The Diamond Fan

Today’s game between Cleveland and New York ended with the Yankees winning 7-4. The biggest thing about the game, though, wasn’t the final score, it was that the game exposed baseball’s new, limited instant replay as a total farce.
With the score 3-2 Indians and one on in the bottom of the 7th, Jorge Posada hit a ball on which Cleveland outfielder Trevor Crowe was prepared to make a leaping catch. Only he didn’t make the catch because a fan (two fans, actually) reached over the fence and deflected the ball before it got to Crowe’s glove.
The ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into the field of play, but the umpire signalled home run. Ball call, but hey, this is the kind of play for which instant replay was specifically instituted, right? Wrong! Somehow, even after watching the replay, the umpires decided that, no, the fan who had his arm fully extended outward toward the field while standing right at the fence, was NOT interfering with the play. What ?!#?
The only thing I can think is that this was a CYA thing for the umps. Our guy made the call and it would look bad to overrule him, so let’s just pretend that there is not enough “clear and convincing evidence” to overturn. What a joke! If you’re not going to overturn that play, then the whole instant reply idea is a complete waste of time and might as well be ditched.

Having already posted my American League ballot, it is now time to turn to the Senior Circuit.

First Base: Lance Berkman, HOU
It is tempting to go with Albert Pujols here, but Berkman is near the top of the league’s first basemen in nearly every hitting category, tops in average and stolen bases.  His fine season deserves All Star recognition.

Second Base: Chase Utley, PHI
Recent slump notwishstanding, his monster start makes him the obvious choice.  Dan Uggla is creeping up on him, though, and should get picked as a backup.

Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez, FLA
The league is very deep at this position, with Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Miguel Tejeda, Ryan Theriot, and Jimmy Rollins all being All Star worthy.  I give Ramirez the edge due to his having the best combination of speed and power.

Third Base: Chipper Jones, ATL
He has dipped below .400, and his tendency to be injury prone has begun to assert itself, but Chipper is definitely having the best season, with apolgies to Aramis Ramirez and David Wright.

Catcher: Russell Martin, LAD
It is splitting hairs to chose between Martin and Brian McCann here. but since I am a Dodgers fan i will indulge myself and go with my guy Martin.  Selection can also be justified based on his better speed numbers.  Benji Molina of the Giants and Geovanny Soto of the Cubs are having fine seasons and deserve consideration as well.

Outfield: Ryan Braun, MIL ; Ryan Ludwick, STL ; Nate McLouth, PIT
Who knew?  At the beginning of the season I would have said you were crazy if you had told me that this would be the best outfield for the NL All Stars, but here they are, all worthy choices.  All three have higher OPS than any of the three leading vote getters (Griffey, Fukudome, Soriano). They also have higher R2 (runs + RBI) numbers, and I think they are just better overall this season.  The only reason to vote for Griffey would be a “lifetime achievement” type thing, and I don’t think that is what starting in the All Star game should be about.  Cubs fans must be stuffing the ballot box for the other two.

to the new server. Hopefully within a day or two everything will be up and running smoothly. The main site’s template has been changed, and a lot of older material has gone away. The most popular of the old articles and essays have been brought over to the new server. In the future the focus on the main site will be on establishing an archive of public domain material relating to baseball history. Most of my commentary will be done here on the blog, although I may still occassionally post a longer essay or other material on the main site.

diamondfans.com has been up since 1999, and this is the most significant “makeover” for the site in that entire time.  I am excited about the change and hope that the refocusing will make the site more useful for the baseball loving community.

When the Dodgers hit four home runs in consecutive at bats last September I thought “I’ll probably never see that happen again in my lifetime.” Well, here we are in April of the following season and, lo and behold, the Red Sox just did it again against the Yankees! Incredible! Chase Wright joins Paul Foytack of the Angels as the only pitchers in Major League history to have four consecutive batters hit HR off them. (There was a pitching change in the middle of the Dodgers’ feat.)

Just another illustration that, as Joaquin Andujar said, in America “There is one word that says it all and that word is “You never know.”

Spring training games are underway, and already the balls are flying out of the parks. Looks like even though the steroid era may be over, the human growth hormone era is just beginning. Coming soon to a ballpark near you: robot ballplayers.