Nomar Garciaparra was a fine choice, but the American League fan vote is more of a joke than ever. First, let me say that this isn’t a huge deal in the big scheme of things, but it does, however, underscore how little the average fan pays attention. Or maybe popularity just overrides common sense.
The White Sox ran a campaign called “Punch A.J.” – I guess if you can’t do it personally, then punching him figuratively is second best. Anyway, the public relations ploy remarkably and inexplicably worked. While carrying three catchers isn’t so absurd in an All-Star game, the selection itself is still preposterous. Maybe the fans wanted to get a White Sox player in there; after all, that makes seven of them now.
Pierzynski is hitting a solid .325 on the year, with a .823 OPS. Travis Hafner, meanwhile, has an 1.113 OPS; he also has 18 more homers and a measly 41 more RBI than Pierzynski. I’m still convinced this is an elaborate joke of some kind. It’s too bad the Tribe are having such a down season, as it would have been great to see a legitimate MVP candidate not make the All-Star team. If you refuse to pick “Pronk” because he is a designated hitter, fine, I have another option for you.
Francisco Liriano has, plain and simply, been baseball’s best pitcher so far. His overall numbers speak for themselves – 9-1, 1.99 ERA, 94 Ks in 81 1/3 innings. Since he entered the rotation in May, he has a statline that requires a microscope to view – 1.61 ERA and 0.85 WHIP. Maybe it will take a Cy Young award to get people’s attention. The National League squad just got that much closer to their first victory in a decade.
It’s amazing Guillen didn’t pick Podsednik as Manny’s replacement instead of Mags. Maybe the white sox should just go ahead and play the NL themselves.
PS: Hafner just hit his fifth grand slam of the year. Six is the record.
hi, you did great inpicking winners the first day on my trip to vegas, but i was to chicken to bet them because some were awful big favorites, so i didnt bet any baseball at all, i lost 145 playing blackjack so i keep my loses down.
can a guy win at betting baseball, or were you lucky for 1 day, even though iam usually just a fantasy player the betting of pro sports seems very interesting, but can a guy win————just some thought and thanks for the help————randy
Randy – Baseball isn’t a bad sport to bet on, in fact, it’s the sport that Vegas wins the least amount of money on. Still, I haven’t been able to make any huge profits myself. Usually I break even with baseball. Football, on the other hand, is the best sport to bet on. We will try to cover the gambling aspect of that sport in much greater detail once the season gets closer. Hopefully, we can make some money in doing so.
I’ve also heard that about baseball in the casinos. Infact I’ve heard they’d rather not even book it. But they want to keep the big betters coming to their casino. You have to play for the long haul, and the best gamblers still can’t get huge long-run gains. But there are professional baseball gamblers who have huge bankrolls that can do some damage to casinos on a consistant basis. Infact, when these known ‘winners’ place bets, the casinos start hedging their lines, just to cover those bets.
Chad – You are right, casinos hate baseball betting and pretty much only allow it to bring in other gambling. I also agree with you that if you have enough money to work with, you can do some damage in baseball betting.