All-Star Game

Update:

Lineups for Cubs @ Diamondbacks...

Cubs vs. Ian Kennedy
Fukudome 9, Theriot 4, Byrd 8, Colvin 7, Nady 3, Ramirez 5, Castro 6, Soto 2, Gorzelanny 1

D-backs vs. Tom Gorzelanny
Young 8, Johnson 4, Upton 9, Montero 2, Reynolds 5, LaRoche 3, Drew 6, Gillespie 7, Kennedy 1

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The dramatic high point of my Independence Day was seeing a little kid take a dump in our community pool.

Speaking of the Cubs...

— Sunday's 14-3 loss marked not just the Cubs' second defeat to the Reds by 11 or more runs in the course of their four-game series, it was the Cubs' third such shellacking in their past nine home games. (You may have forgotten this doozy from a couple weeks back.)

Not sure what other point to make about this except personally, I'm pretty numb to the whole business. The 14-3's no longer bother me any more than the 3-1's or 2-0's.

Acceptance is the last of the Seven Stages of Grief, right?

Ted Lilly should be available for an inning tonight....chat is open for those interested. Evan Longoria will sit out with an infected fingertip and Michael Young takes his spot in the lineup...Chone Figgins his roster spot.

* Ichiro Suzuki RF	Hanley Ramirez SS
Derek Jeter SS	*Chase Utley 2B
* Joe Mauer C	Albert Pujols 1B
# Mark Teixeira 1B	Ryan Braun LF
Jason Bay LF	* Raul Ibanez RF
*Josh Hamilton CF	David Wright 3B
Michael Young 3B	# Shane Victorino CF
Aaron Hill 2B	Yadier Molina C
Roy Halladay P	* Tim Lincecum P

 

If you're passing on the All-Star game, Dave Pinto at Baseball Musings is doing a brief rundown of all 30 teams at the break, here's the Cubs entry. Over at The Bleacher Report, the top 20 Cubs transactions since 1990...I think #17 is silly for a list that seems to be intended to be serious, I mean, if you want to talk about transactions that involved just getting rid of a player, moving Michael Barrett in 2007 probably had a bigger perceived impact than moving LaTroy Hawkins.

Let me preface this entire article with a big old - who cares? With the Cubs playing the way they are, the mercy All-Star that the Cubs will get is of little importance, but I needed an article idea for the day and it's a fun discussion. And dagnabit, baseball is suppose to be fun.

So assuming the lemmings that are voting don't get Alfonso Soriano in there (currently 4th behind Carlos Beltran who is on the DL), the Cubs All-Star will be a reserve. In 2003, the All-Star process was changed and the players vote for eight reserves and eight pitchers, along with the eight starters voted by the fans. It's a 32-man roster, so the managers (in this case Charlie Manuel) gets to pick seven and the fans vote for the final player out of a pool of 5.

So who will be the Cubs representative(s)? Options below the fold...

Game 106 Thread / Cubs @ Brewers (1 of 4)...how's that for a good bluff, Rob?

From Stripes:

John Winger (Bill Murray): C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis): Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once.

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After a glorious 6-4 win in the opening game of this key Milwaukee series, I wanted to take a minor detour and reflect on my recent travails, aka, life following the Cubs in central Europe including the Czech Republic.

The NL All-Stars were announced today and the Cubs will send seven to Yankee Stadium next week, although it's likely Alfonso Soriano will have to be replaced. Rookies Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto were voted in along with Soriano,. Soto will be the first rookie backstop to ever start for the senior circuit (Sandy Alomar Jr. was voted in for the AL in 1990). Aramis Ramirez was elected by the players as a reserve behind starter Chipper Jones. Three pitchers will go as well, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood. Dempster and Wood were voted in by the players, and Zambrano was one of the seven that manager Clint Hurdle gets to pick, certainly with an assist from one of the members of his All-Star coaching staff - Lou Piniella.

Had Carlos Marmol not blown up the last few weeks, it could have been eight, but why get greedy.

There will be no Cubs in the Home Run Derby.

Congrats to all the Cubbies and Parachat will be open for the festivities. 

 

MLB has released the latest update on the All-Star voting and there would be three Cubbies in the starting lineup. Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome are one and two among the outfielders and Geovany Soto has a commanding lead over Brian McCann at catcher.

Of course, none of them deserve it, but it pays to be on a popular team that also happens to have the best record in baseball. A matter of fact, all the Cubbies are enjoying the residual benefits of a. 632 winning percentage. Derrek Lee is second in the voting, Mark DeRosa is second (poor Dan Uggla), Ryan Theriot is third and Aramis Ramirez is second(actually well-deserved). Using an advanced metric such as Runs Created, as tracked by The Hardball Times, here's how the All-Star voting should be shaking out. An asterisk indicates they are actually leading the voting.

MLB gave their first update on the state of NL All-Star Balloting yesterday. For everyone that had any reservations about the Neifi Write-in campaign, I have a bit of information that should remove any lingering moral scruples... Nomar Garciaparra is the top NL vote-getter at SS. The totals: 1. Garciaparra, N. Cubs 235,899 2. Eckstein, D. Cardinals 212,209 3. Furcal, R. Braves 212,160 4. Reyes, J. Mets 189,929 5. Barmes, C. Rockies 183,338 The three best SS in the NL this year, arguably, have been Barmes, Izturis, and Neifi. Neifi needs you. (So does Derrek Lee, who has less than half the votes of Pujols.)