comments.

Should the MLB All-Star Game count?
	Yes
	No

Who would you trade the #1 pick for?

Saw an interesting idea on FanIQ (via Blazer's Edge), so I thought I'd give my take on it... the question is, if you were the Portland Trailblazers, who would you trade the #1 pick for?

Critical Fanatic had only 2 players that he'd trade the right to draft Oden for... LeBron James and Dwight Howard.

The first one, I'd agree with. I think LeBron James is a no-brainer. He's already the best player in the NBA at age 22, and he's the most physically gifted player in the history of the NBA. No matter the potential of Oden, LeBron James is a guy I would trade him for.

The other choice of Dwight Howard, I would disagree with. Obviously, Howard is an utterly fantastic player. But I do have some concerns about him turning into one of the top 3 players in the NBA. Steve Kerr wrote an article on Yahoo! earlier this season, basically wondering whether Dwight Howard would really develop into a good back-to-the-basket player. I have some of those same concerns. I mean, he still scored 17 PPG and shot 60% from the field, but is he ever going to be a dominant offensive force? I'm not sure.

There is only one other guy I would trade the pick for, and that is Dwyane Wade. He is 25, but I thought he was the best player in the NBA this year when he was healthy, and we saw what he could do when he led the Heat to the NBA title in 2006. He is a great scorer, but he still remains unselfish and plays hard every night. I think he and LeBron will be the two best players in the NBA next season.

Other possibilities were intriguing, but not enough. Tim Duncan is the best PF ever (in my book), but he's on the wrong side of 30 to be trading Greg Oden for. Ditto for Kevin Garnett, who has started to decline (albeit slightly). Kobe Bryant is getting older as well. Beyond that, there's really no one I would consider.

So who would make you give up the #1 pick?

Bold Prediction: the Chicago Cubs will win the NL Central

I'm all about bold and rash predictions on this site, which makes this perfect.

Yes, the Chicago Cubs are having their share of problems right now. The manager is imploding, they're 2-12 in 1-run games, they're 7 games under .500, and they're 6.5 games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.

But still, I think they'll win the NL Central. For a few reasons:

- The division sucks. Milwaukee is the only decent team in that division, and they have started to struggle now that they are playing teams outside the division. The Brewers have been playing very well, but their record is a little better than the run differential suggests it should be, and that's with great performances from JJ Hardy (who simply can't keep up this pace), and Francisco Cordero, who has been basically superhuman so far.

- The Cubs are playing a lot better than their record would indicate. Their record is only 24-31, but they have outscored their opponents by 20 runs, suggesting that they should be 30-25. They've had some bad luck, as being 2-12 in 1-run games is just not something that tends to stay consistent over the course of the season. As long starts to deviate back towards the mean the record will improve.

- Carlos Zambrano has been horrible. He's a little overrated, but he's a lot better than a 5.62 ERA, which is what he is at right now. The BB rate is normal, but the HR rate is a little high and the K rate is a little low. These are problems that he has to fix, but his track record suggests he can and that should keep the ERA dropping. Of course, maybe this is offset some by the fact that Jason Marquis is playing out of his mind, but we'll see.

So anyway, as of now, I'll take the Cubs to win the NL Central. They're not playing particularly well at 24-31, 6.5 games back, but I think they'll have enough to come back and overtake the Brew Crew.

Your thoughts? Am I way off base here?

NBA Finals Predictions

First off, let me say that I think San Antonio is much better than anyone from the East. By the same token, I would say Dallas, Phoenix, and Utah were all better than any team from the East. But that doesn't mean this thing won't be competitive.

The reason I think this will be competitive is the same reason I was glad the Cavs won the last series, and that should be pretty obvious... LeBron James. He is simply the best, most dominating player in this series. As he showed in Game 5 against Detroit, he can win games by himself, something I don't think Detroit had.

Unfortunately, the Spurs have the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best players in this series, as well as a much better coach and a more versatile team. They're also better defensively and more efficient offensively. The Spurs have every single edge in this series except one... they don't have LeBron James.

So how many wins is LeBron James good for? Well, if Daniel Gibson plays like he did in Game 6, maybe 4. But I don't think that will happen. I think James will be fantastic throughout, and that should be good for a couple of wins. Beyond that, I really just think the Spurs are too good. Too good defensively, too efficient offensively, too well-coached, and too experienced led by Tim Duncan. All in all, I'll take the SPURS IN 6.

What are your thoughts?

We are all witnesses

W-O-W