Wednesday- All Stars shine

Some things to read while getting punished.

Four Milwaukee Brewers players combined for four hits, scored a run, drove in two more and pitched a scoreless inning, but it was not enough on Tuesday as the American League defeated the National League 5-3 in the 2014 MLB All-Star Game. Noah Jarosh of Brew Crew Ball has a recap, if you missed it.

Jonathan Lucroy had two of those hits, both doubles, and drove in a pair of runs. He was only the third player in All-Star Game history to record two doubles and two RBIs in the contest, joining Paul Konerko in 2002 and Albert Pujols in 2004 (h/t @ESPNStatsInfo). He’s also the only Brewer to collect two All-Star Game doubles in a career, much less in a single game. Jim Owczarski of OnMilwaukee.com is the latest to discuss Lucroy’s rise onto the national scene.

One of Lucroy’s RBIs came in the fourth inning, when he doubled home Dodgers speedster Dee Gordon. MLB’s new StatCast system showed that Gordon reached a top speed of 20.9 miles per hour while racing around the bases. The run tied the game at 3-all.

Aramis Ramirez also had two hits, including a double, and came around to score on Phillies second baseman Chase Utley’s double in the second inning. He also made a nice barehanded play on a roller up the third-base line that drew the attention of both MLB.com scout Bernie Pleskoff and longtime baseball analyst Will Carroll. Ramirez and Lucroy are two of just five players with two career All-Star Game hits as a Brewer. Robin Yount never had one, and David Schoenfield of ESPN has a reminder that the greatest Brewer of all time made just three appearances in the game.

Francisco Rodriguez also did his part, working around a walk to pitch a scoreless sixth inning. He was able to pitch a clean frame despite the fact that just four of his 12 pitches were strikes. This was the fifth All-Star Game appearance of his career, and he’s never allowed a hit in one. All told, Ramirez and Rodriguez acquitted themselves pretty well after being singled out as guys Hot Corner Harbor would have left off the team.

Carlos Gomez was the only Brewer to struggle in the game, going 0-for-2 with a strikeout and some wild swings out of the No. 9 spot in the lineup. Gomez did make some nice plays in left field, though, despite not having started a game out there since 2007.

All told, 61 players appeared in the 2014 All Star Game, and Jim Caple of ESPN made an effort to rank all of them. He has Lucroy fourth, Ramirez eighth, K-Rod 24th and Gomez 51st. Howie Magner summed the night up well in our Tweet of the Day:

So appears #Brewers scored 33% of NL runs, delivered 50% of NL hits, 66% of NL RBis, & allowed none of AL’s runs.

— Howie Magner (@howiemag) July 16, 2014

Mark your calendar today to meet Green Bay Packer John Kuhn at Legends of the Field’s Delafield location on Thursday, July 22, from 6-7 p.m. Click here for more information on this and other upcoming events.
 
Meanwhile, Cardinals pitchers allowed all five American League runs, and one of them drew criticism for affecting the competitiveness of the game. Adam Wainwright, who was a somewhat controversial choice to start the game over Clayton Kershaw, allowed a double to Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and later called the pitch a “pipe shot” to lead off Jeter’s final All-Star appearance. Wainwright was widely called out for both grooving a pitch to Jeter and admitting to doing so intentionally, and later backpedaled from those comments. Either way, Jeter thanked him for the gesture.

With the All-Star Game out of the way, our focus shifts back to regular-season games resuming on Friday. The Brewers stumbled into the gate with a 2-10 start to the month of July, but the team’s All-Star representatives all told Adam McCalvy they can turn things around in the second half.

For what it’s worth, Ben Tannenbaum of The Brewers Bar appears to agree. He says, “Brewers fans have reason to believe that the skid was nothing more than a fluke.”

One of the Brewers’ biggest lingering questions heading into the second half is the status of Jean Segura, who remains away from the team after the death of his 9-month old son Janniel on Friday. Janniel’s funeral was on Monday in the Dominican Republic, and there’s no timetable at this point for Jean to rejoin the team. The Brewers have told Segura to take all the time he needs.

Meanwhile, one 2014 All-Star can uniquely relate to what Segura is going through. Cardinals reliever Pat Neshek and his wife lost their son after just one day in October of 2012, and Tom Haudricourt talked to him about the experience.

The other storyline likely to continue for the next two weeks is the buildup to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. I think it’s safe to assume Carlos Gomez isn’t going anywhere over that time, but Dave Cameron of FanGraphs listed him 33rd in his annual ranking of players with the game’s most trade value.

Marco Estrada will open the second half in his new long-relief role after being bumped from the starting rotation in favor of Jimmy Nelson last week. Andrew Gruman of FS Wisconsin talked to Estrada about the transition, and the veteran pitcher is saying all the right things about it.

In the minors:

• Sam Peterson of Miller Park Prospects has a scouting report on Brevard County outfielder Victor Roache, and says “his power bat can compensate for many of his other shortcomings if he can make more consistent contact.”
• Jay D of Reviewing the Brew also has an update on Roache, who was their No. 5 prospect in the Brewers organization before the season.
• The Brewers’ U.S.-based affiliates were all off on Tuesday for the MLB All-Star Game.

If you’d like more Brewers (and/or Wisconsin sports) coverage today but you’re sick of reading, four interviews from my Tuesday spot as guest host of The Home Stretch on 95.3 WSCO in Appleton have been archived. Follow these links to hear my interviews with Mike Bates of SB Nation, Frank Madden of Brew Hoop, JP Cadorin of Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and Christina Kahrl of ESPN.

Around baseball:

Mariners: Released catcher John Buck.
Reds: Signed pitcher Scott Diamond to a minor league deal.
Yankees: Released outfielder Alfonso Soriano.

Meanwhile, it’s possible the moments that will have the most lasting impact from All-Star week both happened off the field yesterday. As part of his annual meeting with reporters at the All-Star Game, outgoing Commissioner Bud Selig announced his intention to work with the Players Association to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of smokeless tobacco in baseball, and appointed former MLB outfielder Billy Bean (not to be confused with Oakland general manager Billy Beane) as a consultant to help the sport achieve greater inclusion and equality.

With Minnesota’s All-Star Game in the books, attention can now shift to Cincinnati. Great American Ball Park will host the 2015 Midsummer Classic, the fifth time the game has been played in the city but the first since 1988. Hopefully, Cincinnati will give the national media something new to complain about, so they can stop talking about Target Field being too small.

It remains to be seen if Reds pitcher Alfredo Simon will represent Cincinnati as an All-Star again when the game moves to his home park next season. Steven Silverman of Beyond the Box Score crunched the numbers to show that Simon, who has 12 wins and a 2.70 ERA in his first season as a full-time starter, has shown more luck than skill.

The All-Star Game falls just a few short weeks before the annual non-waiver trade deadline, which can create some awkward moments. Bryan Kilpatrick of SB Nation documented the scene as pitcher Jeff Samardzija, named to the NL All Star team as a Cub but later traded to the A’s, had what he’s calling the “most uncomfortable individual All-Star Game introduction ever.”

Today in former Brewers: Zack Greinke told Tom Haudricourt he’s glad to see his old teammates doing well in Milwaukee.