CINCINNATI—Within just a few minutes of Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman’s arrival in the United States, Reds manager Dusty Baker had already overused and mangled the 21-year-old’s arm beyond recognition, team sources reported Sunday. Baker, who has been accused of overtaxing young pitchers’ arms in the past, reportedly greeted Chapman with a bucket of 250 baseballs and told him to “hurl them” as fast as he could, later encouraging the fastballer to “go nuts” with his pitching style. “He didn’t even let me stretch out first,” Chapman told reporters through an interpreter. “And when I started to wince from the pain and soreness, he just gave me a thumbs up, winked, and told me to keep throwing.” At press time, Chapman had already been to the hospital for an oblique strain, a torn rotator cuff, and his second Tommy John surgery of the week.

If I didn’t feel so bad for the kid, I would probably be laughing about it.  Who am I kidding?  I’m definitely laughing about it.  Here’s a lesson we Cubs fans can take away from this: Whenever you are frustrated about Lou Piniella just think about Dusty Baker.  I guarantee you’ll feel grateful.

The All-Star game is one of those opportunities where we can reminisce about true rivalries among the two Circuits and the kind of men who played the game back in the day. The men who back then thought nothing of giving up the prime years of their careers to serve their country, only to return and pick up their bats and gloves and provide the American public with the brand of baseball that cemented the sport as our national pastime. Each year we’re reintroduced to the heroes of yesteryear, offering us another chance to appreciate how great some of these names truly are, especially in comparison to the weak-willed individuals that are constantly trotted out from the Mitchell Report and other sources.  The Cardinals trotted out the Wizard of Oz, Bob Gibson, Bruce Sutter, Lou Brock, and Red Schoendienst. Then, as they did with Ted Williams a few years ago, they drove Stan Musial in from the outfield.

Musial had a career .331 batting average, 3630 hits and 475 home runs. A 24 time All-Star himself, Musial might be one of the most underrated baseball players in history. Hell, he only received 93% of the votes on his first ballot for the Hall of Fame.  Musial achieved all of this while also taking off the entire season after the Cardinals won the World Series to serve in the United States Navy in 1945.

I bring all of this up because after the player introductions, the tie-ins with the history of the local team, and ceremonial functions (anthem, fly-over, first pitch) the game goes downhill. If you factor in the Futures game and the Home Run Derby in the two preceding days, one could argue that the pre-game festivities are the peak of the All-Star Game.

Whoops!

To be honest the American League  dominance over the National League combined with free agency has drained the actual game of much of its excitement. And while the other major All-Star games benefit from the ability to relax their defensive efforts during their game and still produce an enjoyable product full of improvisation and creativity, baseball has no such option. If a player does take his eye off the game, he just looks sloppy, is labeled as a goat, and worse, leaves a pitcher out on the mound for longer than he needs. (Just ask Dan Uggla).

Baseball kool-aid drinkers will argue that the Home Run Derby is the answer to this need for excitement and offensive fireworks. I won’t write off the Home Run Derby entirely, until I hear it without Chris Berman. If it still makes me want to plunge hot forks into my ears then I will be forced to admit there is something structurally wrong with the event.

Compared to the NBA Dunk Contest, the Derby lacks the ability to break down the nuances of the dunk, the creativity involved, and whether you’ve seen anything like it before. Instead, you have bat hitting ball and then seeing where it landed. How exciting! The players are confined to the batters box so the only real variable is to see whether it hits something amusing in the newly designed ballpark housing the All Star Game.

I would support adopting a skills competition like the NHL’s event that would provide a greater demonstration of the players’ skills. There you would be able to get a better feel for the true athleticism of these players. I know, I know! What about the added exposure to injury?!?! Suck it up, I say. Your teams are struggling to fill ballparks, you should be doing everything you can to ensure the survival of the game.

Proposed Events (NHL Comparison)

Rounding the Bases (Skating around the rink) - Pure and simple display of prolonged speed. If the whole way is too far, why don’t you bring in the top 5 triples leaders in the league and have them run from home to third?

Stealing Second (Shootout) - Baserunners are the shooters, and the catchers are the goalies. The pitchers wouldn’t need to try to pick the runners off but we would force the baserunners to start with a foot on the base, to give the catchers a chance at throwing them out.

Fly ball to the outfield and throwing to home (Slap Shot) – What better way to see the strongest arms in the league than to have the likes of Vlad Guerrero (maybe  a few years ago in his prime), Ichiro,  Torii Hunter, or even a Shane Victorino, catching flyballs from their positions in the outfield and gunning lasers to the plate. Add a runner tagging and running towards home (he won’t have to slide injury-phobes) and we’ve got something compelling happening on every pop fly.  I would like the competitors to be picked for this from a poll of all the 3rd base coaches in each league responding to the question “Who do you fear or second guess the most?”

Pitching to Targets (Wrist Shots at the Plates, or the old Sweet Quarterback Club competition)

Recognizing the need to keep these guys from hurting themselves, we’d only ask the pitchers to take part in some target practice from 60′6″, with the targets getting progressively smaller in each successive round. No need to see who pitches hardest, since they likely wouldn’t throw as hard in a non-competitive setting.

Using the Futures Game Participants for more than one night

For many of these competitions that require extra players to participate to simulate the game settings, why not keep the guys from the Futures game there to compete in these events alongside the Major Leaguers? It would result in increased visibility and most of these guys have very raw tools like speed or a strong arm, but just haven’t been able to round out the other tools of their games.

As it stands the Cubs and Sox both had two players in the Futures game:

for the Cubs: Josh Vitters and Starlin Castro;

for the Sox: Dayan Viciedo (who had an RBI double to push the World Team to the final 7-5 score) and Catcher, Tyler Flowers.

Both organizations expect big things from Vitters and Flowers, high draft picks who have shown a lot of promise at the plate. Castro is an intriguing young shortstop that one scout in the Cubs organization believes could be a real All-Star someday. Viciedo has a similarly high ceiling, but now seems to have both Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez blocking his quick ascension to the left side of the infield. While he might be asked to change into a Carlos Lee-type left fielder or a first baseman  he should help in recruiting Aroldis Chapman (he just signed with an agent this week) to the South Side.

Despite their performances in the Futures game, these players are relegated to relative anonymity for another 1 or 2 years before we see them called up to the Majors. Wouldn’t an expanded All-Star performance give us a greater taste of what types of skills these young guys have? While the NBA and NFL benefit from extremely public collegiate sports leading to their drafts, the MLB suffers from almost non-existent coverage of collegiate and minor league players. This would be a perfect opportunity to show off more of their young talented players in a fun, exciting atmosphere.

Just some thoughts, let me know what you think on other competitions you’d like to see!

AL CENTRAL – Looks like it will be a three team race. Haven’t I already seen this before?

Detroit (45-38) beat KC 8-5 at home. Sure, Verlander struck out 11, but he threw 114 pitches in 6 innings giving up 5 runs (admittedly only 3 earned). Only thing that impressed me was Placido Polanco. The best 2B/Tenor in the American League.

White Sox (43-40) beat up on Cleveland 10-6 at home.  Paul Konerko hits three home runs, and gets his first curtain call preempted by AJ’s first pitch foul out.  Alexei Ramirez hits a home run, but still fails to sign Aroldis Chapman. Rumors run rampant that Ramirez and Contreras will sit until after the All Star Break to focus their efforts on recruiting Chapman.

Minnesota (43-41) lost 2-10 in the launch pad that is Yankee Stadium. CC Sabathia pitches a gem, Morneau reportedly blames time zone change.  Look on the bright side Twinkies fans, the Reds loss yesterday was twice as bad.

Kansas City (36-47) lost 5-8 in Detroit. Still managed 10 hits and saw 170 pitches from Detroit pitchers. Unfortunately, they had Bruce Chen starting for them.  A few more years and hopefully the Royals won’t have to resort to starting Oriole retreads.

Cleveland (33-51) lost 6-10 to the Sox at the Cell.  Reported cat fight in Section 137 during the bottom of the second inning between Scotty Pods’ admirers and Grady’s ladies. Can’t count out the Indians’ bats, but their bullpen is down for the count.

Division Standings

Team                         GB

Detroit                      – -

Sox                            2.0

Minnesota                2.5

Kansas City              9.0

Cleveland                 12.5

NL Central – With the All-Star game in STL, not likely the Cardinals will sputter into the break. Just wouldn’t make for a good story to tell as we see panoramic videos of the Arch.

St. Louis (46-39) beat Brewers on the road 5-0. These guys are firing on all cylinders. Pitching was great, hitting both timely and patient. Who would you have as your closer Cubs fans? Ryan Franklin and his 0.83 ERA or the two-headed monster that is Gregg/Marmol?

Milwaukee (43-40) lose to the Cards at home 0-5. I don’t want to say that the wheels are coming off, but when your Bench Coach and Hitting Coach get ejected in consecutive frames it’s not a good sign.

Cubs (41-40) lost to the Braves and Javy Vazquez in a close one 2-1. Have you guys traded Carlos Zambrano yet? You know it’s bad when Vazquez is making it out of the 6th and you’re not.  Tough loss for the Cubs all in all.

Cincinnati (41-41) find their manhood, his name is Brandon Phillips (2 HR, 3 RBIs). Take a 4-3 win over the Phillies, scoring the winning run in the top of the 9th, then letting Francisco Cordero lock it down for his 21st save of the season.

Houston (40-42) lose 3-6 to Houston. Can’t solve the magician Paul Maholm’s nasty stuff.

Pittsburgh (38-46) bounce back and win 6-3 in Houston.  Big 7th inning helps put the ‘Stros away. Jack Wilson has hit over 16% of his career home runs in Houston. I know, fascinating stuff. In other observations, the Pirates should be beating a team with a man named Cecil at the helm, relying on guys named Lance and Hunter.

Division Standings

Team                         GB

St. Louis                    – -

Milwaukee                2.0

Cubs                         3.0

Cincinnati                 3.5

Houston                   4.5

Pittsburgh                7.5

AL CENTRAL – All those people who jumped on the Tigers’ bandwagon slowed them down.

Detroit (44-38) blew it at home in the ninth, losing 3-4 to KC. SI ranks ‘em 4th, Sports Guy and Keith Law basically give them the division. Yet, they’ve lost 3 straight, 5 out of their last 7 series, and if it weren’t for their sweeps of the Brewers and the Cubs they’d be out of 1st Place. Over/under on Tigers re-signing of Todd Jones as their closer? 2.5 weeks.

Minnesota (43-40) slept in on Monday before hosting the Yankees and CC Sabathia Tuesday.

White Sox (42-40) took Monday off before a series at home against Cleveland. Did the Sox sign Aroldis Chapman yet? I’d rather Alexei bring him in than hitting some more of those hanging curveball homers.

Kansas City (36-46) show some heart, winning 4-3 in Detroit. I think Royals fans’ biggest fear is that they trade Soria for more prospects.

Cleveland (33-50) also had the day off, giving Jeremy Sowers that extra day of rest he’ll need before he’s sent to slaughter at the hands of the White Sox.

Division Standings

Team                         GB

Detroit                      – -

Minnesota                1.5

Sox                            2.0

Kansas City              8.0

Cleveland                 11.5

NL Central – This could be the Cubs’ week.

St. Louis (45-39) heading up to Miller Park to beat up on the Brewers. That’s all they need, a rested Albert Pujols. Yikes!

Milwaukee (43-39) will be hosting the Cards for the next 3 games. Get ready for a great matchup between Wainwright and Gallardo.

Cubs (41-39) beat the Braves 4-2 on Monday. Balls are finally bouncing Randy Wells’ way, rattling off his four straight win after starting the season with a deceiving 0-3 record. If the Cubs can do well against the Braves, while Milwaukee and St. Louis beat up on each other, this weekend’s series against the Cards could be for 1st place in the Central leading into the All-Star Break. Take that LaRussa!

Cincinnati (41-40) lost 22-1 in Philly on Monday. This would never have happened under Marge Schott’s watch.

Houston (40-41) beat the Bucs 4-1 in a series that will have much of the U.S. riveted to their tv sets over the next week.

Pittsburgh (37-46) lose 1-4 on the road. GM Neal Huntington is getting lazy with no fire sale trades in the last 48 hours.

Division Standings

Team                         GB

St. Louis                    – -

Milwaukee                1.0

Cubs                         2.0

Cincinnati                 3.5

Houston                   3.5

Pittsburgh                7.5