| Midsummer Classic Part I News and notes surrounding this year’s MLB All-Star Game: The AL has won 44 All Star Games, the NL 43. Two have ended in a tie, in 1961 (rain) and 2002 (ran out of pitchers) … The first MLB All-Star Game was played in 1933 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Babe Ruth hit the first All Star home run in that game … In a fait accompli, New York Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin in a row in the 1934 All-Star Game, all future Hall Of Famers … Pete Rose was an All-Star at 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, & RF … Hank Aaron went to the All-Star Game the most times, 25, including 21 consecutive appearances. Miguel Cabrera is the current active leader with 11 appearances. Today’s Scorecard The best metric for charting MLB pitchers is the Fielding Independent Pitcher (FIP) ratings. FIP is similar to ERA, but because FIP is limited to the events a pitcher has the most control over – i.e. – strikeouts, unintentional walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs, it’s arguably a better tool than ERA for evaluating a pitcher’s effectiveness. It’s also useful for predicting a pitcher’s future results, because a pitcher has little control over what happens once the ball is put in play behind him. The Top 10 FIP Ratings this season (like an ERA the lower the number the better) include: Max Scherzer 1.96, Walker Buehler 2.83, Charlie Morton 2.85, Hyun-Jin Ryu 2.88, Brandon Woodruff 2.90, Lance Lynn 2.97, Gerrit Cole 3.00, Stephen Strasburg 3.11, Jacob deGrom 3.11, and Zack Greinke 3.13. Show Me The Money The players named to the annual star showcase compete for a bonus pool worth $640,000. But there’s a catch … only players on the winning team are eligible to receive a share. That means each of the players on the winning team will receive checks of approximately $20,000. The losers go home with the same amount of money that you and I will receive – nada. |
