The 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Games votes are in and tallied and the greatest baseball star in all the world is ... Josh Donaldson. Josh Donaldson? Yes, Josh Donaldson, apparently.
The 29-year old Toronto Blue Jays third baseman, and now two-time All-Star with a .273 average and 82 career home runs in parts of five seasons, received 14,090,188 votes – tops in all of baseball and the most in the history of All-Star voting. Josh Donaldson. Josh Donaldson got the most All-Star votes EVER.
This season we’ve seen Bryce Harper explode, Mike Trout continue on his “next Mickey Mantle” trajectory, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen put up their usual numbers and Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols, the superstars of 5-10 years ago, have monster 2015s. Baseball’s big names are earning their fame. Yet Josh Donaldson became the all-time leader in All-Star votes. Taking nothing away from Donaldson, who has become a very good player over the past two and a half seasons, but ... Josh Donaldson? He’s not a household name in too many homes outside of the one in which he was born.
But votes are votes. You have to honor the decision of the voters, whether it’s a president you didn’t support being put into office, or a Blue Jays third basemen having his votes inflated due to a late campaign led by a Canadian actor who is starring in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. It’s futile to fight the will of the people. Numbers matter in baseball, vote totals matter, and that means Josh Donaldson is baseball’s biggest superstar.
One day your children will ask you what it was like to live in the Josh Donaldson Era and you’ll say: “Who?” And they’ll say: “Josh Donaldson. Baseball’s all-time leader in All-Star votes.” “Oh, right,” you’ll reply. “Yeah, I don’t remember much about him. He was pretty good, though, I think.” “Neat,” they’ll say. And baseball’s history will be carried on to another generation.
Josh Donaldson.
Quote of the Week
The only thing left is human sacrifice, so we’re going to pick somebody
– Mets manager Terry Collins on his struggling team.
So a Mets must die. Fine. But who? It would be unwise for the Mets to kill one of their players. They need all the help they can get, and how do you pick between the players? All the Mets are not contributing equally. Bobby Bonilla is still on the payroll despite not playing for the Mets since 1999, so he seems like an option. But does Collins really have it in him to kill a man when it comes down to it? I question whether he does. So that leaves only one real option: Mr Met. Mr Met must die. Sorry, Mrs Met. But let’s be honest: Mr Met has probably been dead inside since the late ‘80s. This is the humane (mascane?) decision. Off with his giant, foam head.
Stat of the Week
25 – Bryce Harper hit his 25th home run of the season on Saturday, becoming the seventh player in baseball history to have 25 home runs in the first half of as season at age 22 or younger. The other six players are all-time greats – Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Bench, Harmon Killebrew, Joe DiMaggio, Eddie Matthews and Mel Ott – which projects pretty well for Harper’s career. Annoyingly, if you’re a Yankees hater, three of these seven phenoms spent the majority of their careers with the Yankees: A-Rod, DiMaggio and Harper. (Everyone knows he’s signing with them as soon as he’s a free agent.)
This Week’s Horrible Fantasy Team That Crushed Your Team
Gerardo Parra, OF, Brewers - 12-for-25, HR, 4 RBI, SB
Cesar Hernandez, 2B, Phillies - 16-for-34, 4 RBI, 6 SB
Alejandro De Aza, OF, Red Sox - 11-for-25, HR, 8 RBI
Justin Bour, 1B, Marlins - 7-for-18, 4 HR, 8 RBI
Jeff Locke, P, Pirates - 13 innings, 13 strikeouts, 1 win, 0.69 ERA
Collin McHugh, P, Astros - 13.1 innings, 9 strikeouts, 1 win, 2.70 ERA
Reader Question of the Week
@DJGalloEtc When is @KingJames going to take 2 years off to play baseball?
— matt said (@saidmatt) July 5, 2015
Jordan stepped away from basketball at age 30 to play baseball. LeBron James is now 30. If he doesn’t quit basketball to hit .202 in Double-A baseball, he can forget ever being considered as great as Jordan.
LeBron no doubt understands this. He decided to become a free agent, didn’t he? It’s clear he’s breaking away from basketball to become an overmatched minor league baseball player. It’s what all the great ones do.
Phillies-ness of the Week
Sure, the Phillies lost six in a row this week and were swept at home in a four-game series versus the Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the second-worst record in all of baseball, but we don’t need to always dump on Ruben Amaro’s horrible creation. There has to be some good news for the team. Just give me some time to find something. Here’s a seven-minute video on the 2008 World Series team you can watch while I look.
OK, here we go. Got one. Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco was named NL Rookie of the Month for June, his first full month in the majors. Pretty impressive! Even more amazing: Franco was signed from the Dominican Republic in 2010, meaning his talents were secured during Amaro’s tenure.
(Phillies fans, you may tweet at Franco at @MaikelFranco7 to kindly request he stop hitting for the duration of the season so Amaro loses his only reason to remain employed.)
Cubs World Series Odds: On the Rise!
After getting swept by the Cardinals a week ago, Joe Maddon brought a magician in to perform for his team and the Cubs are 5-1 since. That’s impressive, but Maddon’s team might have gone 6-0 if he had been able to bring his first choice into the locker room: a zoo animal. “It’s hard to grab a zoo animal on the road,” said the manager. “You can do it at the last minute at home. You always have the home connection with animals. It’s much easier to acquire a magician on the road than a 20-foot python. I’ve always felt that way.” Well, yeah. If Game 7 of the World Series comes down to who knows more about booking zoo animals and magicians, the Cubs will win in a blowout.
A-Rod-ness of the Week
Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees have come to an agreement on the disputed $6m bonus owed to A-Rod for tying Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. The Yankees won’t deposit a dollar in A-Rod’s bank account, but $3.5m will be given to multiple charities and $2.5m will go to the MLB Urban Youth Foundation. Had the Yankees paid the bonus as originally agreed on, they would have actually been out $9m due to the luxury tax. So in giving money to charity, the Yankees actually made out quite well. A classic case of standard operating procedure for an Evil Empire.
Ten Things I May Possibly Think I Think
1) Here are the final American League All-Star voting results from MLB Communications.
Here are the AL final voting totals for the #ASG: pic.twitter.com/wpSgfrM7zT
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) July 5, 2015
MLB Communications employs the top communication experts in the sport, yet they decided it wasn’t necessary to click off the red spellcheck squiggles under many of the names before sharing the results with the world. This is the casual Fridays equivalent to corporate communications. The person who tweeted this out was definitely wearing a pair of Crocs.
2) In case you’re wondering, Some Guy (Kyle Gibson) out-dueled Some Otherguy (Chris Young) in this game and the Twins won, 2-0.
"Some Guy vs. Some Otherguy". Nailed it @StribSports. (h/t @mrdahl87) pic.twitter.com/5FBWeM9EJY
— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) July 2, 2015
This headline likely in today’s edition: Some Frigginguy Gets Most Votes in All-Star History.
3) Since stepping into the injured Giancarlo Stanton’s spot in the lineup seven games ago, Marlins first baseman Justin Bour has hit .388 with four home runs and eight RBI, including homers in four consecutive games. That projects to 92 home runs, 188 RBI and a .388 average over a full season and a $1bn contract from the Marlins. Let’s see if that’s enough of an incentive for Bour to keep it up.
4) Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer doesn’t get the opportunity to hit much as an American League pitcher, so instead of standing there and flailing away with no purpose, he decided to mimic his teammates’ batting styles Saturday night against the Pirates.
Something about @BauerOutage’s at-bat looks awfully familiar. @TheJK_Kid, is that you? http://t.co/7OSXWDdGIn pic.twitter.com/a9kMpLduQE
— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 4, 2015
Between Bauer, Bartolo Colon and Mets pitcher/star hitter Steven Matz, 2015 could go down as the Year of the Entertaining Hitting Pitcher. And therefore also as one of the greatest baseball seasons ever.
5) Last week in this space I wrote that the Cardinals are the greatest team in baseball and that the organization very likely possesses innate baseball wisdom that makes them superior to all other franchises. The Cardinals then didn’t win a baseball game for the next five days. If you would like me to jinx any other teams or players, I accept cash and PayPal. Thanks.
6) With another seven scoreless innings Saturday night, Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke extended his scoreless streak to 27 2/3 innings. He is now nearly halfway to Orel Hershiser’s all-time record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings, set back in 1988. Even if Greinke doesn’t break Hershiser’s mark, he has a great shot at the modern record. (Note: Most baseball writers differ, but I consider modern baseball to be any time in the past 15 years or approximately around the time when society wouldn’t allow someone to be named “Orel.”)
7) The Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs and Brewers have the three best records in the National League since May 31. This is a great piece of trivia to hold onto when discussing baseball’s best division at the end of the season after the Giants sneak into the playoffs and win the World Series.
8) Yankees manager Joe Girardi said this week that he’s not surprised that team management is beginning to show some support for A-Rod: “I’ve always said that if he came back and was productive, I thought things would go well.”
That’s Yankees manager Joe Girardi, honestly telling us all how baseball views players who have been “tainted” by PEDs: “Hey, fine by us if you can still hit. If not, we will pretend to have principles and drum you out of the league.”
9) Not that fans are any different. Speaking of which: Congratulations to Nelson Cruz on being elected into the All-Star Game again!
10) The Mets are struggling to hit and it’s unlikely things will get better anytime soon. They have 14 games coming up this month against the Giants, Cardinals, Nationals and Dodgers, all teams stocked with talented pitchers. Nine of those 14 games are on the road. Yikes. It’s very unlikely that Mr Met will see August. But again, it’s for the best. Mascot costumes get very sweaty in the sun and heat of summer, whereas six-feet under is cool and dark. It will all be over soon, Mr Met.
