I believe Lilly was taken because he pitches from the left side. And I am glad Roy gets the days off.

Perhaps blue jays management told Torre they didn't want Halladay pitching because of the recent shoulder soreness. They preffered he get a few days off. Since he couldn't use Halladay Torre chose Lilly.

Lilly had to be Tosca's work. Isn't it part of the all-star managers duties to help with the rosters?

What are they going to do with 12 pitchers in the game?

How would the rosters look if you had one player, and one player only, from each team for a 30-man roster? Crazy idea?

Now to totally descredit that suggestion: Matsui is my extra man. Matsui's rock solid and has great at-bats in big games.

Does Tosca being selected to the all-star squad needlessly secure his job for a few extra months?

my math doesn't work out on that 30-man roster! But you get my drift...

Anybody watching Sunday Night Baseball?

What the hell is Joe Morgan talking about? That bunt wasn't a sacrifice, only because he said moments before that he doesn't think Lee should sacrifice? Morgan will say anything to make himself sound good. You need to suspend your disbelief. I think J.Miller knows Morgan is full of it.

Joe Morgan has to know *everything*.

Say what you want about Tosca, and many of you have, but the guy has gone out of his way ever since taking over as manager to make sure Halladay is healthy for the long run. I have no doubt this is Tosca's doing, no manager takes Lilly over Halladay.

Regardless, congrats to Ted Lilly.

I'm not criticizing Tosca's selection. I was just saying it was HIS selection. And, yes, he has handled Halladay well. I wish he treat all the "regulars" as well. The way Tosca has handled Woodward would be like doing this to Halladay:

Halladay comes back from injury, has a couple shaky starts, and then there would be talk of moving Halladay to the bullpen, and replacing him with Jason Kershner who had a nice start (imaginary) while Halladay was on the DL.

I don't like the way Woodward's somehow lost his job to Frank Menechino, but that comparison doesn't wash. Halladay's a Cy Young winner, Woody's a career .251 hitter, who's basically the careholder of the SS position until someone better comes along. Since he got back from his injury, he's played 13, sat 9. Looking at his game logs, I'd say that he's not been at 100%, and Tosca sat him at the beginning of this road-trip to see if he'd recover more. Before that point, he'd more or less been playing every day.

Looking at his season, he had a week (April 24 - 29) where he boosted his average by 100 points, but since then (and his injury), he hasn't done much.

Some people think an all-star team should be made up of first-half producers. Others think a track record should count, this season be damned. More still think the answer lies somewhere in between. And 424,160 (or 17,000 zealots) think Enrique Wilson is an all-star. He was 5th in AL 2B voting; O-Dog didn't make the top 8.

I think Joe Kennedy was the biggest snub. He has a 3.95 ERA while pitching at Coors Field; give him some love.

Instead, Jack McKeon went with the easy pick for the Rockies, Todd Helton, who is having a good season but is still the most over-rated player in baseball. I could hit .200 in Coors Field just by putting my hands behind my back and swinging away with my cock.

I think Helton is one of the most underrated players in baseball. No matter how good a hitter he is, people automatically assume he's not that great, due to Coors. Helton has been one of the game's premier hitters for years.

I agree. Helton is a much superior hitter than some of his Coors predecessors like Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and the rest. His road numbers are very respectable.

Here are Helton's career road BA/OBP/SLG compared with some active (arguably) HOF-caliber 1B's:

Helton: 297/388/527
Bagwell: 293/401/529
Thomas: 303/421/527
Palmeiro: 290/365/502
Giambi: 292/402/538
Thome: 278/403/537

Not bad, huh? Better than Palmeiro (500-HR club member) and pretty comparable to those other great 1B's. Sometimes, when you take 5 minutes to check your facts, you find your assumptions are completely false.

MLB needs to get rid of the one player per team rule ..... to be honest you can make a strong case none of the Jays deserve to go. And even within the own pitching staff, Doc and Batista have had better season than Lilly .... remember .... THIS TIME IT COUNTS!!!!

My guess is the Jays will save on bonus money with Lilly going.

Overbay got the biggest shaft by not even being on the fan ballot. Drew/Ramirez gets the 2nd biggest shaft.

I thought Carlos was 2nd in 1st base voting anyways, wasn't he? Doesn't that mean he gets to go as a back-up?

Carlos finished 3rd in voting for 1B.

Only the starters are selected by the fans.

Carlos was 3rd (Big Hurt). Only first place finishers are guaranteed a spot, back-ups are decided by players, coaches and the AS manager in conjunction with MLB.

Answer's my question :)

So, who do you guys feel isnt the biggest joke of a selection who is going to be in attendence? I say Giambi, the gimp's not even hitting all that well.

I think that Giambi signing could look like one of the worst ever in a few years. Considering the nature of his injuries the past few seasons, .900 may be where his OPS maxes out from now on, with a full-on decline in the cards as well.
Of course, if Bartolo Colon's ERA stays in the 6's, that will easily be the worst signing ever.

There are way more bad signings than Giambi....

didn't Dreifort sign a long term deal for 10+mil a season a few years back?

Doesn't Jeter, Hampton, and Bernie Williams make 16+ mil a season?

Or how about Chan Ho Park.....

Sure Roy's not showing Cy Young stuff, but Lilly isn't even the best starter on the staff this year. Batista leads the club in VORP and SNWL.

Grant Hill is one of the worst signgings in all of sports .... Kemp also has to get consideration .. when he was playing with the Cavs and Blazers i think he was getting paid around 17 mil a year ... looks like 10 mil of it went to food, and the other 7 mil was for child payments considering he has like 20 children from 17 different women

Sure Roy's not showing Cy Young stuff, but Lilly isn't even the best starter on the staff this year. Batista leads the club in VORP and SNWL.

Yeah, Batista's pitched better than Lilly and logged more innings. I guess Torre wanted a lefty starter. Although he's already got Mulder and Sabathia, and could have taken Eddie Gaurdado.

I was hoping Hudson would be the lone Jays pick, he's the best defender in the game, and he's got a better OPS than Belliard, Uribe, and Soriano. Since the Indians already have two picks, Victor Martinez and Sabathia, Torre could have left Belliard off and grabbed Hudson instead and then given Lilly's spot to Gaurdado or Pedro.

J.D. Drew got jobbed twice; not only did he not get picked (Moises Alou?!) he's not even on the extra man ballot. Why? Next to Bonds he's been the best OF in the NL this year. Plus he can play some CF, and right now the only CF the NL has is Griffey and he's come up a little limp lately.

There's still half the season to go but Hudson looks like he should be signed to a multi year extension in acknowledgement of his value to the team. Hill and Adams should battle it out for short because I think the Jays have their pivot man all set for a few years.

Menechino is an interesting case. Right now he's hitting well enough to play everyday. I don't think he should be playing short very often but he should be a very versatile player who can give some platoon relief at second, short, and third and I'm guessing the young players there can use it once in a while.

Everyone talking about Batista and Halladay not making it how about showing some love to Jason Frasor. This guy should be an all star and maybe ROY.

I like Jason a lot but he hasn't been pitching a lot and he has only 9 "decisions" under his belt as a closer. Rookie relief pitchers rarely make the All-Star squad though if he keeps up this performance he may have a shot at ROY.

Worst omission : easily, easily, Bobby Abreu. Abreu is head and shoulders above all the other NL outfielders (except of course for Bonds). And he has never made an All-Star Team through his brilliant career.

NL Outfielders by VORP

Bonds, 68.9 **
Abreu, 46.3
Drew, 41.6
Berkman, 37.5 *
Dunn, 34.5
Beltran, 33.1 *
Cabrera, 31.7 *
Edmonds, 29.6
Wilson, 29.2
Finley, 28.5
Biggio, 25.0
Giles, 24.0
Gonzalez, 22.5
Alou, 21.3 *
Griffey, 21.2 **
Burrell, 20.1
Bautista, 20.0
Bradley, 18.9
Grissom, 18.3
Patterson, 18.0
Sosa, 17.8 **

(* = chosen as reserve, ** = chosen as starter)

What does a guy have to do to get picked? I mean, Beltran hasn't been as good as Abreu this year and has hardly played in the NL; Alou's selection is just a bad joke. Were it not for Bonds, I think Abreu is the MVP right now (by a hair over Scott Rolen).

Abreu's on-pace-for stats :

.304 BA
.444 OBP
.576 SLG
45 Doubles
35 Homers
140 Walks
35 Stolen Bases in 37 Attempts
133 Runs Scored
113 RBI
16 Assists (2 errors)

He's a fine rightfielder. He's getting jobbed, and it wouldn't be at all noteworthy if it weren't happening AGAIN, for the sixth straight year...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=list/worstallstars
ESPN's Page 2 outlines the 10 worst All-Star selections in history. I'll list them here but COMN for a description of Jeff Merron's case for each player.

10. Frankie Zak, Pirates (1944)
9. Jay Howell, A's (1987)
8. Tyler Green, Phillies (1995)
7. Eddie Smith, White Sox (1942)
6. Ellie Rodriguez, Royals (1969)
5. Roger Pavlik, Rangers (1996)
4. Scott Cooper, Red Sox (1993 and 1994)
3. Alfredo Griffin, Blue Jays (1984)
2. Billy Hunter, Browns (1953)
1. Mike Williams, Pirates (2003)

Ah, so that's what was up with Alfredo's selection.