Schilling's ASG Snub

Curt Schilling should make the All-Star team based on his reputation or becaue his ankle finally healed enough? Is John Tomase serious?

Now that a day passed, it's abundantly clear that Curt Schilling got screwed.

There's no excuse for leaving Schilling off the American League All-Star squad given his stature, his remarkable comeback from a career-threatening ankle injury and the fact he's the ace of maybe baseball's best team.

Tomase calls Ozzie Guillen's selection of Mark Buehrle over Schilling "inexcusable". It's the wrong choice, that's for sure -- but that's Ozzie's perogative.

    IP    H  BB   K  ERA  AVG  OBP  SLG
CS 114.1 110 14 102 3.54 .253 .277 .423
MB 116.2 125 28  51 3.86 .275 .318 .434

AL Rankings:

       CS   MB
ERA    13   20
WHIP    5   22
K/BB    1   36
AVG    21   31
OBP     5   22
SLG    29   35
OPS    16*  30

(*: Tim Wakefield is 8th.)

Schilling's superior control and high number of strikeouts account for the huge difference in some of those categories. Looking at everything else, I'd find it hard to call the choice "inexcusable". But the odd thing is that Tomase offered exactly zero evidence to back up his argument against Guillen's choice. In fact, the only pitching stat in the entire article is Kansas City's Mark Redman's ERA.

(By the way, has anyone in Chicago tasted "The Effen Ozzie GuillenTini" at the Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club? The drink -- assorted fresh fruits and vodka -- is served with a complimentary copy of the Sun-Times sports section.)

And speaking of Redman, Jayson Stark says it's

Time to abolish the dumbest rule in baseball: The one that says every team deserves its own All-Star. ... We have to have our standards, don't we? ... Of the 52 pitchers in the American League who have pitched as many innings as Redman has (74), just eight have higher ERAs than he does (5.59). ...

And in the last 12 calendar months (starting last August), Mark Redman has won a game -- any game -- in exactly one of them. (That would be last month, when he ripped off five straight wins -- after going 17 starts in a row with zero wins.)

Obviously, the Royals played games that count in only six of those 12 months (and that includes this month), but it's still pretty bad.

In those other starts, Redman was blown out in a few of them and pitched poorly in many more. And his team can't hit (they are slugging .398). But there were some good outings in there -- such as May 7 against the White Sox (7-6-2-1-6). Anyway, why focus on wins and losses anyway? This isn't the 1870s.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon would agree. He studied at data showing where David Ortiz hits the ball and positioned his fielders accordingly. "It's the age of information. It's no longer the Industrial Revolution. With information available, why even subscribe to this stuff if you're not going to use it." Ortiz is 9-for-42 (.214) against the Devil Rays this year.

Before striking out in the seventh inning last night, Mike Lowell had gone 47 plate appearances without a whiff (since June 19). ... Kevin Youkilis is the sixth Red Sox player to hit at least four leadoff homers in one season, joining Nomar Garciaparra (five, 1997), Dwight Evans (five, 1985), Mike Andrews (four, 1970), Tommy Harper (four, 1972-73), Bernie Carbo (four, 1975) and Ellis Burks (four, 1987).

Wily Mo Pena played center field and went 1-for-3 with an RBI, two runs and two walks in Pawtucket's 8-7 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. ... If all goes well with Matt Clement's Gulf Coast League outing today, he'll pitch for Portland on Sunday. ... The Red Sox reached 50 wins in 79 games or fewer for the 9th time in 106 seasons, and the first time since 1986 (51-28).