Bartender Banter: All-Star Selections

Well the All-Star rosters have been released. All in all they're not horrible. I don't have my thoughts organized well enough for a full-fledged article so here are some rambling notes instead.

• OK I can live with Michael Barrett not being a catcher for the NL (People must've thought Mike Piazza still plays for the Mets under the alias Paul Lo Duca), but they could've at least thrown him on the Final Vote ballot. Which leads me to my next point.


• How the H did our favorite White Trash Backstop, A.J. Pierzynski get on the AL Final Vote ballot? The number of talented catchers in both leagues is incredibly lop-sided right now, with the AL greatly tipping the scales. Pudge and Mauer were picked to the AL roster, which no one can really argue, but to have A.J. on the Final Vote ballot while other catchers like Jorge Posada, Kenji Johjima and Victor Martinez are completely snubbed is ridiculous. Ramon Hernandez deserves to be on the Final Vote ballot. A.J. could've been left off for Jason Giambi. Guillen already picked 6 White Sox for the roster, we don't need a 7th.


• Speaking of Ozzie Guillen, he's this year's recipient of the Cito Gaston Memorial "Complete Homer" Award for picking Bobby Jenks to the pitching staff. Wouldn't it be great if it was late in the game and Ozzie opts to put in Jenks over Mo Rivera or the Papelboner?


• Seriously is anyone still arguing that we should keep the rule that requires an All-Star representative from each team? When Mark Redman goes to parties now, will he introduce himself as "2006 All-Star Mark Redman"?


• I can't say for sure, but I'm gonna guess that everyone pretty much has the same response to seeing Gary Matthews' name on the roster. "Wait, is that for real?" I for one, had no idea he was hitting that well this season. This is the same guy who was hitting .200 for the Cubs 5 years ago and was barely hanging on to a backup OF gig. Good for him I guess. I got nothing against the Son of Sarge. He's my early favorite for the Melvin Mora Trophy, which goes to the player whose career unexpectedly blossoms after his 30th birthday.


• After reading all the analysis and watching all the reports, my predicted score for the ASG: American League 24, National League 2.


• Lastly, as people scurry to stuff all the ballots they can for the Final Vote. Thunder Matt's Saloon would like to announce they are endorsing Travis Hafner and Chris Capuano as their Final Vote picks. Hafner should be on this team, no doubt about it, and while Nomar has played good enough that he should probably be in, we here at TMS cannot endorse a known war criminal. Therefore we're going with the Chris "the Cub Killer" Capuano. Chris has gone 4-0 in 5 starts against us dating back to last season. He's struck out 25 in 35.1 innings of work in that span and has posted an ERA just a hair above 2.00. To steal a quote from Wes Mantooth, “I hate you more than anyone else on Earth, Chris Capuano. But damn it, I respect you!”