2024 MLB All-Star Recreation: High 4 takeaways

Main League Baseball held its 94th All-Star Recreation on Tuesday evening in Texas, the primary to be hosted by the Rangers since 1995. That specific Midsummer Basic featured among the most harmful hitters of the ‘90s, like Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., and Mike Piazza. The MVP, nonetheless, turned out to be little-known Marlins outfielder Jeff Conine, who hit the go-ahead homer within the eighth.

The All-Star Recreation has a humorous approach of churning out tales like that. Final yr’s MVP, Rockies catcher Elias Díaz, can even attest to this. Certainly, the participant who struck the decisive blow within the loaded 2024 version would have been few people’ first guess — outdoors of New England, anyway. It’s arduous to beat the near-total anonymity of a Marlin or a Rockie within the grand scheme of issues, however earlier than Tuesday, the game’s eyes weren’t precisely laser-focused on Jarren Duran.

These had been the tales of the 2024 MLB All-Star Recreation, which noticed Duran take residence the MVP.

Jarren Duran calls for your consideration

Right here’s a enjoyable truth: Solely 4 place gamers in the whole American League tallied extra FanGraphs WAR within the first half than Pink Sox heart fielder Jarren Duran, who leads the AL in doubles (27) and triples (10) whereas batting .284/.342/.477 in 95 video games. The quartet forward of Duran—Aaron Choose, Gunnar Henderson, Bobby Witt Jr., and Juan Soto—all simply tallied over one million All-Star votes to advance previous Part 1. So did Steven Kwan, who was tied with Duran at 3.7 WAR.

Duran, nonetheless, wasn’t even near advancing. He was all the way in which down at sixteenth.

MLB PR

With all due respect to the AL Central-leading Guardians, I couldn’t pick Will Brennan or Tyler Freeman in a line of 100 folks for those who gave me 98 guesses. But even they amassed extra votes than Duran. This was maybe a halo impact from Cleveland followers additionally displaying out for the deserving Kwan, however this shouldn’t have occurred to Duran, a proficient participant who occurs to don for considered one of baseball’s most well-known uniforms frequently.

So the first-time All-Star needed to make the workforce as a reserve. For his or her credit score, Duran’s fellow gamers acknowledged his expertise by voting him onto the AL squad themselves. It took till the fifth inning for Duran to get his alternative, when skipper Bruce Bochy put him in heart to alleviate Choose. With two outs and Anthony Santander on first base, Duran took a strike from Hunter Greene. The Reds righty then left a splitter in the midst of the zone, and Duran didn’t miss it.

Per MLB’s Sarah Langs, Duran joined Boston icon David Ortiz and J.D. Drew—the final Pink Sox participant to win All-Star Recreation MVP—as the one BoSox to go yard of their All-Star debut. He additionally gave the AL a 5-3 lead that it might not relinquish. Duran subsequently joined Drew, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Carl Yastrzemski in taking residence this version’s All-Star Recreation MVP; it shouldn’t be forgotten that honor is formally named the “Ted Williams All-Star Recreation Most Priceless Participant Award.”

Maybe that is the highlight that Duran wanted to make his title identified on the nationwide stage. On the very least, if he’s hitting like this once more at this level subsequent yr, he’ll do much better than sixteenth within the voting!

There’s a cause why Shohei Ohtani was assured $700M

Wonderful, positive; if we wish to be technical, the precise worth of the heavily-deferred Ohtani deal is someplace within the neighborhood of $462 million. Nevertheless it’s not precisely chump change, and even together with his immense fame and expertise, there have been considerations about guaranteeing that a lot cash to somebody who may solely DH in Yr 1, as Ohtani’s second main elbow surgical procedure final September put the star’s pitching profession on maintain till at the least 2025.

So 2024 has been completely about hitting for Ohtani, and the outcomes so far in all probability have MLB pitchers hoping that his consideration is diverted once more as quickly as doable. In 94 video games for the Dodgers, he’s hit .316/.400/.635 with 29 homers and an NL-best 1.036 OPS. (Then once more, he had a 1.066 OPS final yr whereas being a two-way participant, so possibly all hope is misplaced.)

Ohtani delivered the Senior Circuit’s solely All-Star Recreation scoring when he stepped as much as bat towards Boston’s Tanner Houck. Like Duran, Ohtani bought a fats splitter that was begging to be obliterated. The magnanimous DH obliged:

4 hundred toes later, the NL had a 3-0 lead. The person is one thing else.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t level out that even gods might be humbled. Flamethrower Mason Miller has been one of many few brilliant spots in an in any other case somber ultimate season of Oakland A’s baseball. He was their lone rep named to the AL workforce, however he lifted Oakland up one final time within the All-Star highlight by hitting 103 mph whereas putting out Ohtani and Trea Turner in an ideal fifth.

As a result of Duran went yard within the subsequent half-inning, Miller was finally credited with the win. Lengthy stay the Oakland Athletics.

We bought Paul Skenes vs. Aaron Choose

It’s arduous to imagine that it was simply over 12 months in the past that Paul Skenes was chosen by the Pirates because the No. 1 general choose of the MLB Draft. Though Pittsburgh took it straightforward with him within the second half of 2023, they solely made him begin seven video games for Triple-A Indianapolis this yr earlier than calling him as much as The Present on Could eleventh. There have been excessive hopes for Skenes, however few anticipated him to blitz by way of his competitors with such dominance by way of his first 11 big-league begins. The righty primarily compelled himself into the All-Star dialog with a 1.90 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 12.1 Okay/9 in 66.1 innings, to not point out a pair of no-hit bids that solely ended as a result of Pirates’ pitch depend restrictions.

It grew to become a no brainer for the Nationwide League to not solely title Skenes to the All-Star workforce, but additionally to have him begin the dang factor. He was simply the fifth rookie in MLB historical past to start out the Midsummer Basic, becoming a member of first-year wunderkinds like Fernando Valenzuela and Hideo Nomo. With the way in which that American League supervisor Bruce Bochy organized his lineup although, it was unclear if followers would get the chance to look at Skenes go toe-to-toe with Choose, the sport’s most intimidating masher.

The Yankees’ captain was batting cleanup, so Skenes was solely assured to face the primary three AL hitters. The third, nonetheless, was Soto, Choose’s fellow famous person in New York. Throughout the FOX pregame present, Soto assured that we’d get the Skenes vs. Choose showdown.

Provided that Soto’s .985 OPS is topped in MLB by solely Choose and Ohtani, the percentages had been good that he could be a person of his phrase. The previous Nationals World Sequence hero additionally leads MLB with 79 walks, and certain sufficient, he stepped up with two outs and battled Skenes for seven pitches earlier than incomes an elusive free go off the up-and-comer.

Soto later admitted that he was really making an attempt to take Skenes deep, however settled for the stroll. Was all of it a bit anticlimactic as a result of Choose instantly grounded right into a drive out on the primary pitch he noticed towards Skenes? Sure. However we respect Soto (and Skenes’) efforts.

The baseball gods appeared to understand Soto as effectively, as his third-inning grounder bought by way of the infield and went for a hustle double that helped the AL tie the sport up at 3-3 after Ohtani’s homer. Soto’s two-bagger plated each Marcus Semien and Steven Kwan, and Soto himself scored when Kwan’s underrated teammate in Cleveland, David Fry, smacked a two-out single off Logan Webb.

Do you know that this All-Star Recreation was in Texas?

Little-known truth about this yr’s Midsummer Basic: It passed off in Arlington.

In accordance with my knowledgeable sources, “Arlington is a metropolis in Texas, west of Dallas.”

Like, they actually, actually needed you to know that it was in Texas.

They even went out of their option to function lassoing because the All-Star starters stepped onto the sector in the course of the pregame intros, and cowboy hats for the youngsters who bought to be on the sector with every starter.

Good factor that it didn’t really feel demeaning in any respect for some Texans to see the sports activities world as soon as once more make generalizations!

If MLB goes this over-the-top for Texas, then we higher get whacked over the pinnacle 10,000 occasions with Outkast and ATLien references at subsequent yr’s All-Star Recreation in Atlanta. Host the MLB Draft at Magic Metropolis. Let the Coca-Cola Bear throw out the primary pitch. It’s in all probability what all of us deserve.