Alex Rodriguez Deserved Better Than That

While all of this is subject to change both the American League and National League starters, reserves and pitchers have been announced and Alex Rodriguez is not an All-Star this season. Rodriguez, despite his 2014 suspension for his role in the Biogenesis Clinic and despite his use of steroids should have been an All-Star based on his numbers, not his morals, and frankly I believe Alex deserved better than that.

I’m not really all that upset about it only because I didn’t expect many people outside of New York to vote for him, I didn’t expect Ned Yost to choose him and after all the bridges he’s burnt I didn’t expect his peers to choose him, but he still deserved better than this. Rodriguez finished fifth in voting at the designated hitter position despite better numbers than the likes of David Ortiz and others on the list, although I do admit that Nelson Cruz absolutely should have won the starting nod there.

At the time of this writing Rodriguez was currently batting .284 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI just a few weeks short of his 40^th birthday. That’s before mentioning that Alex missed most of the 2013 season with a second hip surgery and various lower leg injuries and the entire 2014 season due to suspension, this is the epitome of a “comeback” player of the year. Alex is halfway to his first full season since the 2007 season and is a 14 time All-Star but has not been named to the team since 2011, but he should have made it this season.

In my opinion I believe Alex is better than and more deserving than Kendrys Morales, Victor Martinez and Edwin Encarnacion, although a debate could be made with Encarnacion due to his power and RBI totals. Cruz had a .304 average with 21 home runs and 50 RBI at the time the voting ended and won the vote despite missing the final 50 games of 2013 due to the same Biogenesis fallout as Alex while the National League’s starting shortstop, Jhonny Peralta, was also suspended the final 50 games and was also named a starter in the game. If it’s good for one it’s good for all, no? Alex deserved better than that and he deserves better than this, although you won’t hear him say a word about it. 

Teixeira, Betances All-Stars - Gardner Final Vote Candidate

Brett Gardner has been announced as one of the #FinalVote candidates for the #ASG! #VoteGardy http://t.co/qucZavW31a pic.twitter.com/v9wD1BnUNZ

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 7, 2015

The final All-Star Game reserves have been announced and after not having a single starter in the game the New York Yankees sent two players to the game. Mark Teixeira is a reserve for the American League at first base while relief pitcher Dellin Betances also made his second straight Mid-Summer Classic. Congratulations to them both.

Brett Gardner could be the third Yankee to join the game but he needs your help. Gardner is a Final Vote candidate. You can vote for Gardner on Twitter by tweeting #VoteGardy an unlimited amount of time. I believe retweets count but don't quote me on it, just to be sure head over to Twitter to follow @GreedyStripes and retweet all the #VoteGardy's you see.

2015 MLB All Star Starting Rosters Released

TGP Daily Poll: Yankees Have Two All-Stars

All-Star Game rosters will be announced on Sunday and finalized by Monday with the pitching and every team has to have at least one representative. The Yankees will have at least two in outfielder Brett Gardner and relief pitcher Dellin Betances.

Brett Gardner

Year	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2015	74	327	59	86	21	3	9	39	15	31	65	.300	.373	.488	.860	137

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Dellin Betances

Year	W	L	ERA	G	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	4	1	1.11	36	11	7	40.2	16	8	5	0	18	66	359	1.31	0.836	3.5	0.0	4.0	14.6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com and check out the stats of these two players above:

MLB Announces Changes to Home Run Derby

MLB.com press release:

The 2015 Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders, part of Gatorade All-Star Workout Day, will introduce a new streamlined format this July featuring brackets and timed rounds, Major League Baseball announced today. The 2015 Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders will be held on Monday, July 13th at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, home of the Cincinnati Reds, and broadcast live by ESPN and MLB.com beginning at 8:00 p.m. (ET).

The eight-player contest will be conducted as a single-elimination tournament in which the loser of each bracket is immediately eliminated. Brackets in the first round will be seeded based on 2015 home run totals through July 7th, with ties broken by awarding the higher seed to the batter with more home runs hit since June 15th. If a tie remains, a coin flip will determine the higher seed. In each matchup, the higher seed will hit second.

During each of the three rounds, each batter will have five minutes to hit as many home runs as possible, and any swings that do not result in a home run will not be counted. Timers will count down from five minutes beginning with the release of the first pitch, and any home run hit after the timer reaches one minute remaining will stop the timer immediately when the ball lands in home run territory. The timer will not start again until the batter hits a ball that does not land in home run territory, or swings and misses at a pitch.

Batters may be awarded bonus time during their turn based on the length of their home runs hit. If a batter hits two home runs during a turn that each equal or exceed 420 feet, one minute of bonus time will be added. If one home run during a turn equals or exceeds 475 feet, 30 seconds of bonus time will be added. It is possible for a batter to earn a total bonus of one minute and 30 seconds. All distances will be measured using MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast system.

The batter with the most home runs hit in each matchup will advance to the next round (or win the Derby, if in the third round). Ties in any round will be broken by a 90-second swing-off with no stoppage of time or additional time added. If the batters remain tied after the 90-second swing-off, they will engage in successive three-swing swing-offs until there is a winner. Once the second batter in any matchup hits one more home run than the first batter, the second batter will be declared the winner of the matchup and will not attempt to hit any additional home runs. In addition, each batter will be entitled to one “time out” per round.

In addition to coverage on ESPN and MLB.com, the 2015 Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders will be broadcast live on ESPN HD, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN and ESPN Radio in the U.S. as well as ESPN International. Participants for the Home Run Derby will be announced at a later date. For more information, please visit www.allstargame.com.

Bracket Format:

• Single-elimination tournament in which loser of each bracket is immediately eliminated.

• Seeding based on 2015 home run totals through July 7th, with ties broken by awarding the higher seed to the batter with more home runs hit since June 15th. Any tie thereafter will be broken by a coin flip.

• In each bracket, the higher seed will hit second.

Round		Round 2		Round 3
Player 1
		Player 1/8
Player 8
				Winner Rd. 2
Player 4
		Player 4/5
Player 5
					2015 Home Run Derby Champion
Player 2
		Player 2/7
Player 7
				Winner Rd. 2
Player 3
		Player 3/6
Player 6								\

Timing:

• Five minutes per batter, per round.  Timers start with release of the first pitch.
• Any home runs hit during the final minute of each turn will stop the timer immediately; timer will not start again until batter hits a ball that is not a home run, or swings and misses at a pitch.

Bonus Time:

• One minute of bonus time awarded for two home runs that each equal or exceed 420 feet.
• Thirty seconds of bonus time awarded for one home run that equals or exceeds 475 feet.
• Both bonuses can be earned by hitting two home runs that equal or exceed 420 feet with one of them reaching 475 feet, resulting in a total bonus of one minute and thirty seconds.
• Distances will be tracked and posted using MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast.

Home Runs in a Given Round	Distance(s) (ft)	Bonus Period
0-1	474  or less	0:00
1	475+	0:30
2+	420-474	1:00
2+	420-474 & 475+; or both 475+	1:30

Scoring/Advancement:

• Batter with most home runs hit in each matchup will advance to next round.
• Ties in any round broken by 90-second swing-off with no stoppage of time or additional time added; if a tie remain after the swing-off, batters will engage in successive three-swing swing-offs until there is a winner.
• Once the second batter hits more than the first batter in any matchup, he will be declared winner and not attempt to hit additional home runs.
• Each batter entitled to one 45-second “time out” per round.

Weekly Check In: Gary Sanchez

Normally every Monday morning we are checking in on one of my personal favorite prospects, Lingo Lightning himself, Jacob Lindgren but a bone spur removal surgery might have ended his 2015 prematurely. While we scrambled to find a new prospect to follow and check in on there were many factors including their position on many top prospects lists, how far away they were from being considered major league ready and who is doing well with their 2015 seasons. With that in mind, and maybe with a little bias and "homer-ism" thrown in there, we have decided to check in on Gary Sanchez full time rather than occasionally when filling in for others.

Sanchez may be the best catcher in the Yankees farm system this season with Austin Romine struggling and Luis Torrens injured and Sanchez has taken advantage of that limelight. While Sanchez is still pretty young for the affiliate he's in, Double-A with the Trenton Thunder, he hasn't exactly destroyed the ball offensively. Instead Sanchez has been above-average with the bat and has improved on his defense day in and day out. Sanchez was rewarded this week by being named to the Team World roster for the All-Star Futures Game in Cincinnati in 2015 along with Aaron Judge.

Year	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AA	45	192	24	45	7	8	28	5	13	40	.256	.313	.432	.744

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

MLB Cancels 60 Million All Star Votes

First of all, allow me to apologize.

In a recent post I said that fans could vote 45 times, and therefore that meant that the city of Kansas City could have as many as 21 million votes. That means that every single vote for a Royals player could be coming from their home city, which goes against what Hosmer was trying to say when attempting to show that there was nothing nefarious going on.

The problem is that fans can't vote 45 times. No, they can only vote 35 times. So Kansas City alone can not account for 21 million votes. No, they could only account for over 16 million.

Hmm... that's still enough for every vote for a Royals player to be coming from the same city. The Royals home city, that is. So I guess I'm apologizing for the technical error, although my point still rings true.

Anyway...

It turns out that Major League Baseball believes there's a voting problem too, as they have nullified over 60 million votes that they believe to be "improper".

Honestly, all it takes to vote more than 35 times is to create another free email account, or some rudimentary hacking skills. So while this move may help things, it certainly doesn't solve them.

The next update on American League All Star voting will come out on Monday. It will be interesting to see if Omar Infante's lead over Jose Altuve still holds up (he was only up by about 300,000 in the latest update on Monday). Not to mention a few other "iffy" results I pointed out earlier.

MLB All Star Game Voting Has Officially Begun!

Voting has opened for the 2015 MLB All Star Game that will be help in Cincinnati this season so it’s time to send your favorite New York Yankees player to the midsummer classic. Whether it be Jacoby Ellsbury in the outfield, Mark Teixeira in the infield or Alex Rodriguez finally displacing David Ortiz at the DH position (which won’t happen) we the fans needs to band together and send our boys to Cincinnati. You can vote for your All Stars, Yankees or not, RIGHT HERE or by going to Yankees.com. Time to represent ladies and gentleman so make sure you use all 10 of your votes, or 15 if you have an applicable account like I do, and send your favorite players.