All-Star Game Musings

Some random ASG thoughts:

Did Brewers players get the shaft, or are we just being too sensitive?

Sure, we were all pretty pissed during the Home Run Derby when Nelson Cruz belted his 11 homers with full coverage and then they interviewed Albert Pujols throughout Prince’s first round, meaning we only saw limited coverage and had to listen to Alby insult Prince on top of it.

Then, during the ASG, Braun comes to bat and President Obama is in the broadcast booth, so once again there was no talk of the actual on-field action.

Later, Braun was moved from right field to left field and the on-screen graphic labeled Brad Hawpe of the Rockies as Braun.

Clearly we were more keyed in on our players, so I’m not sure other team’s and their players didn’t get similar treatment, but it sure did feel like some sort of conspiracy to limit the amount of air time for small-town Milwaukee. I’d be curious to read around and see if any other fans noticed this or had similar experiences.

Did Ryan Braun misplay Curtis Granderson’s triple?

I seemed to be the only one who noticed/was concerned about this in last night’s Ladies… liveblog, but it keeps nagging at me. By this point in the game, Braun was in left, where is more comfortable and, it being St. Louis, he should have been more familiar with how the ball would carom.

I really think I think that if Ryan played that ball better, Curtis only gets a double and therefore doesn’t score on a sac fly.

In a post-game interview, Curtis was asked if he was thinking triple all the way and he said no, but when he saw that the ball rolled around and wasn’t picked up, he kicked it for third.

It’s possible even bringing this up makes me a bad fan.

Braun was clearly expecting the ball to bounce out of that corner more than it did – the question is whether or not he should have expected that.

Plays in the corner like that are always deceptive because the fielder can’t go charging in there in case the ball does carom out and they’re totally left flat-footed, so the fielder looks like they’re not hustling/jogging.

I think it’s Curtis’ comments that really do this in for me. Had I not seen him saying that he wasn’t automatically thinking three, maybe I would just think Grandy is super quick and that’s the end of it.

Of course, the fact that it was the winning run of the game doesn’t help things, either.

I still feel like Prince got the shaft

Braun got to play multiple innings. Trevor pitched a full inning. Prince had a PH appearance in the second. Sure, he made the most of it, driving in a run, but after the hoopla of the night before, it seemed a little wrong that Prince was relegated to one AB. He certainly earned more than that.

In the liveblog last night, the argument was made that there were four NL 1B, but you know how that could have been solved? Not playing Alby for six innings. I know it was his home stadium, but that’s just excessive.

Speaking of which…

Were other ASG’s this focused on the hometown players?

I’ll admit that I usually only casually watch the ASG, so I’m usually only half paying attention and I know that last season was a lot more about the stadium and the history than the current players, so I really can’t remember that much hoopla surrounding individual Yankee players.

I admit to being biased against STL and Pujols, so I’m curious if this treatment happened in other years, since I’m not sure.

I feel like the other players must have felt a little like thy were second class citizens. And the ultimate second fiddle was Yadier Molina, who must think he’s chopped liver. All that Alby love and very little mention of Yadi, who also played a ton of the game - None of us could even name who the backup catcher was last night.

Trenni really gives the Brewers some love

During last night’s game, MLBN played a half-hour “highlight show” of the red carpet parade that was held earlier in the day that I DVR’d. There were four interviews that I saw – Ryan Howard sat down with the guys and then the two girls, Trenni and Hazel Mae, interviewed three players while they were in the their trucks – Shane Victorino, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun. I don’t imagine for a minute that would have happened without Trenni.