This is where I insert the “I’m back” Michael Jordan fax, right? I kid, but I am back from a much-needed vacation, and looking forward to talking ball on this sizzling Monday morning in Las Vegas, where we’re smashing daily temperature records like Colten Brewer’s hand into dugout walls. We’ll touch on that. We’re also talking MLB All-Stars, tremendous young talent, and a surprising potential seller at the deadline in today’s MLB Notes.
Paul Skenes Named an MLB All-Star 364 Days After Being Selected No. 1 in the MLB Draft
I mean, the headline says it all. That’s pretty crazy. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Paul Skenes first overall on July 9, 2023. Skenes was named an MLB All-Star on July 7, 2024. Skenes is the first Pirates rookie pitcher ever to be named to an All-Star Game, and the first Pirates rookie to get the nod since Tony Womack in 1997.
I took a break from Twitter while I was on vacation, but I spent a fair amount of time scrolling yesterday before returning today, and I saw someone say that Skenes wasn’t deserving of the All-Star nod (once again proving that Elon’s playground is the wildest place on the internet … and reminding me why I stayed off it for much of my vacation).
Since being promoted in May, Skenes has made 10 Major League starts, going 5-0 with a 2.12 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 59 1/3 innings. The numbers, and just watching him, it’s all over-the-top good. When you’re that good, the “small sample size” argument goes out the window.
Also: I don’t know about you, but I want to be entertained when I watch the All-Star Game. So excluding the most exciting young pitcher in baseball because he spent a month in Triple-A to start the season seems like flawed logic. I’m glad that baseball got this one right despite the nameless Twitter people being mad about it.
Other MLB All-Star Game Roster Thoughts
Skenes is one of 32 first-time all-stars heading to Texas next week, and that’s pretty cool in itself. Yes, thirty-two! And it might grow over the next few days as replacements are named.
Cubs starting pitcher Shōta Imanaga is headinꦅg to Texas as the Cubs’ only representative and deserves his first All-Star Game nod as much as anyone else. He has a 3.16 ERA and 9.10 K/9 in 16 starts for the Cubs and has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise torturous season for Cubs fans.
Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr., Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, Oakland’s Mason Miller, and San Diego’s Jackson Merrill are also among the first-timers heading to the mid-summer classic next week, and all of those names come with exciting skillsets that are perfect for the game’s exhibition of star power.
While some names were left off the list th🧸at I feel should have been included, I think the fans and Major League Baseball got a lot right this time.
But Of Course, I Hate the Uniforms!
Are these the worst All-Star Game threads that Nike𝓰 and MLB have concocted? Far from it. Do I still hate them? Undoubtedly.
Before I continue, here they are iᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn all 🔯of their ugliness:
Like I said, they’re not the worst rendition, but they still suck. They’re giving off big-time 16-inch beer league softball vibes, and I genuinely wish Major League Baseball would write their wrong and return to the traditional team jersey look for the actual game.
I know why they haven’t (and probably won’t): they can sell these. But they can still produce these, have the players wear them during the home run derby, media events, and even batting practice the day of the game, sell them, make their money, and make everyone happy by having players wear their team’s jersey and cap in the actual game.
Perhaps I’m having an old man yelling at clouds moment here, but I tend to think that at 34, I’m not that old despite what my knees tell me, and I think I’m in the majority here with this line of thinking.
Colten Brewer Learned a Painful Lesson
Do not punch hard, inanimate objects seems like a no-brainer rule, but sometimes our emotions g🍌et the best of us. That was the case for Cubs relieve൩r Colten Brewer over the weekend. Brewer lost a bout with a brick wall in the Wrigley Field dugout and will most of the rest of the season (if not all) with a broken hand.
“Emotions🌌 get the best of us at times,” , already placed on the 60-day injured list. “Letting my family down, and friends, teammates, the people of Wrigleyville, it’s just kind of heartbreaking to me right now.”
Stupid? Surely. But I bring this up today not because it’s breaking news—Brett has already covered it here—but to remind us that we’re all human, and sometimes we do things that we regret. When I saw the news this weekend, I immediately recalled a travel ball tournament that I was coaching in Cincinnati a handful of years ago when my younger brother, who had a college scholarship already in hand, decided to take on the dugout wall, which prompted a trip to a Cincinnati hospital and him nearly losing his scholarship.
It happens. I’m not excusing it, but if it weren’t the latest installment in the Cubs’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season, it probably wouldn’t be anything more than a wild life lesson for anyone paying attention. These things happen, and it’s a sad day for Brewer.
A Surprise Seller at the MLB Trade Deadline?
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote this morning that the Texas Rangers, who are only six games under .500 entering play today, .
“Shocking as it might be for a defending World Series champion to sell at the trade deadline, the strategy would not be unprecedented. And if the Texas Rangers sell, they could go even further than the last champion to reboot, the 2014 Boston Red Sox.
The Rangers (42-48) have yet to determine their course. After sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays and winning five of their past seven, perhaps they are about to go on a long-awaited run. But they remain 7 1/2 games back in the race for the third American League wild card, and their playoff odds are hovering around 10 percent. Their front office is doing what every responsible front office does at this time of year — planning for buy and sell contingencies.”
Rosenthal dives deeper into the Rangers’ potential sell-off and touches on other MLB trade deadline topics, such as the Orioles rotation needs, the Cardinals, Braves, and more in his latest column.
