All-Star Game Chat: National League vs American League, 8 PM

Friday, July 28, 2024 • 8:00 PM
Globe Life Field • Arlington, TX
RHP Paul Skenes (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Corbin Burnes (0-0, -.–)
FOX

We have finally reached the main event of All-Star weekend—the actual All-Star game! The 94th mid-summer classic kicks off at 8:00 PM tonight. Even with all the controversies every season about who gets to play in the game and how that roster is decided, baseball continues to put on the best All-Star game in the business. For the festivities, they focus on the best part of baseball—baseball is fun, and it shouldn’t be serious.

While two key Mets, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor, were skipped over the All-Star Game again, the Mets will be represented by Pete Alonso, who will be playing in his fourth mid-summer classic. It is possible that this is the last All-Star game he plays in as a Met.

National League Lineup

1. Ketel Marte – 2B
2. Shohei Ohtani – DH
3. Trea Turner – SS
4. Bryce Harper – 1B
5. William Contreras – C
6. Christian Yelich – RF
7. Alec Bohm – 3B
8. Teoscar Hernández – CF
9. Jurickson Profar – LF

The first overall pick in the 2023 draft is starting the 2024 MLB All-Star game. Paul Skenes has lived up to the hype and earned an All-Star start after only making 11 starts in the majors.

Over 66 1/3 innings, he has a 1.90 ERA, 2.57 FIP, 0.920 WHIP, and a 216 ERA+. His 89 strikeouts are coming at a 12.1 K/9 rate. He’s in the 99th percentile for fastball velocity, 98th for K%, and 96th for xERA, to shout out a few of the highlights from his Baseball Savant page.

American League Lineup:

1. Steven Kwan – LF
2. Gunnar Henderson – SS
3. Juan Soto – RF
4. Aaron Judge – CF
5. Yordan Alvarez – DH
6. José Ramírez – 3B
7. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – 1B
8. Adley Rutschman – C
9. Marcus Semien – 2B

The big move the Orioles made in the off-season was trading for Corbin Burnes. The Orioles have turned out top prospect after top prospect over the last few seasons, but they needed an ace, and they got one in Burnes. Over 118 2/3 innings, Burnes has a 2.43 ERA, 3.36 FIP, 1.045 WHIP and a 154 ERA+. This is his fourth consecutive All-Star game. When you look at his Baseball Savant page, all you see is red.

Three Things To Watch For

1. Pete Alonso! Alonso has gone 1-for-4 with two RBIs and a walk across his three previous All-Star games. The Mets’ big slugger will be looking for his first extra-base hit tonight on the big stage. He also looks to rebound from last year’s batting line, where he went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts.
2. New stars! We are heading to a shift in baseball where a new set of stars are getting recognized and will start to replace the perennial All-Stars from the last several years. 37 players were named to their first ASG. It’s hard to read that and not think about Brandon Nimmo, who has been so deserving for the last few years, but I digress. Tonight, we’ll get to see the first All-Star games for Gunner Henderson, Paul Skenes, Bobby Witt Jr., Elly De La Cruz, Tarik Skubal, and more.
3. Letting players have fun. The most memorable parts of the mid-summer classic over the years is the fun players create. Players are given more leeway with their style. All of this makes for a more entertaining game. I hope one day MLB realizes this and tries to put more of the fun from the All-Star game into the day-to-day grind of the regular season.

Let’s go Pete Alonso!

The post All-Star Game Chat: National League vs American League, 8 PM appeared first on Metsmerized Online.