What an Awful Pitching Staff the MLB is Sending!

I think you'll be surprised. Both Colon and Buehrle are legitimate No. 1 starters, and Ohka, Romero and Wolf are solid as well. Gagne and Lopez will anchor the well-balanced pen nicely. Follow the links for more info.

Miguel Batista, Mark Buehrle, Bartolo Colon, Mike Fetters, Eric Gagne, Brian Lawrence, Rodrigo Lopez, Tomo Ohka, Brad Penny, JC Romero, Scott Schoeneweis, and Randy Wolf.

I agree! Paul Byrd (Royals) had a better year than many of the starters. Playing without Randy Johnson or Curt Schilling is OK. Where are Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Billy Koch, and Eddy Guardado?

To call this pitching staff "wack" (sic) is a poorly informed assessment at best. Buehrle, Colon, Lopez, Ohka, and Wolf are all frontline starters or, in the case of Ohka, an up-and-comer. Lawrence, Penny, and Batista are solid to serviceable, and Gagne and Romero are excellent bullpen guys.

The starters names have all pitched 200+ innings and really, while exposition games against Japanese All-Stars are great I'm sure, the offseason really should be just that in an effort to maximize regular-season performances.

Just because most of these guys aren't instantly name-recognizable doesn't mean they aren't among the best in the world at playing baseball. I believe the MLB pitching staff will fare well against the Japanese All-Stars.

I already admitted to not knowing them, which means I admitted to being less than fully informed.

Answer me this, then, if you would -- how many of the MLB pitchers appeared in, or were selected to, the MLB All-Star team?

And this isn't me simply wanting the MLB to win, I just want to see the best they have to offer. I realize there are just some guys who will never make the trip, and others with obligations that won't allow them to come. But you spend $300 on tickets and you want your money's worth...

And it looks like, based on the replies, that I WAS premature in just writing these guys off. I hope you are right about them.

> Answer me this, then, if you would -- how many of the
> MLB pitchers appeared in, or were selected to, the
> MLB All-Star team?

Only Mark Burhle and Eric Gagne were selected. However Bartolo Colon would've been a lock for the AL if he weren't traded to the Expo's. I also believe that if Tomo Ohka pitched the way he pitched in the 2nd half of the season he could've made the team. Although I'm slightly biased since I'm an Expo fan.

The All-star team isn't the greatest bench mark since it only takes into account half the season and includes fan and manager bias.

I agree MLB is not sending its best pitchers. But I understand why a lot of the star pitchers want to rest their arms after a long season. The wear and tear of a MLB season (especially when you consider many of the best guys also played in the post season) is considerable.

Well that's my 2 cents.

I agree. Colon should be considered as a perennial all-star. The Red Sox gave up on Tomo Ohka too soon also, when they traded him along with Sun Woo Kim (another pitcher who should be very good as well) to the Expos for Cliff Floyd, who probably will leave Boston through free agency anyway. The Sox never gave Ohka a chance to develop in the Majors. I'm not sure if you can consider him an all-star yet but he's developing into a good pitcher so far. Well the Sox traded Curt Shilling at the beginning of his career too...

I wonder why there aren't any Red Sox on the MLB team. Maybe the Sox are fuming at the Tokyo Giants and the Yankees' so called business practices. I'll be surprised if Hideki Matsui comes over and look at other teams before he signs with the Yanks.

> The Red Sox gave up on Tomo Ohka too soon

Actually I heard that Ohka felt that Dick Pole's (Expo's pitching coach) pitching philosophy allowed him to open up his game. So if he had stayed with the Sox, or Pole hadn't come in, he never would have developed the way he did.

> I wonder why there aren't any Red Sox on the MLB
> team.

I think every team can refuse to send its players. Which could also explain the lack of top quality pitching on the MLB team. I don't think many teams want their best pitchers getting injured, many of the top guys are irreplacable. As for why Colon is on the team... I guess the Expos need as much publicity as they can get.

If Floyd doesn't sign with Boston, it's because the Red Sox have lined up someone else. The Boston outfield is relatively full and Floyd doesn't want to play first base, although a new contract might make him reconsider.

Batista is a credible no. 3 starter. Buehrle won 16 or 17 games for a bad team. Colon is an ace - you know that. Fetters, who plays for Arizona, by the way, is one of the better relievers in the league. Gagne was more than a solid closer - he was the best in baseball. Never mind what some morons say about John Smoltz, Lopez is the ROTY pitcher in the AL. Lawrence - average. Penny - good stuff, but young. Romero is a future all-star closer. Schoeneweis is another very good reliever, and Wolf is OK.

There are other guys coming like Byrd, as well.

This isn't as bad as it sounds. Pedro doesn't want to come because there's no way Pedro's going to chance his arm with his injury history on what is essentially a meaningless series. If he's not pitching the ASG, he's not pitching in Japan.

FYI, Buehrle won 19 games for a bad team.

Arghhhhhhh, I know. Why are they sending Miguel Batista... I would send Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Barry Zito and Brad Radke. Though Bortola Colon is pretty awesome, and Tomo Ohka's great.

You'd theoretically want to send your best team, but it's dependent on who feels like showing up.

Some guys do, some guys don't. Some guys have very good reasons to not show up - if Pedro is going to blow out his arm, I'd prefer it'd be with Boston, not in Japan.

It'll be nice to send Manny, A-Rod, and Sosa... Pedro, Randy, and Curt, but they're all coming off a long season and they or their teams have the right to choose if they play or not. Pedro needs to rest his arm. Manny spends his time in the offseason in Miami with his family. Randy and Curt just pitched 260 innings each. They're just some friendly exhibitions games and nothing's at stake. At least, Ichiro's playing... and somebody by the name of Bonds too.

Btw, does anybody know how Ishii is doing? That was truly a horrific injury.

> Btw, does anybody know how Ishii is doing? That was
> truly a horrific injury.

He appeared on one of the local news shows here a couple of weeks ago, but kept his beanie on to hide where he got hit. He had it pulled right down over his eyebrows.

Anyway, at the time he seemed to say (in his drawl) that he's getting better with time.

Man, he speaks slowly, though! During the interview, he said he once inadvertently angered his wife by saying on TV that she wasn't a very good cook, but what really happened was that when the reporter asked him what his wife cooks best, he only got around to saying "salad" or something like that before the TV people ran out of time and cut him off!

Glad to hear that Ishii is doing well. Thanks for that 'salad' story. I found it extremely funny.