2008 MLB All-Star Game Thread

OK, then, let's attack it from the other side. If it IS, like you say, no big deal to set up the schedule on short notice, why in the world would MLB not have done it that way long ago? They're not completely made up of idiots, and the problem has been there for a long time...

 

If they didn't have a contingency plan worked out, MLB and Selig are stupider than I thought. Wait a minute....

There's a simple and (potentially pretty damn exciting way) to settle a situation like this with the existing rosters. I believe I saw it alluded to earlier on this thread as well.

Home Run Derby Overtime: Each team gets x batters, and one of their pitchers throws x pitches to said batters. Higher number of homers win.

Might be 5 batters who get two pitches each or 3 batters who get 3 pitches each. This way there's no cherry picking for pitches, it doesn't go on for half an hour, and it makes the pitcher as important as the hitter.

 

Last year, heading into the postseason, the AL would have had home field in the World Series based on best record, regardless of matchup.

 

It wasn't a wash. because if you start the 9th with Rivera to make sure he pitches and it goes extras, then you can throw him in the 9th and 10th. K-Rod then pitches the 11th and 12th. Soria pitches 13th and 14th, Sherrill goes 15th and 16th, Kazmir for at least the 17th.

Francona would have bought himself two extra innings to not have it end in disaster. I don't really blame him for what he did earlier in the game, although the fact that a guy like Halliday threw just nine pitches and didn't come out for a second inning could have bitten him later, but he was losing 2-0 for seven innings.

 

OK, so as it was we'd have gotten through 15, and probably 16 innings, before they ran out. If you're playing that long, all-star game, regular-season game, little league game, whatever, you're not going to have anybody left. That was my point. They hit extra innings with, I think three or four pitchers apiece still in the pen (NL had Cook, Marmol, Webb and Lidge; AL had Sherrill, Soria and Kazmir). They hardly used every pitcher just to get them in, like they did in 2002 when they ran out after only 12 innings.
You need to plan on having enough pitching to get through 12, maybe 13 innings. Once you get to the 14th or 15th, wherever you're playing, you're going to have trouble.

 

That's why I think MM's idea has a lot of merit. One move, and this all goes out the window.

 

And I'll counter again that Hurdle made the same mistake late: Brian Wilson gets two outs in the eighth, Wagner gives up the tying run before ending the eighth but then doesn't come out for the ninth. Hurdle then uses Dempster for only an inning, which he was told to because he pitched on Sunday, an inning earlier than he had to.

 

Willie Mays was an old crank way before Barry got run out of the game.

 

I just don't see how it's much different than bringing in a lefty specialist to get one or two hitters in a regular season game, or a middle reliever to throw one inning.
Look, if this thing had ended after 12 innings like the 2002 game, I'd be right there with you. There's no excuse for that. But when you get to 15, 16 innings all bets are off. If you run out of arms at that point it's just attrition, not bad planning.

 

Game over yet?

 

Because those people don't exist in an All-Star game. They are either starters or closers. Brian Wilson can handle three outs. Billy Wagner can handle four outs. Its one thing if either team had a three run lead in the ninth. But when your six outs away frome extras and you know its coming, you gotta plan better than Hurdle and Francona did at that point.

 

Francona didn't deserve to be on the winning end of that game.

I wanted it to keep going, and going, and going.