Major League Baseball at the All-Star Break

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game takes place tomorrow evening, and although I'll be off from work and able to watch it, I think I'll just pass.  I like to follow actual teams, with their games counting either in the standings or playoffs.  And I don't like the idea of important players exposing themselves to injuries when they are the crucial elements of their respective teams.  I remember back in the 1970s watching one all-star game, which was tied at the end.  Pete Rose was on base and Ray Fosse was catching.  There was a play giving Rose the chance to try to score.  The throw came in time to Fosse, but Rose came at him full force at the plate, bowling him over and scoring, giving his National League the win that year.  But Fosse suffered a season-ending injury on the play and never was the same player again.  Ever since then, I've been cool to this game...just get me back to the regular season that actually matters...

My Florida teams of Tampa Bay and Miami have been competitive during the first part of the 2015 season, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in the standings.  Both have had to struggle around injuries...but I suppose most other teams have had to do the same.  But the Marlins, struggling with a 38-51 record in fourth place in their division, have been decimated.  Their ace pitcher Jose Fernandez just came back from an injury he suffered last year, and slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who had been well out in front of the home run race, is out for a few weeks.  And now Dee Gordon, one of the best hitters and fielders in the league, is injured.  I can only say, "OUCH!".  As for the Rays, until they recently went into a slump, Tampa Bay had been maintaining a small lead in their division.  After their stumble, they managed to regroup and currently have a 46-45 record at the break...still within striking distance of the division-leading Yankees...

Right now, as I see it, no team has a lock on their division, although Kansas City is comfortably ahead in theirs and St. Louis and Pittsburgh, although reasonably close in the standings, both are in an excellent position to make the playoffs.  But some teams, like the Athletics, Phillies, Marlins, and Brewers, are too far behind...which at this time of the season means that they may soon be trading away some of their talented players to contending teams.  I don't see the Rays, still contenders themselves, dealing away their best (which is what they did last year when they traded their pitching ace David Price to the Tigers), although they may try to acquire a star or two from one of those aforementioned clubs...