JV to start for AL Tuesday night

**guy incognito** · 07-09-2012, 04:14 AM

Report: Verlander to start All-Star Game for AL | MLB.com: News

Congrats to Justin.

**mckibbka** · 07-09-2012, 04:18 AM

Well deserved.

**roarintiger1** · 07-09-2012, 07:26 AM

Get that contract extended....please.

**John_Brian_K** · 07-09-2012, 09:33 AM

Well deserved and no shock. If someone else would have started that would have been a shock. It was all set up nicely. Noway you have the reigning MVP/Cy Young winner, who is having a great year and had not pitched recently not start that game.

**JustinCylander** · 07-09-2012, 10:23 AM

looks like Cain is starting for the NL, I was hoping to see Verlander vs Dickey, talk about contrasting styles...

**jackson_cannery** · 07-09-2012, 11:08 AM

This is great for JV, and makes the Tigers look good. But I hate the idea of our franchise player tacking extra innings onto his arm, and risking injury for an exhibition game.

**jonjd** · 07-09-2012, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by jackson_cannery

This is great for JV, and makes the Tigers look good. But I hate the idea of our franchise player tacking extra innings onto his arm, and risking injury for an exhibition game.

Exhibition? He will be helping us earn home field in the WS. It worked well in '06.

On second thought, you're right. At least it's just a cool 2 innings or so.

**tiger337** · 07-09-2012, 11:15 AM

Congratulations to Verlander. I still hate the all-star break. Four days in the middle of the summer with no real baseball.

**Antrat** · 07-09-2012, 11:18 AM

Hopefully JV doesn't go crazy and throw 102 every pitch.
No arm injuries!

**pyrotigers** · 07-09-2012, 11:41 AM

I was going to argue that Verlander doesn't really deserve it just to annoy everyone, but Cain starting over Dickey is such a bigger travesty that I can't muster up the outrage

**Gehringer_2** · 07-09-2012, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by JustinCylander

looks like Cain is starting for the NL, I was hoping to see Verlander vs Dickey, talk about contrasting styles...

I wonder how JV will decide to pitch knowing he is only going a couple of innings - will he come out 'easy' like he ususally does this year or is he going to want to show off the fastball from the top? Not too wild about him doing the latter since by now he has to be a little out of practice at throwing very hard early in his outings.

**DTroppens** · 07-09-2012, 11:53 AM

Congrats to Justin, but I'd rather always not have them pitch.

But if there was a starting pitcher over the years for the Tigers pitching in the All-Star game, it would be Verlander.

**Oblong** · 07-09-2012, 12:11 PM

Saw on twitter via ESPN that Verlander is the 7th different Tiger to start the ASG and Cain is the 7th different Giant to start the ASG.

So I decided to look it up:

Verlander
Rogers 2006
Morris 1981, 1985
Fidrych 1976
McLain 1966
Bunning 1957, 1961,1962
Newhouser 1947

Lefty Gomez started 5 of the first 6, wiith Lefty Gove starting the other.

Last HOF to start an ASG? Dennis Eckersley.

**tigerbomb13** · 07-09-2012, 12:16 PM

I'd totally forgotten that Rogers started that game.

**Sports_Freak** · 07-09-2012, 12:53 PM

Complete game shutout?

**ben9753** · 07-09-2012, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by tigerbomb13

I'd totally forgotten that Rogers started that game.

It was the Tigers battery! Rogers to Pudge.

**tiger337** · 07-09-2012, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by pyrotigers

I was going to argue that Verlander doesn't really deserve it just to annoy everyone, but Cain starting over Dickey is such a bigger travesty that I can't muster up the outrage

Is there a rule that says all-star game selections must be based on the past three months? If that's the case, then what a player does in the second half of seasons does not count towards any all-star games. That doesn't seem right to me.

**Gehringer_2** · 07-09-2012, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by tiger337

Is there a rule that says all-star game selections must be based on the past three months? If that's the case, then what a player does in the second half of seasons does not count towards any all-star games. That doesn't seem right to me.

I agree, but that seems to be the way it is going, and even the players seem to see it that way. In JV's last post game he said that he didn't think he should automatically be the ASG starter as the MVP was last year and the ASG was for this year and so far other guys had done as well was he had.

The way it works now some "all-star" selections flame out and end up having mediocre years but still make the ASG - which is poor. One solution would be to vote the team at the end of the season and just play it mid-season as the break, but the marketing wouldn't work as well and since dollars drive everything today, us old curmudgeons will just have to live with it.

**Yoda** · 07-09-2012, 03:43 PM

The all-star game is for current stars. If you were so great last year that you're still a star no matter what you've done this year, awesome. And I get why those players are sometimes voted in. Those are the exceptions to the rule, though. For the most part, it's about who is hot right now. Should Harper and Trout not be in it because they didn't play in the 2nd half last year?

**Gehringer_2** · 07-09-2012, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Yoda

The all-star game is for current stars. If you were so great last year that you're still a star no matter what you've done this year, awesome. And I get why those players are sometimes voted in. Those are the exceptions to the rule, though. For the most part, it's about who is hot right now. Should Harper and Trout not be in it because they didn't play in the 2nd half last year?

Put voting at the end of a seaon, and if Harper and Trout turn out to sustain their play, they wpuld be voted in for next yrs game. But if a pitcher goes on a streak, wins 10 at the break, is named an all-star but finishes down in the pack among his leagues starters at the end of the season after 'regressing to his mean' what kind of all-star is he really? Or closer to home, if Ryan Raburn had had his hot streaks at the beginnings of seasons instead of the ends, would that make him an 'all-star' calibre player? It certainly might have gotten him voted in under the current scheme.

I'm not gong to crusade on the topic or anything, but in professional sports in general, its not so much flashes of brilliance that are valuable but sustained performance, so I just don't see that 1/2 a good season should really count as much of an accomplishment for a pro. Plus you have the basic unfairness that if a guy is great from July to Oct he is just a valuable but can't get the same level of consideration as the guy who has a great April/May/June.

**Just Some Dude** · 07-09-2012, 04:09 PM

Ron Washington simply picked the best pitcher to start for the AL team. He's a smart guy and knows no one is better.

**Yoda** · 07-09-2012, 04:17 PM

Meh... I want to see players that are playing good this year, not just ones that were good last year. I definitely see your point but there are faults with that way too. It should be about current stars. It adds a lot more to the game, IMO.

**Gehringer_2** · 07-09-2012, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Yoda

Meh... I want to see players that are playing good this year, not just ones that were good last year. I definitely see your point but there are faults with that way too. It should be about current stars. It adds a lot more to the game, IMO....

I cannot argue that you do not represent the majority on the subject.

**mr0zip0** · 07-09-2012, 04:32 PM

Tony LaRussa has said that the main reason R.A. Dickey is not starting is because Buster Posey has never caught a knuckleball in his life.

Carlos Ruiz, the backup catcher for the NL, felt much more comfortable catching him.

**Detroit Rock City** · 07-09-2012, 05:32 PM

Great for JV to be starting the game. Really wish LaRussa wasn't being a dick and started Dickey but oh well. Be just as nice when they bring him in and Miggy blasts a knuckler into the fountain somewhere.

**PuNk42AE** · 07-09-2012, 05:40 PM

LaRussa wasn't being a dick, the Giants were.

**Sports_Freak** · 07-10-2012, 11:50 AM

Chances are, the game will be decided by the reserves and not the starters. This is where the game is won or lost, on the players picked but not voted in by a popularity contest.
I hope Miggy hits a 3 run bomb to win it in the 7th inning and gets the MVP of the game!

**tiger337** · 07-10-2012, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Yoda

The all-star game is for current stars. If you were so great last year that you're still a star no matter what you've done this year, awesome. And I get why those players are sometimes voted in. Those are the exceptions to the rule, though. For the most part, it's about who is hot right now. Should Harper and Trout not be in it because they didn't play in the 2nd half last year?

Three months does not make someone a star. The voting starts in May, so it's actually a lot less than three months which is silly. I think it should be a combination of what they are doing this year plus past results. I might base it on what players have done between the last all-star game and now.

I don't think it would have been good for Boesch to be in the all star game in 2010 just because he got off to a good start. He's not an all star caliber player.

**tiger337** · 07-10-2012, 11:59 AM

I did not watch any of the home run derby last night. It's nice that a Tiger won I guess but it's really the same thing every year and it lasts too long. So, I had no interest this year. I will watch the all star game tonight, because it's something I've done every year since I was a kid. I don't care what happens though.

It used to be fun to watch the game before inter-eague play and before cable TV. The allstar game was a chance to see players you didn't normally see. Now, it's just a meaningless exhibition game to me.

**Mr. Bigglesworth** · 07-10-2012, 12:06 PM

**tiger337** · 07-10-2012, 12:27 PM

Don't stop with the kids. Keep the old people off my lawn too!

**JustinCylander** · 07-10-2012, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by tiger337

I did not watch any of the home run derby last night. It's nice that a Tiger won I guess but it's really the same thing every year and it lasts too long. So, I had no interest this year. I will watch the all star game tonight, because it's something I've done every year since I was a kid. I don't care what happens though.

It used to be fun to watch the game before inter-eague play and before cable TV. The allstar game was a chance to see players you didn't normally see. Now, it's just a meaningless exhibition game to me.

Agreed. The fact that HFA in the WS depends on a game like this is a joke.

**Oblong** · 07-10-2012, 01:36 PM

I don't think it's any more of a joke than simply alternating years as they did in the past.

**Mr. Bigglesworth** · 07-10-2012, 01:41 PM

If I were running the show, I would award home field advantage based on which league has the better aggregate record in inter-league play.

**Shelton** · 07-10-2012, 02:02 PM

I'd just award it to the team that is not a wild card. Then to the team with the better overall record. If the same, use head to head results. If still tied, award it to league that was better in interleague play. After that, the result of the all star game. Then a coin flip.