2014 MLB All-Star Game Rosters Unvieled

The American League and National League rosters for the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star game, set to be held up at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 15th (you can watch it on FOX at 8:00 Eastern) were released on Sunday evening.

As always, the baseball world is hard at work discussing the rosters, debating over which players were snubbed from the teams of 34, which players didn’t necessarily (in their eyes) deserve to make the cut, and (most importantly) which team they think will win. But that comes with each and every year.

Before I give my take on the matter, here are the official All-Star rosters:

American League

Starters

C: Salvador Perez

1B: Miguel Cabrera

2B: Robinson Cano

SS: Derek Jeter

3B: Josh Donaldson

OF: Jose Bautista, Mike Trout, Adam Jones

DH: Nelson Cruz

Pitchers

RHP: Dellin Betances

LHP: Mark Buehrle

RHP: Yu Darvish

LHP: Sean Doolittle

RHP: Felix Hernandez

RHP: Greg Holland

LHP: Scott Kazmir

LHP: Jon Lester

LHP: Glen Perkins

LHP: David Price

RHP: Max Scherzer

RHP: Masahiro Tanaka

Reserves

C: Derek Norris, Salvador Perez, Kurt Suzuki

1B: Jose Abreu, Brandon Moss

2B: Jose Altuve

SS: Alexei Ramirez

3B: Adrian Beltre

OF: Michael Brantley, Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Gordon

DH: Edwin Encarnacion, Victor Martinez

National League

Starters

C: Yadier Molina

1B: Paul Goldschmidt

2B: Chase Utley

SS: Troy Tulowitzki

3B: Aramis Ramirez

OF: Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Gomez, Yasiel Puig

Pitchers

LHP: Madison Bumgarner

LHP: Aroldis Chapman

RHP: Johnny Cueto

RHP: Zack Greinke

LHP: Clayton Kershaw

RHP: Craig Kimbrel

RHP: Pat Neshek

RHP: Francisco Rodriguez

RHP: Tyson Ross

RHP: Jeff Samardzija

RHP: Julio Teheran

RHP: Adam Wainwright

LHP: Tony Watson

RHP: Jordan Zimmermann

Reserves

C: Jonathan Lucroy, Devin Mesoraco

1B: Freddie Freeman

2B: Dee Gordon, Daniel Murphy

SS: Starlin Castro

3B: Matt Carpenter, Todd Frazier

OF: Charlie Blackmon, Josh Harrison, Hunter Pence, Giancarlo Stanton

While both rosters have their share of superstar players, as well as young first time standouts, I have to go with the National League as far as a prediction of who will win the mid-summer classic. Overall, I feel their starting lineup, as well as pitching staff and reserve players, is a touch stronger than that of the American League, and that should inevitable gain them the victory — and, subsequently, home field advantage for the World Series.

FINAL VOTE

But the rosters aren’t completely finished just yet. There is still one spot left for each league, and the fans get to decide who gets the final spot.

For the American League, the final vote candidates are Dallas Keuchel, Corey Kluber, Rick Porcello, Garrett Richards and Chris Sale. Of the five, I voted for Chris Sale, as he’s consistently been one of the most dominating pitchers over the course of the past few seasons. For the National League side of things, the final vote candidates are Casey McGehee, Justin Morneau, Anthony Rendon, Anthony Rizzo and Justin Upton. Though a strong group, I went with Casey McGehee, as despite very little display of power, he’s been a driving force in the Marlins’ great season thus far.

(You have until Thursday, July 10th, at 4:00 p.m. to vote.)

Scherzer and Kershaw Win Cy Young Award

The Cy Young award, named after the Hall of Fame pitcher who died in 1955, was first handed out in 1956 with the goal of recognizing the “most valuable pitcher” from each season. The first eleven years of the award saw one pitcher per year receiving the honor, but in 1967 the Cy Young began being handed out to a pitcher from each league who was voted on as the best from the season.

Fifteen players who have won the Cy Young award have gone on to the Hall of Fame up until this point — several of those players are still active, however. The current record for most Cy Young awards is held by Roger Clemens, with seven, but seventeen total players have won multiple Cy Young’s in their career.

Voting for the award is fairly straightforward.

Two writers from each city of both the American League and National League make up the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) voters for the Cy Young award, making a total of thirty voters for each league (fifteen teams, with two voters per city). A first place vote earns a player seven points, a second place vote gets four points, a third place vote receives three points, a fourth place vote is worth two points, with a fifth place vote earning a single point. Once added up, the player with the highest overall total wins.

The 2013 Major League Baseball Cy Young award winners for both the American League and National League were announced Wednesday night on MLB Network. Here are the winners, along with my thoughts on each:

AMERICAN LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: Max Scherzer

Finalists: Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma and Max Scherzer

Winner: Max Scherzer

Thoughts On Max Scherzer Winning

Max Scherzer winning the Cy Young award seemed to be an easy choice, as he was the only pitcher with twenty or more wins this past season, however, both Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma had great cases, with many people siding with one of them. But in the end, the writers’ voted for Scherzer, giving him 28 of the 30 first-place votes, and a total of 203 points.

Although Yu Darvish, who received 93 points, was better than Scherzer in both ERA and strikeouts — leading the league in games with ten or more strikeouts, with twelve — it was hard to overlook a win-loss record of 21-3 for Scherzer, which is what I feel ultimately gave him the edge over his competition.

Along with his impressive record, Scherzer posted a 2.90 ERA with 240 strikeouts, and in addition had a win streak of thirteen games to start the season. Many people make the argument that wins aren’t a very good indicator of a pitcher’s performance, being determined by a teams run support — a case make for Iwakuma, who earned 73 of the voters’ points — and while I agree, I don’t think it was close enough to completely throw Scherzer’s record out the door.

Max Scherzer had a great season and was the most deserving of the Cy Young award.

The BBWAA’s vote had Yu Darvish finishing second, with Hisashi Iwakuma coming in third.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CY YOUNG

Original Pick: Clayton Kershaw

Finalists: Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw and Adam Wainwright

Winner: Clayton Kershaw

Thoughts On Clayton Kershaw Winning

There was really no contest in the running for National League Cy Young. Clayton Kershaw, who won the award in 2011 and finished second in 2012, had an amazing year, and with the stats he was able to post, you had to figure he was going to be the winner. The voters agreed, as it wasn’t even close. Kershaw received all but one of the first-place votes, earning him 207 total points, beating out Adam Wainwright’s 86 points, and Jose Fernandez’s 62 — Fernandez picked up the Rookie of the Year award on Monday.

The only pitcher recognized on every voters’ ballot, Kershaw had a historical year, going 16-9 with an astounding 1.83 ERA; the lowest ERA since Pedro Martinez in 2000, and the lowest National League ERA for a left-hander since Sandy Koufax in 1966. With a batting average against of .195, Kershaw put up great numbers in every aspect possible.

Kershaw becomes the 17th pitcher in history to win multiple Cy Young awards in their career, and the third pitcher to lead the league in ERA for three consecutive seasons.

At just 25 years old, odds are this won’t be the last Cy Young award for Clayton Kershaw.

The BBWAA’s vote had Adam Wainwright finishing second, with Jose Fernandez coming in third.