Baseball 180!

By Sean Connolly

The trade deadline may have passed last week with the Red Sox getting rid of Manny Ramirez and getting Jason Bay, but the Red Sox aren’t done making moves. With worries looming over David Ortiz’s hand injury that is not healing and Mike Lowell’s hip injury now becoming a problem, the Red Sox are now looking to steal Brian Giles from the San Diego Padres via waivers.

Brian Giles on his way to Boston?

Giles, who is 37, would be a perfect pick up for the Sox. Fans were worried about losing a first ballot hall of famer in Manny but with the acquisition of Bay last week things seem o.k. But o.k won’t be good enough for fans with Ortiz and Lowell hurting. If the Red Sox can pick up the .296 hitting Giles who is a solid veteran with some power, they’ll be right back where they were before they got rid of Manny, just without Manny’s big mouth.

Hand injury may be too much for Big Papi to handle

A move to the American League will bump up the power numbers that Giles used to produce at a higher rate while a member of the Indians and Pirates where he put up 30+ home runs every season. Giles would be a great fit for a half season run at the AL East title where the Red Sox are battling with the Rays and Yankees.

Giles isn’t the biggest move of the season in baseball, but it could turn out to be the most imperative. The health of Lowell and Ortiz is sketchy and while Giles may never be able to do what Big Papi can do, I think he will suffice for now.

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Yesterday’s mid-summer classic was certainly a classic, but when is the MLB going to realize that it’s too much for what’s supposed to be an exhibition game?

The thing that upset me the most was this, how can this game judge the World Series? Michael Young won’t even see the playoffs, yet his RBI will decide the World Series. It makes no sense at all. The MLB needs to go back to this being an exhibition game as soon as next season.

Scott Kazmir was not supposed to pitch last night. What happens? He ends up pitching at the most intregal point in the game past midnight. He just pitched on Sunday and was only to be used in an emergency scenario. Several field players played 6 innings of baseball or more when they should have only played 3. Now instead of players enjoying a week’s worth of rest in which they played little baseball they won’t recover in time as games restart on Friday.

How did this even start? Just because of a tie, a meaningless tie the MLB thought that the integrity of the MLB All-Star game was tarnished. No, it wasn’t. The game meant nothing in the first place so why would a tie matter. And, yes I can understand putting something at stake for an All-Star game, but not the most important thing, home field advantage in the deciding series in baseball.

So, instead of home-field advantage in the World Series, what then? More cash for the All-Stars? No, that won’t make them play harder. See that’s the key, make sure that they play for real and play their heart out which despite the negatives all players did last night. You need something that will benefit all teams involved in the All-Star game like Michael Young’s Texas Rangers. So, I think that the All-Star game should affect the draft in some way. The MLB has tried for years to garner public interest in the MLB Draft but have failed to do so. I don’t know how exactly they could do it, but if you put the geniuses who came up with this idea together maybe they can figure out how the All-Star game can play in the MLB Draft.

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