As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. All-Star Voting begins:
The first phase of MLB’s All-Star fan voting opened yesterday. Phase one of voting will continue until June 27 at 11am CT. Fans are allowed to vote five times per day and, as per usual, vote for one infielder at each position per league, one DH per league, and three outfielders per league. Much like last year, the player who receives the most votes overall in each league will be automatically assured a starting spot at their position on their league’s All-Star roster, while the top two infielders at each position per league, top two DHs per league, and top six outfielders per league will all move on to the second phase of voting, which runs from June 30 to July 3. You can follow this link to cast a ballot for yourself.
2. Povich to debut:
The Orioles are promoting top pitching prospect Cade Povich for his major league debut later today, as manager Brandon Hyde told reporters last night. Povich is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster, but a corresponding move won’t be necessary as Baltimore has had space available since right-hander Thyago Vieira was designated for assignment earlier this week.
Selected by the Twins in the third round of the 2021 draft, Povich came over to the Orioles alongside Yennier Cano in the trade that sent Jorge Lopez to Minnesota. His first full season in Baltimore was a difficult one (5.04 ERA in 126 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A), but he’s enjoyed plenty of success at Triple-A in 2024. In 56 2/3 innings, Povich has posted a 3.18 ERA with a fantastic 32.5% strikeout rate while cutting his walk rate from last year’s 12% to a more manageable 9.1%. Povich, who recently landed 99th on Baseball America’s updated top-100 prospect list, will take the mound opposite Blue Jays lefty Yusei Kikuchi (3.66 ERA) at 1:07pm local time.
3. White Sox’ historic skid continues:
It’s hardly a surprise that the 2024 campaign has been a brutal one for the White Sox after the club lost 101 games last year, made only token additions to the club’s roster during the offseason, and traded ace Dylan Cease to the Padres just before Opening Day. Even when considering those factors, however, the season has been a tough one for fans on the south side of Chicago. The club enters play today with a brutal 15-47 record, “good” for a whopping 26 games back in the AL Central. They’ve reached this low point as a result of an ongoing streak of 13 consecutive losses that includes series sweeps at the hands of the Cubs, Brewers, Blue Jays, and Orioles.
As noted by MLB.com’s Scott Merkin last night, those 13 consecutive losses tie a record from a century ago for the longest losing streak in franchise history. The White Sox will look to avoid breaking that record at 7:10pm local time this evening, when the visiting Red Sox come to town. That task won’t be easy for the club as they’re scheduled to face right-hander Tanner Houck (1.85 ERA), who has been one of the league’s most effective pitchers thus far. One silver lining for Chicago is the recent return of star center fielder Luis Robert Jr. who collected two hits (including a home run) against the Cubs in his first game back from the injured list on Tuesday.
NL doesn’t have 3 OF All-Stars. Just let DH Ozuna from the Braves or DH Ohtani don a glove for fun and call it a day.
AL SS picking b/w Gunnar and Witt Jr. is Sophie’s Choice.
profar, Ramos, yelich…that’s three all stars right there.
Ramos playing in not even half SF games so far is a joke. If he continues at this rate over the next month, maybe, but guy shouldn’t even qualify playing in 26 of 63 games, just like Grissom and his 23 games. Ramos is benefiting from terrible depth. Compare a possible NL OF of Yelich, Ramos, Profar to AL’s OF reps of Judge, Soto, Tucker to illustrate my point.
Fan voting on the ASG starters should be eliminated. I’m picturing Ken “Hawk” Harrelson getting White Sox fans to stuff the ballot box. Fan voting if done at all should be done only at the stadium in my view and in the minors like it used to be. Give each fan one ballot upon entering the stadium. No stuffing the box.
dewey – Don’t throw away the baby with the bathwater.
MLB just needs to stop with their BS gimmicks, like allowing 5 votes per email address per day just to pump up the numbers.
They should go back to just handing out paper ballots at the games, one per person. Only the paying customers should be allowed to vote.
If all you judge by is offense Profar, Tatis, and Tauchman in that order are the leaders in wRC+ and OPS+
If you include defense and go by WAR then Profar, Tatis, and Nimmo are the leaders,
Profar and Tatis are both on pace for a 5+ WAR season and are certainly All Star worthy.
If Yelich had been healthy more, I would include him but he has only played in 36 games.
Use your eyes. Forget saberstats.
Don’t trust only your eyes, use all the available resources.
I wonder how many people would be complaining about WAR if it had been around for the last 100 years.
gbs – You have the winning answer, all methods have some value.
Hope the Wsox break their losing streak today.
Against Tanner Houck? I’m taking the under on that one.
I agree with you, however for the rest of the series the Red Sox have a knack for making bad teams look good for a few days
Rsox – Have you seen the ERA’s of the ChiSox starting pitchers for this series?
6.23 ERA Tonight
9.74 ERA Saturday
5.19 ERA Sunday
Tomorrow will probably be the only game the ChiSox have a chance of winning.
Why is Crawford not scheduled for Sunday’s start??
Supposedly his start was pushed back to give him extra rest. The Sox have lost his last 6 stars but i have no idea why in the world the Sox would prefer him to face a potent Phillies lineup over an inept offense like the White Sox
Rsox – Agreed! Crawford has really struggled in his last 3 starts, and in 4 of his last 5. Facing the ChiSox would have been a good confidence booster for him.
And he already had extra rest for his last start, so it’s a little concerning a guy who is averaging a little over 5 innings a start and pitched on extra rest his last start is now needing two extra days rest for his next start.
That means the entire rotation will be getting 2 extra days of rest for their next start.
June will decide on the Sox 24 future. Hopefully they don’t end the month at .500. Either get hot and show you can beat good teams (Phillies, Yankees) or tank and lose to everyone so the team has a clear path (sell off or be a buyer) before the deadline.
We assume you mean by “Sox” the Red, not the very Pale, Sox.
Yes. I thought my name gave that away.
dewey – If the Sox have a .500 record at the end of the month, that would be quite an accomplishment.
No way. I’ve got $$ on them having the longest streak this year. Keep up the good work pale hoses
I think it already happen
If your team is down
Don’t wear a frown
The White Sox are coming to town.
Thanks, I needed that
Whopping.
I’m still sticking with my prediction of at least 120 losses, maybe more. Forget the Phillies, Braves and Dodgers. It’s the White Sox that are tearing up the record book.
“You can follow this link to cast a ballot for yourself.”
I’d sure like to, but frankly I’m not good enough any more to vote for myself as an MLB All-Star.
Yes, Lester. That’s how I read it. I’d be honored to be a member of the All-Star team.
letit: Just to attend the parties and participate in the idiotic red carpet walk.
Chicago is this bad because the CBA permits them to be this bad–in fact, it even encourages them to be this bad. Baseball has had many bad teams over its history–especially when players were locked to teams for life, and good players could be stashed in the minors. But these tear-downs send off the signal that quality of product doesn’t matter–the fans experience gets worse, the prices remain the same or get raised, and the teams have their hands out. I’m not sure why MLB encourages this,
The only things in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead chickens. Who gets excited to see a .500 team? Fans want to see a winner, not mediocrity. What gets you there faster? Trading stars for prospects, sucking to get better draft picks, and time. Hanging on in mediocrity is not going to do it.
Spencer torkelson just got demoted to AAA for the second time in his career. The orioles got bounced in round 1 with a 100 win team. The white Sox are in their second “rebuild” of the last decade. The Marlins have been awful for 20 years. Tanking doesn’t guarantee anything, and an argument could be made that it’s more dangerous to the integrity of the game than gambling, which just got a guy banned for life.
Love – Trades for star players and free agent signings can get you a winner real fast. Look at the 2023 Rangers, or the 2024 Yankees.
MLB does not encourage this, and they literally added the draft lottery to stop it. Been living under a rock, huh?
MLB added the lottery specifically to counteract their other draft rules which DO encourage this. The hard slotting system has encouraged tanking, as many teams see it as the only way to ensure they can afford the top draft prospects. Rebuilding has happened throughout baseball history, but only in the last few years have you seen teams strip themselves down to historically bad rosters in hopes of getting the highest draft allocations possible (the early 2010s Astros were the first to do it, and then reap the benefits).
It use to be we would only see 1-2 100-loss teams every couple years. A 110-loss team every decade or two. In just the last five full seasons, we’ve had FOUR 100-loss teams four years, and three 100-teams the fifth year. We’ve had four 110-loss teams. The White Sox look like they’ll be team #5.
MLB doesn’t want to address this problem, because they like the draft rules how they are (they suppress prospect earnings). So instead they’ve gone for band-aids by making it easier to make the playoffs in hopes teams will stop tanking. We’ll see it it helps, but this absolutely was a problem of MLB’s own making.
So what? The teams have a right to do whatever they think is in the best interest of the club at that point in time.
Fans have the right to simply not support or watch the team.
You act like you’re owed something from the team. You are not. If you don’t like the direction of a team, simply stop following them. Choose another team to fan.
The White Sox are in their complete tear down in the past 8 years. The Tigers are in year 8 of a rebuild. Those 2 teams a long with the Angels have one playoff appearance in the past 10 years. Out of the 6 division leaders right now, only 2 of them tanked to get good. There are a lot more than 2 teams that have been in, complete rebuild mode in the past 10 years. In the past 20 years, there has only been 3 teams that won the WS after going full rebuild. Only 1 of them, won the WS more than once. No I don’t count the Rangers on that list, because more than half their roster, were FA signings. The Dodgers has never went full rebuild, but are a Playoff team every single season.
angels: The Sox’ last rebuild was in 2917. It was a five year plan to rebuild but Renteria got them to the PO in three. They would have continued to improve until tlr tore down the players, demoralizing them into a complete collapse of the team. I thank Ricky for what he did, for giving us our last moment of joy to be a White Sox fan. To other Sox fans, remember 2017 to ’20. We may never see a competitive Sox team in our lifetime or until you-know-who is six feet under ground.
You mean to tell us 893 years from now the White Sox are still rebuilding? Who owns them Reinsdorf’s head in a jar?
Future rumor has it that Reinsdorf’s Head in a Jar hires the Head of Ted Williams in a Jar to be assistant hitting coach.
No, make that Ted Williams as bullpen coach–It’s a Reinsdorf hire, after all.
The White Sox have a $135 million dollar payroll so it’s not like they are playing Fisherball out there they are just a really badly constructed team with a lousy manager a worse owner an overpaid “slugger” with no power and a pair of young “stars” who can’t stay on the field
Rsox: First, your team is going to move up the ALE standings this week because they’re playing what passes as a major league team. Second, there might be $135m on the WS books, but it is money not spent wisely. They spent a lot (for jer) on Benintendi and Fedde. Crochet is making a ridiculous $800k this year. Robert’s relatively small salary but huge for Reinsdorf will soon be off the books as well as Moncada, who was worth the money at the time he signed an extension.
As a long time Chicago fan who’s seen many bad managers. Pedro Griffols is right up there with Terry Bevington (White Sox) and Jim Essian (Cubs).
Mikenmm: You have to understand that Jerry doesn’t care about his team. He gave the GM job to the first brown noser that walked through the door. He didn’t care about interviewing quality, experienced GMs. He doesn’t care that Getz brought in re-treads, has-beens and players like de Jong who was dfa’d three times last season. Jerry doesn’t care about extending players like Cease, Crochet, Robert. He doesn’t care that Getz is too inept to understand that those are the players you build on, not trade away for “prospects” that will likely take years to be major leaguers if at all. Reinsdorf and his advisor, tlr, destroyed everything Renteria did to make the Sox a contender. He gave the fans hope that the Sox would contend for years. I hate the cubs,but I have to admit they did and are still in the process of rebuilding around quality players and adding more. Reinsdorf has no interest in this team. He doesn’t care that they are the worst team in bb, 33 games under .500. The players right now are as good as they’re going to get (with the exception of Crochet and Robert, who won’t be wearing the black and silver for much longer). The difference between the Sox and cubs is that, during their rebuild, with the cubs it was garbage in, garbage out. With the Sox, it’s garbage in.
I get it with small markets, the local TV disparity in income is ridiculous. But the White Sox are in Chicago for God’s sake.
Now that was a great comment!!
What if a guy like Vaughn Grissom or Sean Murphy gets voted in? Does MLB do an intervention?
No, that’s why it’s ridiculous, including that every team needs at least 1 member rep. OAK will have Mason Miller, but then MIA? COL? CWS (Crochet)? Those mandatory roster spots are going to take from a deserving alternate, compromising the whole selection process. Imagine Tovar not finishing in the top-10 in 1st rd fan vote process, but then be selected over a top-3 NL SS being the best candidate to rep COL.
For Colorado, I imagine their representative will be Ryan McMahon. Only two other third basemen (Bohm, Chapman) in the NL have been worth more fWAR than him, and McMahon has been a better hitter than Chapman. As for the Marlins, their spot will probably be Ryan Weathers or Tanner Scott, which is more debatable but they’re still not terrible picks.
I’ve often felt that given the rise of analytics, the all star starters can be accurately selected without bias based on WAR (or some combo of metrics), while the reserves can be voted in.
That way, the fans still get to be involved, but the starters are an accurate reflection of who deserves to be there.
The ‘every team gets a guy’ thing can be dropped. The reason for that, and the voting in general was so fans could see players they didn’t otherwise see. But that was back when tv broadcasting didn’t even exist yet. We can all watch any games we want these days, either through tv packages, streaming, or just the highlights on sports shows or youtube. The voting notion is painfully out of date.
It’s an exhibition game for fans. Let them vote.
SELL THE TEAM YOU OLD CANKEROUS WART
Cano plus Povich for Jorge Lopez???
Fleece.
Half the AL starting 9 for the All-Star game will be Yankees at this point…. It’s awesome!
Royals fans are renowned ballot box stuffers.
Fortunately for them Rizzo is stinking it up this season! The Pasquatch can man the Cold Corner….
Gil, Holmes, Judge, Soto…. and Volpe as reserve.
I really think Rodon is deserving as well. He’s been fantastic.
Judge is demonstrating that he is the best player in MLB. He’s performing waaaaaay above Ohtani. Ohtani is more unique if/when he pitches because he’s an excellent hitter, but he’s not in Judge’s tier.
@Clip “Too many Yankees” so I had exclude someone but Rodon deserves a nod.
Judge has OPS’d 1.500 for the past month! Bonds did that twice on two months in his 73 homer season.
YBC – I’m totally fine with all those except Volpe, he’s got Gunnar and Witt and Seager ahead of him. Doubt they will name 4 SS to the team.
@FPG That’s most likely the case although Volpe is 8th in fWAR (or 11th in bWAR) in MLB and only trails Witt, Jr. for SS. I really don’t care for the ASG.
YBC – Generally defense is not factored into ASG selections, that’s why a guy like Omar Vizquel was named only 3 times despite winning the GG 11 times.
I really enjoy the ASG, it’s great to see two superteams for one game a year. Rivals joining forces, etc. I don’t know why they stopped awarding the WS home field advantage based on the ASG outcome, it was a good idea IMO.
And even though the “every team represented” requirement dilutes the talent somewhat, I’m all for that rule because you don’t want any fanbase shut out. There are fans that won’t watch the game if none of their guys are playing.
@FPG I didn’t enjoy that homefield rule. In an effort to place every player into the game (which I fully support), platoon strategies go out the window. If a SP is really dealing after two innings, he’s going to get pulled out. It’s a disservice to the managers and coaches for a game of importance.
Agree with defense being mostly a non-factor with fan voting.
For what it’s worth, I won’t be voting for any of them.
Once you do, you’ll never go back… Yankee blue is where it’s at!
#Votemaldonadostartingcatcher
I sacrificed Adley votes for this
Would love to see the fan vote eliminated and the voting is done by coaches and players that have been on the active roster for at least 30 days when voting starts. However, you can’t vote for anyone on your team.
This would help make sure the most deserving players got in, and not just a popularity contest with big market teams having more fans and therefore having more voters.
C: Will Smith & Ryan Jeffers
1B: Bryce Harper & Ryan Mountcastle
2B: Ketel Marte & Marcus Semien
SS: Bobby Witt Jr. & Mookie Betts
3B: Isaac Paredes & Joey Ortiz
LF: Steven Kwan & Jurickson Profar
CF: Aaron Judge & Jacob Young
RF: Juan Soto & Fernando Tatis Jr.
DH: Shohei Ohtani & Adley Rutschman
AL Starting Rotation:
Tanner Houck
Cole Ragans
Tarik Skubal
Garrett Crochet
Jack Flaherty
NL Starting Rotation:
Ranger Suárez
Zack Wheeler
Tyler Glasnow
Cristopher Sánchez
Chris Sale
I doubt Sánchez gets in over Nola. In in ideal world though they both do, but there’s no way they let 4 SP from the same team in barring a bunch of injuries. I wonder if the Phillies can get multiple BP guys in – Strahm and Hoffman have been fantastic this season.
@DarkSide830
Yeah, there’s a reason we fans don’t get to vote for the pitchers. You’d probably have the Phillies rotation pitching against the Red Sox rotation.
Seth Lugo probably needs to be in the Top 5 here.
@its_happening
Agreed, I even said one time in a thread that he should start the AS game. I’m terrible for leaving him out.
All good. Some of these guys are having really good years that I had to check Berrios’ numbers against them. I can’t argue for Berrios to be ahead of the 5 you mentioned plus Lugo.
Old – You also left out the current ERA leader in Gil.
And Burnes who is 5th.
I based it off top fWAR. Neither of them made the top 5. Maybe they can be BP guys.
@Fever Pitch Guy
‘
ERA is a team stat not a pitcher stat. If you want to see how well the pitcher is actually doing, I’ll look at FIP and Gil is at 2.95 while Burnes is 3.16. Not really something noteworthy to write home about.
Here’s the top AL guys by FIP. Notice, Gil & Burnes aren’t even in the top 5. I’d rather these guys in a rotation.
Tanner Houck – 2.21
Tarik Skubal – 2.25
Cole Ragans – 2.26
Jack Flaherty – 2.70
Garrett Crochet – 2.88
Old – To each their own, that’s the beauty of baseball discussion!
Technically speaking the White Sox tied their longest same season losing streak matching the 13 they lost in 1924.
The record for most overall consecutive losses in a row by the White Sox was 15 which occurred over the last five games of 1967 and the first 10 in 1968. Older White Sox fans like myself might recall that 1967 team was in a heated 4 team race along with the Red Sox, Tigers and Twins for the AL pennant before their collapse in the final week. The White Sox were a game back in the standings entering that fateful week and had the easiest schedule but managed to lose 2 games to the last place Athletics in Kansas City before returning home and getting swept by the 6th place Washington Senators. The “Impossible Dream” Red Sox captured the pennant in their season finale by beating the Twins at Fenway but had to wait until the Tigers lost the second game of a doubleheader versus the Angels in Detroit.
Two seasons later this die-hard Chicago baseball fan had to endure a more monumental collapse by the 1969 Cubs. Ouch!
This is why mlb needs to bring back top draft picks for the worst tms. White sox on pace for record 123 losses. They’re not tanking. They just suck. Im not a white sox fan, just believe in balanced league & giving tms a chance to rebuild
@Johnny utah
Rays run their system without getting the top pick every year and they do it on a low budget. Maybe the Sox need to look internally at their player development process and decide if they want to be a big spender on contracts or a big spender on player development. They Rays essentially lost their whole rotation and are still a .500 team right now. I wonder which other teams could lose their whole rotation and still be in that spot? Imagine if they had the healthy full rotation? I’d imagine they would be up there in the #1 or #2 spot in the AL East.
The Rays also get extra pick(s?) in the draft every year for being poor
@ohyeadam
Which extra picks? And if so, Chicago can do the same, nothing stopping them.
What is a competitive balance pick in MLB Draft? If a team ranks in the bottom 10 of league revenue or resides in one of the 10 smallest markets, it is eligible for a competitive balance pick in the MLB Draft.
Copy and pasted from MLB
White Sox don’t qualify
You’re still right the Rays develop players very well. They just get more chances than most teams
@ohyeadam
So, they get 1 extra pick in either the 1st or 2nd round or the 2nd and 3rd round? It’s not like the Rays are getting the top draft pick each year with this extra pick. Even so, if they did, the history of the top draft pick having a major impact in MLB is pretty terrible.
Don’t undervalue late 1st rd or second round picks. Gunter Henderson was a second round pick and he became the number one prospect. And is now the rookie of the year and crushing it in the second season. But more important than that my point is that the draft should not be about who is the most competent general manager and the most competent organization. It’s about who is the team with the worst record . If it was about who makes the best organizational choices then the top three pics every single year would go to the Dodgers Braves and rays. But that’s not how it works.
The extra money that comes with the pick allows more wiggle room with their draft also. Year after year it adds up
@johnnyutah: Wsox fans I honestly feel for. However, Reinsdorf- forget it!!! Everyone knows he’s cheap when it comes to player contracts. But , , ,he’s just as cheap when it comes to front office people. He hires shills. He gets too much credit for the string of Bulls championships. It was solely due to Michael Jordan – not Jerry Krause. Reinsdorf kept trying to convince people how important Krause was. It’s the same with his baseball ops. Cheap!!
And I agree with avenger – Renteria was the right man for the job – but Reinsdorf probably was receiving suggestions from tight pants Tony LaRussa that were critical of Ricky.
I can not believe I agree with Dogbone. Every point spot on!!
All star voting – early & often
@Citizen1
I don’t like AS voting. It always seems to be a popularity contest instead of the best players this year. For example, Trout will probably end up being there, not because he’s good this year but because of his name.
Guys like Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Kyle Tucker, Steven Kwan & Jarren Duran should all be at the AS game as outfielders, as they are the top players right now.
Sad to say, buy yeah, somehow Trout will be named a starter again.
Old – It’s MEANT to be a popularity contest. Fans want to see star players, not players who had a good 3 months to start the season.
Bad enough there will be a player from each of the totally crappy teams in the All-Star Game.
@Fever Pitch Guy
But why would fans want to see stars of the past who are no longer at their prime? I want to see the current top players of the game, regardless if they’ve been doing it for 3 months or for 3 years. I don’t want some yesterday star hitting .220 on the AS team. Oh well, enjoy your exhibition game.
#VoteMaldonadoStartingCatcher
I sure hope Ozzie takes over before we play the cubs again!!