As the festivities of the All-Star break continue, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. 2024 All-Star Game:
The 94th MLB All-Star Game is set to take place in Arlington tonight. Hometown manager Bruce Bochy will manage the American League. The National League team will be managed by Arizona manager Torey Lovullo. The NL club will send Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes (1.90 ERA) to the mound to begin the game, while Bochy will counter with Orioles ace Corbin Burnes (2.43 ERA) to represent the AL.
Last year, the NL eked out a 3-2 win over the AL for their first victory in the All-Star Game since 2012, and they’ll look to make it two in a row this evening at 7pm CT. They’ll do so without Fernando Tatis Jr. in the starting lineup, as the Padres star is sidelined by injury and has been replaced by Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez. A similar situation has played out at second base in the AL, where Astros star Jose Altuve has stepped back from the All-Star Game due to a hand injury and ceded his spot in the starting lineup to Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien.
2. Draft Day 3:
Yesterday saw all 30 organizations select a variety of potential future big leaguers in Rounds 3-10 of the MLB draft. The draft will conclude today with Rounds 11-20 starting at 1pm CT. At this point in the draft, most top-tier talents are prep players expected to honor their commitments to play collegiate ball. To have a realistic shot of signing any of them, a club would have to have saved up a considerable portion of their bonus pool from the first two days. Players like right-hander Dax Whitney (committed to Oregon State), outfielder Garrett Shull (an Oklahoma State commit) and shortstop Sawyer Farr (a Texas A&M recruit) are all widely considered to be among the best 50 to 100 talents in this year’s overall draft class but could be tough signs, given bonus pool limitations and strong college commitments.
3. MLBTR Chat Today:
With MLB’s All-Star festivities fully underway and the 2024 draft reaching its final stage, the attention of MLB clubs will soon turn to the coming trade deadline on July 30. If you have any questions about your favorite team’s direction in the coming weeks or a trade idea you have in the back of your mind, MLBTR’s Steve Adams is holding a live chat with readers at 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Have there been any replacements for subs on the teams? I was expecting to see some come through.
Just saw some replacements. No replacement for Betts though? I was expecting Lindor to land that spot.
@horaceallen as far as I know, Finnegan of the Nationals replaces the Cardinals closer Helsly
How did that work? In the past if someone pulled out of the game and they only had the 1 player another member of that team had to be the replacement so every team is represented. Burleson, Winn, or Sonny Gray all could have been selected as a quality replacement.
American League 24 National league 1….Ditka 5-5 5 hrs 20 RBI’s and winning pitcher…
I want what your smoking bro
Rocky Patel Connecticut leaf… now drinking is another story…
gcg – It’s just his way of saying the NL will be blown out because Brasier wasn’t named to the team.
See gcg 27 … FPG gets it…..
A mini Ditka? Or full-size Ditka?
One of Aliquippa’s finest!
If they’re going to make approximately 14 rule changes to the Home Run Derby every year, I propose that they have an anti-Home Run hitter, one in each league (Steven Kwan AL, Alec Bohm was already in it for the NL or perhaps 20 year old Jackson Merrill would have been a better fit), whose home runs count as -1 Home Run for everyone in the league they represent in the first round, or some other convoluted penalty that only 1/3 of the viewers are aware of
In the futures game years back they had place hitting events. Targets in different players that players would have to hit. I remember Patrick Wisdom won it one year while in the Cards system
Viewership for the 1992 Allstar Game was around 22 million. Last year was 7. No one cares anymore.
There were also like 10 channels in 1992. Today we have unless streaming options.
You can also watch the Cornhole League!!
Still the largest viewed all star event compared to the other NA sports. All-star anything is just not what it used to be.
I guess 7 million people cared.
They ruined it by making it a popularity contest. It used to be best v best. If a RS player was starting, it was important. And they diluted it. What is it now, 35 players?
Endless*
Would love a skills competition. Like outfielders throwing out players at the plate. Call me crazy but I vaguely remember this being a thing in the 80s
I remember andre dawson launching a beautiful one hopper into the target at home plate in the last skill competition i watched.
Todd – they did one for the MILB (milb.com/news/red-sox-roman-anthony-wins-all-star-…) during their all-star/futures/whatever event.
I think people generally like the NHL and NFL skills ones, would love to see some MLB guys playing dodgeball
@Joemo I love that idea. Watching MLB pitchers scorching dodgeballs at each other would be awesome.
Todd – I’ve got your back, the catchers throwing accuracy competition was my favorite.
youtube.com/watch?v=dmgg9ZfV-xQ
How about bringing back the Reds’ Farmers Night but for the All Star Game? You get skills competition at events like cow milking!
Can we discuss last night’s attempt at singing the National Anthem?! It really exposed the reality of how most of today’s “singers” are lost without Autotune. Ingrid Andress should’ve taken note of Whitney Houston’s legendary “performance” and mimed the whole thing!
Fergie is still queen of the National Anthem gaffes, though that was a solid attempt to dethrone her.
I’m going to assume there was something else going on more than not having auto tune. Even if it is true that it might get abused too much, these artists still do have true natural talent. No label would have signed her if that’s how she really sounds. She was probably sick or had nerves get to her or something else like that.
Or drunk af
She admitted she was
It was pretty obvious if you watched it.
Don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out
kscheer – I’m guessing she was very nervous, and therefore drank to calm her nerves …. but drank too much.
You know who she’s related to, right?
drunk or nervous? that was an epic fail
Grammy nominated artist nervous to sing the easiest song ever in front of a crowd not there to see her sing?
Yes, I know.
Reading you lay it out like this had me cracking up. You nailed it.
She’s also been Grammy-nominated more than once.
Uh, I guess it depends on what you consider “talent”. If you truly think no label would sign an artist who sounds terrible without studio magic, I have a Milli and a Vanilli to sell you.
Easily the worst thing to happen in America this week!
I feel so bad for her. I’ve been there. Once you can’t find it, your anxiety kicks in and it gets even worse. It’s a hard song, too. If you don’t start out low enough, by the time you get to the end, you’re 2+ keys off.
Whitney is a pretty high bar to set. I don’t know anything about Andress until today but she claimed that she was drunk, has a drinking problem, and is checking into rehab ASAP.
Andress is better than yesterday’s performance:
youtu.be/xEsI71hECNs?si=iG7hc3ANmcTotC-m
Not sure how Whitney set a high bar when she didn’t even sing it at the Super Bowl. Nice recording for sure, but I have more respect for singers who actually sing the song live.
They have auto tune in the mics. If you couldn’t sing drunk or high then no one would have toured in the 80s. No idea who the singer is but most have sung live before in front of crowds. How many sporting events are there each year? That’s a lot of anthem and god bless americas that need sung. I didn’t see it. Might see if I can find it.
Ya gotta know your limits though. A U.S. buddy of mine got pretty big in the 2000s in Europe (go figure). The band got high on some crap before going live on a popular Euro TV show. They all swore that they did their best show ever. The show’s exec producer completely chewed them out and even reached out complaining to their record label. Lol. Perspective.
An entire band trying to play instruments really drunk would stand out. Amazing how many bands were professional drunks druggies. Some of them probably over did it a few times too.
She admitted herself into rehab for being drunk last night.
Sounds like her PR peep worked overtime last night coming up with a solution. Rehab always works to resuscitate a near fatal career misstep, and will give her instant cred with the Nashville crowd. This will be a net gain for her career. And that, my friends, is the world we live in.
Or you could be not cynical and believe her. Admitting to addiction makes her a liability to sponsors and investors. I’ve never knew of her existence until this morning.
$1M on the table for the right answer. Would you guess she needs rehab or guess that it is an excuse?
SKENES !!!!