{"id":513,"date":"2008-07-20T10:15:51","date_gmt":"2008-07-20T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=513"},"modified":"2009-09-26T11:53:20","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T10:53:20","slug":"weekly-hit-ground-ball-2008-week-sixteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=513","title":{"rendered":"‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Sixteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Star Rules (not) OK<\/strong><\/p>\n

As yet another extra inning came to an end, bleary-eyed British fans watching this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s All Star game would have been forgiven for wanting the pulsating contest to draw to a close.\u00c2\u00a0 When Michael Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacrifice fly finally won the game for the American League after five hours and forty minutes, closing in on seven in the morning UK time, plenty of Major League managers and general managers would have been sighing with relief as well.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

MLB treated us to a fifteen-inning thriller, full of incidents and memorable moments, but once again we had to witness Bud Selig looking uncomfortable in the stands at an All Star game.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully a result was achieved just before managers Clint Hurdle and Terry Francona were forced to send position players to the mound; however it was a close run thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Just six years removed from the 2002 All Star farce, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible that we almost ended up in the same situation yet again: the game being declared a tie because the teams had run out of pitchers.<\/p>\n

There have been seventy-nine MLB All Star Games since the first at Comiskey Park in 1933.\u00c2\u00a0 This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contest was the eleventh time play has been extended into extra innings and in five of those cases the game only lasted one or two further frames, so this is far from a common event.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, Selig made a couple of rule changes after 2002 to deal with the issue and his claims that the result on Wednesday morning showed that they work is debatable.<\/p>\n

To reduce the risk of teams running out of pitchers, the All Star rosters were increased to include thirty-two players.\u00c2\u00a0 Before and after the game, Selig stressed that the onus was placed on the managers to make sure some players were kept in reserve in the event of extra innings.\u00c2\u00a0 In fairness to the Commissioner, you could point to several incidents where Hurdle and Francona were overzealous with their in-game substitutions.\u00c2\u00a0 The Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 closer Brian Wilson was replaced with Billy Wagner after getting two outs in the eighth, despite pitching well.\u00c2\u00a0 It seemed a case of over-managing when Hurdle made the call and, with Wagner subsequently giving up a run to tie the game at 3-3, it was easy to question the move.\u00c2\u00a0 Francisco Rodriguez also pitched just one-third of the ninth inning so that he could make an appearance before Mariano Rivera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrival.\u00c2\u00a0 Several potential pitching innings were lost as a consequence of these moves.<\/p>\n

However, we can hardly blame the managers for using all of the assets at their disposal.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are bringing sixty-four players to the All Star Game, the managers will naturally want to give as many of them as possible a chance to get on the field.\u00c2\u00a0 That is one of the reasons why the second major rule change that was implemented, awarding the winning league home field advantage in the World Series, is a complete load of nonsense.<\/p>\n

Terry Francona brought both A-Rod and Jeter out of the game while an inning was in progress so that they could receive an ovation from their hometown fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The Red Sox manager earned widespread praise for his respectful handling of the situation, which goes to show that fans are more interested in the event as a whole than the final outcome of the match.\u00c2\u00a0 This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game was a gripping contest, but was that due to a burning desire to win home field advantage or was it simply a case of professional athletes wanting to do their best in a marquee event?\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m inclined to believe it was the latter.<\/p>\n

Selig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pride is unlikely to allow it, but changes should be made to stop another All Star game from ending in disarray.\u00c2\u00a0 The game should be limited to a pre-defined number of potential extra innings (two should be adequate) so that managers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put in the situation of sending valuable pitchers out there on short rest (as happened with Webb and Kazmir).\u00c2\u00a0 If the game is tied after eleven innings then end the game with honours even or, if you must have a winner, give the edge to the league whose representative won the Home Run Derby the night before.\u00c2\u00a0 Most importantly, accept the fact that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an exhibition, albeit one played in a very competitive spirit, and take away the ridiculous \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchome field advantage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rule.\u00c2\u00a0 If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fear that this would reduce the meaning of the event, reduce the roster sizes so that the best position players stay out there for most of the game.<\/p>\n

It may seem strange to call for sweeping changes after such a great game, but it so nearly could have ended differently.\u00c2\u00a0 We shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to wait until a young star like Evan Longoria blows out his arm when pitching an inning before realizing that.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Week 16 wrap-up<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rays (57-39) slipped to a seven-game losing streak last week, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve rebounded strongly to re-take the lead in the AL East by 1.5 games over the Red Sox.\u00c2\u00a0 In the Central, the Twins are being linked with various hitters to add some more punch to their lineup.\u00c2\u00a0 Having closed to within 0.5 games of the White Sox (55-41), their ability to make a deal or two before the deadline could determine who wins the division.\u00c2\u00a0 The Angels (59-38) have no such worries in the West.\u00c2\u00a0 With their closet rivals, the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, trading away their best players to build for the future, L.A.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eight game lead is unlikely to come under serious challenge.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 winning streak ended at ten, but it was enough to help pull them to within a game of the Phillies (53-45) in the National League East.\u00c2\u00a0 The Marlins are just another half a game back, so this could be a three-horse race for the rest of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Three teams are certainly in contention in the Central, where the Cubs (57-40) still lead the way despite having their advantage cut to two games over the Cards and three games over the Brewers.\u00c2\u00a0 The D-Backs (48-49) lead the Dodgers by one game in the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All Star Rules (not) OK As yet another extra inning came to an end, bleary-eyed British fans watching this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s All Star game would have been forgiven for wanting the pulsating contest to draw to a close.\u00c2\u00a0 When Michael Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacrifice fly finally won the game for the American League after five hours and forty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4619,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/4619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}