All Star selections

[Boris]

What are your thoughts? Here are some that really stick out in my mind.

1. Troy Glaus should not be starting at third.

2. Hideke Matsui should not be starting.

3. Ramon Hernandez should not have been selected. The A's are my team but I can not make an argument for Ramon. Basically he had a very good offensive start to the season and has been adequate since then. Jason Varitek and Greg Myers are both having much better seasons.

4. Keith Foulke - no way is this guy an all star. Maybe there just aren't any other good closers in the AL. Troy Percival maybe?

[Dynasty]

1. Troy Glaus should not be starting at third.

Fans perogative (same with Matsui). Since he's the World Series MVP, it's a very understandable selection. Of course, Corie Koskie and Hank Blalock have had better seasons. I'd say Koskie has a slight edge.

3. Ramon Hernandez should not have been selected.

Jason Varitek definitely deserved a spot over Hernandez.

4. Keith Foulke - no way is this guy an all star.

Hasn't Foulke been the best closer in the AL? He has 6 wins, 1 loss, and 22 saves while pitching many more innings than any other closer (47.1 IP). Foulke seems like a no-brainer selection to me.

[Boris]

Regarding Keith Foulke, I think when you evaluate a closer's stats you should basically count a win the same as a blown save. Basically, closers get wins when they blow a save and then the team comes back to bail them out. Tim Hudson would have 10 wins right now if Foulke had done his job.

[Dynasty]

Foulke only has three blown saves this year. Guardardo (2) and Percival (1) have fewer but it's hardly a difference maker, especially since Percival was on the DL. Foulke has those 6 wins because he, unlike most closers, will pitch more than one inning in an appearance.

You sound like you're just making stuff up. Is Foulke getting a lot of bad press in Oakland? If so, it's underseved.

EDIT: espn.com has conflicting data about Foulke's blown saves. The statistics section lists it as three. However, an article has it as four- all in Hudson games.

[Boris]

"You sound like you're just making stuff up."

ummm... Aren't we all?

Foulke has 4 blown saves. The most recent one was yesterday. All of the blown saves were in games that Hudson started and I'm pretty sure that Foulke ended up with a W in all 4 of those games.

I stand by my statement that having alot of wins is not a good stat for a closer to have. I watch Keith Foulke alot and trust me, if he was the Angel's closer you'd talk smack about him too.

Billy Koch was the same way last year. Some baseball pundit was yammering about how many wins Koch had. Trust me; that guy would give you a freakin heart attack. Those wins were because he got bailed out.

[KJS]

How about including the guy who is 3rd in the league in hitting (.346), 2nd in OBP (.451), 5th in OPS (.984) and is hitting .468 v. lefties?

Milton Bradley

Power numbers are not great (7 hr, 40 RBI). Perhaps that hurt his chances. He's certainly more deserving than Dmitri Young or Everett who were helped by being their team's lone representatives. Amazing that Bradly earns $300K v. 7M for Young and 9M for Everett. What a bargain.

KJS

[Mike Gallo]

I do not think that every team must have a represenative, especially the bungling Metropolitans of New York ( Mets). Since the game counts towards home field will this rule change?

However since every team must have one rep, I think them bringing Benitez is a joke. The guy will blow every big save opportunity given to him.

[Uston]

There are obviously far too many teams in baseball to have this representation for every team business. Could baseball do a worse job of marketing itself? Benitez (a guy even Met fans dislike) makes the All-Star team while Dontrelle Willis (possibly the best story in baseball this year) doesn't.

[Dynasty]

It was nice to see Varitek added to the team via the internet fan selection.

[Boris]

I agree. The Fans got one right.