Latest on MLB All-Star Voting

Zach & Zack fill in for Levack & Goz to discuss MLB All-Star voting, and their favorite All-Star event. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Lovak and Guzz on the voiceof the Capitol Regions Sports Fan Fox Sports
ninety five, nine and nine eightyHeavy, and welcome to Lovak and Guzz
here on Fox Sports ninety five,nine and nine eighty. However, you

(00:24):
may be wondering, this doesn't soundlike Lavac and it doesn't really sound like
Gus maybe a little. This isZach and Zach. This is Zach squared,
Zach doubled, however you want toput it. I am Zach with
a K on my right is Zachwith an H. I am also known
as Junior or Little Guys. Heis also known as baby Baby Levac.

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Is what we're going with? Iguess so because I got the bushy beard,
the bushy belly, the bushy baby. I don't know. I don't
know where we're going with that,but yeah, we are here filling in
while the guys are off on vacationthis week for the fourth of July week,
and we're so needy. I know, I know, they so need

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Who needs breaks? I mean,we don't get any, But yeah,
whatever, I guess. I guesswhen you're running the place or running a
football team, he deserves Tommy corporate'smaking calls here and we get it.
We get it. But we havea lot to get into a lot of
stuff we want to talk about today, and leading off, we're getting pretty

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close to the MLB All Star Gameand we had some points we wanted to
talk about regarding that. How doyou feel about the All Star Game?
What are you what are your generalthoughts with it? What's is it a
is it needed? Is it good? Is it bad? Where do you
stand? First of all, Iwant to say, how cool is it
that last year Rangers won the WorldSeries? This year they're hosting the All

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Star Game? Like, that's prettythat did that work out that way?
I know it's one of those thingswhere they won it and they went and
guys, we're gonna be back tocelebrated again at the All Star breaks more
and there's more Texas is Bowman.Whether it was last year filling out the
stands for the World Series or nowthey get to fill at the stands of
the All Star Game. I'll behonest. You know we're supposed to come

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on here talk sports and stuff.I'm not a big All Star Game guy.
Whether it's basketball, baseball, football, doesn't matter. I'm not a
big All Star game guy. I'mmore of a festivities guy or celebrity softball.
I do enjoy watching the celebrity softballgame, but more festivity definitely home

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run derby and stuff. But we'llget into that in a little bit.
Are there any surprises that I shouldbe on the lookout for when it comes
to who may be on the fieldwho might not be. It's a lot
of the usual suspects. I mean, you know, over the years,
when you start looking out, yousee guys change uniforms. You might see

(03:02):
some guys from some teams you maynot have expected with, like seeing Luisa
Rez come in as a padre andthings like that. But overall, it's
our usual suspects. I mean,whether it's seeing Judge out there, Bryce
Harper out there. Let me guess, those are the two top vote getters.
Those are the two top vote getters. And it's not even closed with

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Aaron Judge receiving three point four millionvotes and Bryce Harper receiving three point two
million votes. Yeah, more thananyone else by a lot. I mean,
Jan Soda was up there, alot of pretty was pretty neck and
neck with Judge for a bit,but then judge pulled ahead. But yeah,

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I know the voting this year particularlyhas been very one sided towards star
players. I know if I putyou on the spot yesterday with the trivia
question of seven different ways you canreach first base. Thankfully you did not
put on the spot to list thepotential All Stars at each position because I
could not well, Zach as yousay that, actually this segment really is

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is you are gonna go through?No, No, it's a lot.
It's a lot of guys, andevery year you always have usually who's the
favorite, and then someone who's goneabove and beyond and kind of came into
that second spot role and they'll battleit through up until the All Stars are
finalized and announced. You know,briefly going through this list, I am

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surprised there are not more Guardian playerson this list. Yeah, that's a
very good point. You know,the Guardians are a team who very much
have constantly been the head of theCentral divisions, who seemingly do get knocked
on because how the power of theEast and West. But still to this

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day, the Guardians have a solidlineup, they have solid pitching and not
seeing more on this list outside oflike Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan is a
bit shocking at this point, butI think that might just be because of
the amount of star power kind ofcoming in this year. A shocking one
for me was third base Alec Bohm, who a year ago I believe maybe

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two, was famous for saying hebleep and hates it here and wanted to
leave the Phillies yep. To nowthat fan base has rallied around him,
and he's made them rally around himwith whether it's his personality, his play,
they've just been on board and heshot up in with three point one

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million votes. Show Up Phillies absolutelyis riding the number one spot for third
base over Manny Machado for All Starvoting. That one, for me is
a weird one. Well, whenyou play in Philadelphia, they either love
you with all their heart or hateyou with all their heart. True,

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and when you get on their goodside, good things happen, very very
true. I mean, look,I've seen it, whether it was WWE
and at Philadelphia this year and thosefans coming out and destroying everything as far
as ticket sales filling out, whetherit was a three night day event,
awesome, and that's the same thingfor when you have people on those teams,

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whether it's making a regular season Philliesgames feel like postseason or vice versa,
it is insane. Another thing thatI want to talk about is I
want to talk about the shortstop racein the Al AL. I want to
get to that NL all right,all right, we will get there because
I also want to throw a thirdone in for that as well. But
in the AL Garner Henderson versus BobbyWitt Junior. Bobby wit Junior has been

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one of the premier players in theMLB almost every year. At this point,
he is in Kansas City, sohe doesn't necessarily get the spotlight he
deserves as that team hasn't kind ofmade it as far as they would have
liked. But Gunner Henderson, whois this young study, turns twenty three
on Saturday. He is younger thanme. He is in his third MLB

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season. He's a breakout kid rightnow, slashing a two to eighty eight
batting average of twenty six homers.Insane right now. And the fact that
he's lead, he has a slightlead over Aaron Judge in war it's tough
to try and go toe to toewith Bobby Wood Junior, and the fact

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that Baltimore has been able to puthim up there as the number one guy
for shortstop is crazy. I thinkBaltimore's been bad for so long mm hmm
that these guys that we were countingon to turn this franchise around are starting
to come up. Yep. Andthere's been so much talk about these guys

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for years. Now that they're inthe league, we've heard their names for
more than three years, and beingin the league, we've heard of their
name for the last five six years. So that in my aspect would probably
be why and going against you know, the Yankees and the Red Sox,
you know, being more nationally televisedwith the Orioles, going against those specific

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teams, I think that has alittle bit more of a push than and
City Royals, I would say,very true, very very true. That's
not to take anything away from bWitt Junior, because he is having just
as much as the MVP caliber seasonthat Gunner is having. Absolutely and you
wanted to touch on something with theNL shortstops as far as the ALE voting

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was concerned, so to me,and I don't know how you feel about
those I understand Mookie Bets one ofthe best. I'm not gonna argue that
Trey Turner Phillies showing up once again, Elliet Day, Look, Cruise,
how is this guy not in thetop two? Okay, Elie de la

(09:05):
Cruz. Yeah, he's definitely aguy who's not quite putting up the numbers
as as he did last year.I think that's a big part of it.
But sometimes it's just straight celebrity.If I'm going celebrity. Nothing against
Trey Turner, but Ellie de laCruz came in last year, set the

(09:26):
world on fire. I know lastyear's last year, but the fandom that
immediately attracted to him, I thoughthe would have been closer to the top
two than what the votes are portrayingat this particular moment, where it looks
like Trey Turner is nearly doubling himin votes. Yeah, And part of

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that, I almost think is becauseof just how prevalent Tray Turner always seems
to be. Whether it's whether it'shis base stealing, whether it's just he's
getting on bays, his constant explosivepower that seemingly comes out of nowhere,
all of those things have really helpedhim keep in the spotlight, and when
you have a struggling Cincinnati team thatthey've had, you know, even when

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he's having his highlight moments, he'sjust not quite in the spotlight as much
as he was last year. AndI think that's been his big detriment as
far as the All Star voting isconcerned. Like, I know, he's
only bat in like two sixty roughlyfourteen home runs, thirty seven RBIs roughly
around there, so I know it'snot as great as him popping on the
scene last year, But from acelebrity standpoint, I just thought that he

(10:35):
might garnish her a little more votingthan that. So one thing I do
want to ask you about All StarI guess picks not necessarily all Star voting.
I should say a pictures pitchers arealways a big part of the All
Star Game. Pictures are selected ratherthan voted upon when it comes to the

(10:56):
All Star voting, and there hasbeen a lot of talk about what players
and who should be eligible to competein the All Star Game. And where
I'm going with this is I wantto ask you about Paul Skiings. Paul
Skins is the starting pitcher for thePittsburgh Pirates who this is his rookie year.

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He's only played in eight games andhe is widely regarded right now as
one of, if not the bestpitcher in the MLB. Is this a
guy who had only eight games?He has a two point one four ERA.
He's four and oh. He hassixty one strikeouts. Sixty one strikeouts

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in forty six innings pitched. Thatis disgusting. He's only walked eight batters
in that time. His whip isunder a one. This guy, I
think you have to make him availablefor the All Star Game now. I
can't remember way back when, butdidn't Steven Strasford come on and show up

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and we put him in the AllStart? We did, absolutely we did.
He came up on the Nationals,he was an absolute stud, and
he made it to the All StarGame. So why not? I think
that a lot of people it's alongevity thing, and I'm not really understanding
it. In the regards of firstoff, he wanted to make the major
league roster. He was throwing onehundred and two in spring training trying to

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make the major league roster, andthey said they want to see a little
bit growth out of him. Yeah, No, he didn't need any He
was ready to go. Uh somuch so that when he faced show Hey
Otani, they made a baseball cardcalled Big on Big because of how large
that moment was, where Scheme struckhim out the first time and Otani homered

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on him the second time. Ifwe're making baseball cards about just this kid
being in this situation, I thinkhe has to be in the All Star
Game. I think MLB would bedoing themselves a disservice if they don't find
a way to put him in theAll Star Game. We've discussed on the

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show before how regional baseball can getand how they don't manage to market their
stars as well as they should.I think this is an opportunity to do
that. Absolutely and Zach kind ofrounding out our All Star conversation. We
talk about the All Star Game,but what about the All Star festivities,

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whether it's the home run Derby youknow, or other potential from other sports
those types of games. Is thehome run derby the best All Star slash?
Like, I don't know what you'dcall that that player's weekend event to
occur, Like is it the bestone over? Like the three point shooting

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or the skills games that they doin the NFL. What do you think
For me, I'm more of awhen it comes to the skills challenges all
together rather than the actual game itself. Home run Derby. Love the home
runner, chickstick the long ball andguess what so do I so do I
so do I hetrosis Oki once saidthat going back to that, I think

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of Tom Glavin commercial sticking with thelong ball. My favorite right now home
run Derby, three point contests,long balls. I'm all about it absolutely,
and I think that especially when youhave players who are coming in like
Pee Alonzo who love the showmanship ofthe home run Derby, and like Vladimir

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Gerrero Junr, who this is thisis their world series. They get fire
up about it and it's it addsthat level of competition to it and that
fire where it's like I want tobe out there. I want to show
them I'm the best power hitter.And all I can think of is in
Peter A. Lonzo one is backto back home run Derbies and he came
in the room and he's walking inand they go and your home run Derby

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champion Peter WANs and before the guycan finish? Are you here? Is
he slightly away from the mic?Two times two time champ? And just
so you know, the two timechamp has arrived. And that's what I
feel like. It's so big aboutthe home run Derby. It's just it's
a circus act. It's entertaining.It's yeah, we want to see who

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can hit the most, but atthe end of the day, just make
it fun. I think home runDerby by far is probably my favorite three
point contest. Just below that,but definitely the home run Derby. Now,
I just told you I loved thelong ball, but I also told
you I love skills challenges. TenBaseball make an adjustment where we include a

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bunting challenge. I mean, itwouldn't be the first time there has been
something like this. Who not forthe All Star Game in particular, but
in the MPP with Japanese baseball,they are huge on the bunt being a
part of the game. So thisis something they've done where they've done bunt
contests to see who can lay downthat perfect bunt? Can you ride the

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foul line? Playing sports growing up, it was always basketball. I had
to hit a certain amount of freethrows before I was done with my practice
baseball. You had to either hitthe ball to a certain part of the
field or be able to lay downa bunt. There were certain things,
certain aspects that you had to dofor that practice to end. I think

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bunting, honestly, is a lostart. I can't remember the player I'm
thinking of off the top of myhead, but literally came off the bench
as a pitch hitter and was askedto bunt and completely whift, completely wift.
I'm asking you to come off thebench to bunt. One job,

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awful, futrid. I think it'sa lost art of the game. I
think you're right, and it definitelyhas shown over the years. I mean,
the shift was the last time itwas really prevalent. It was a
good way to go opposite away.Brandon Nemo on the Mets, someone we're
both familiar with, was a guywho really tried to utilize that tool of
if they were shifting to go againsthis bat, all right, but the
other way. And you know,it's something that was taken away and I

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do think it would be funny totry and make it. Okay, fine,
we'll take it out of the gameof baseball. But you still have
to have the skill, or atleast let's try and show off some guys
with the skill and do the bungame. I think that'd be fun.
I think that'd be crazy. Whatdo they have, like the cups set
up on different sides and you gottabunt it into the cup. You either

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bunted into the cup or my guesswould be you try and make it a
like you have some fielders and youtry and see who can run the most
bases or who can get there thecleanest, or something like that. Have
a timer going. I definitely thinkthey could add a skills challenge into Major
League Baseball like they do with NBA, where you gotta dribble, you gotta
shoot, you gotta pass, yougotta do all this stuff, check shortstops,

(18:03):
arms thrown at first, things likethat. It'd be fun. Can
you do the hop skip jump withDerek Jeter? Oh? Yeah, replicate
the Derek Jeter throw? How doesthat go? But Zach, speaking of
skills, wrapping us up here,we have to move on and going forth,
we're gonna be talking about Atlanta andthe skill issues that he may be
having, and potentially some other managementissues. They'd be having, but that'll

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be all coming up next here onLovak and Guz