Could Jesse Crain make the All-Star Team?

[Steak]

Terry Francona, who will manage the AL All-Stars since his team was in the World Series last year, raved about Jesse. He talked about how his numbers were sick. I think he should make it, but it's going to be tough. Still I am glad Francona took the time to recognize Jesse and then talk about him to the media. It's good to see someone recognize someone from the Twins unlike Joe Torre.

[mntwinsfan]

Jesse has every reason to make the all star team! He is 10-0 with an era under 1. If he doe's not make it there is a freaking conspearcy against the Twins. Santana will make it Nathan should as well, Hunter has a chance and Crain better make it!

[Fishercat]

Middle relievers are always tough to get into the ASG.

He certainly has the stats rate wise to warrant it, however, they'd need to be essentially a perfect 36 1/3 IP to warrant an ASG bid. He's been the best relief pitcher in the AL and should get an All-Star bid, but closers get priority and with Mike Timlin's 3 extra IP giving him almost similar value to Crain (who has a 1.24 RA which relates closer to production than what he's done individually, but I digress). There are a number of good MR in the AL (Crain, Timlin, Duchscherer for a while, Pollite), and it's tough to get them all in.

Nathan shouldn't, he's a relief pitcher with a 3.9 ERA. There are a fair amount of SPs with lower ERA and that makes them a lot more valuable. Johan should make it, he's been one of the 8 to 10 best SPs in the AL.

Torii's a borderline pick. I think there have been a fair amount of RF that have been slightly better on offense although I'm sure his D gives him a good case. He's been the second best CF in the AL (Damon first). It's tough.

Funny thing, Crain might be the only one out of those four who makes it and one of the two there that deserves it easily.

[Lynch]

Jesse Crain's numbers warrant him not only making the squad but also playing in the all-star game. Personally, I'm still not totally sold on this kid yet, but you can't argue with what he's done so far this year.

[Fishercat]

Crain should definitely be in as the best reliever in baseball if you want a relief pitcher, but I think he'll get squeezed since every team needs a rep. It's possible Danys Baez or Mike Sweeney will edge him out of a spot since the D-Rays and Royals need a player.

[General]

If he doesn't make it, it's a damn shame.

[Steak]

Lynch: One thing for sure. You would feel secure watching Jesse pitch in the seventh over J.C. "I am ready to choke" Romero. Jesse has earned a role as the seventh inning pitcher. Look for him to be the setup guy next year. I expect Juan Rincon to be gone in the offseason.

Jesse will have his opportunities eventually. If he miss it this year, he will make it down the road. I am just glad that Francona is considering him.

The bottom line is that the Twins need to get two All-Stars in there this year. There is no excuse that the Twins should not have more than one. There are several players like Joe, Torii, Johan (I think he will make it after the stunt Kenny Rogers pulled couple of days ago)

[Fishercat]

Johan should be in if Kenny makes it or not.

If they take even one RP, they should take Crain, it's just a debate of taking the RP.

I could see one Twin in the ASG or three and I wouldn't have many complaints either way.

And, BTW, I meant when I said "Crain might be the only one out of those four who makes it and one of the two there that deserves it easily", I meant does not make it who deserves it.

[Providence A's]

I can see only Johan making it...Nathan may, but I honestly could see just Johan making it. The problem is that the fans vote in a lot of Sox and Yanks and then you know Tito is going to take more Sox...then you have to pick a player from any team that isn't represented, so that's not going to leave a lot of openings. Tito has to pick a couple White Sox...you can't have the best team in the majors only have 1 player represented. Plus it's held in Detroit, so he make take more than 1 Tiger to appease the home crowd. The All-Star Game is stupid and annoying in the way it all goes down because there are always people that should make it and don't...and players that make it and shouldn't be there at all.

[Fishercat]

Providence makes a good point about fan voting. If it were perfect, who knows, one can argue the Tribe should have Hafner in (him and Big Papi are close to me), Seattle could have their nominee in Ichiro if he misses fan voting, and that's just the AL. That with Tito's human bias (and don't the players/coaches have a say now as well for some of the players? I'm forgetting) for the players he's seen (even though I don't like the bias even for my own team). If the voting puts Damon and Ortiz in (both would be in anyway, but still), it forces a reserve spot to be spent on Seattle and Cleveland.

If I were choosing, the only hard choice of those four to me is Hunter. I'd take Crain as my RP and Santana as an SP, and Nathan would be at home.

[Fishercat]

Crain didn't make it.

Santana and Nathan did.

HOWEVER, that wasn't Francona's choice. Only Baez, Colon, Duchscherer, and Wickman were and that was to cover their teams

[Fishercat]

(Interesting note, Francona said his choice was between Clement and Colon (his only real choice other than picking the team's representatives) and he chose Colon, the right guy).

BTW, Torii is a 31st man candidate, and although I think both Yankees deserve it more, GO TORII!!!!!!

[Lynch]

The problem is that the fans vote

Yep, that's it right there. You really didn't need to go any further. If you want to know how fukt up the Baseball allstar game voting is, just look at the online ballots. "You are limited to 25 ballots per day".


WHAT!?


It was bad enough before when it was truly paper ballots and you could only vote if you went to the games, but now .. NOW.... any moron with a computer and a few minutes on their hands can vote 25 times a day. Gives new meaning to "Ballot Stuffing".




I hate the all-star game. Why don't they just call "The Game Full of Guys Who's Names You Recognize When You Voted". I'ts not all-stars, and you can't even call it a popularity vote anymore. It's just ridiculous.

[Fishercat]

You're right on the basic idea, but the fans only got one vote that can be really argued in the AL and that's Ramirez. Sheff, Matsui, Dellucci (he plays OF, right?), Ramirez, Mench, all have argument for the third spot.

I do like your thinking Lynch, but I guess MLB has to consider one aspect of fairness and maybe I can't afford or get to (get to in my case) a baseball game in Boston (although New Hampshire does have paper ballots, so there goes my argument since tickets are 4 bucks and the stadium is 5 minutes away). However, you should need to register for something on MLB.com (free, maybe they can say a newsletter or if they did free fantasy leagues) for your e-mail to be confirmed with a max of one vote per week.

The NL is worse, Piazza? Rolen? Eckstein? Edmonds? Beltran?

[Lynch]

exactly. SO all it takes is a handful of dopey fans to really rock the balance of a vote.


25 votes per day = 750/month just for one player (cuz I'm sure anyone who's voting 25 times in a day would be doing nothing but ballot stuffing). Take that times 3 months and you have 2250 for one player. Now get just 10 guys/buddies/whatever doing this. 22,500. You get the picture. 10 guys alone could change the outcome of the starters. Imagine what 1000 could do. And they don't have to step 1 foot inside a stadium, nor do they have to have a clue who's really deserving and who isn't.