By CHARLES ODUM AND RONALD BLUM AP Sports Writers
ATLANTA — National League All-Star manager Dave Roberts said including Milwaukee rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski on his team was “an easy answer” despite complaints from some players over his inclusion after just five major league appearances.
“If it brings excitement, attention to our game, then I’m all about it,” Roberts said before Monday’s Home Run Derby.
“I think for me, kind of my North Star is the All-Star Game should be the game’s best players,” the Dodgers manager added before also addressing the other side of the argument by adding “It’s about the fans and what the fans want to see.”
Misiorowski has pitched in only five games, a record low for an All-Star, creating a debate between those who say the game is for the most deserving players and those who say the game is for the fans.
The 23-year-old created an instant stir when he threw a 100.5 mph fastball for his first pitch in the big leagues. Oh, and for good measure, he opened that debut on June 12 against St. Louis by throwing five no-hit innings before leaving with cramping in the Brewers’ 6-0 win.
The 6-foot-7 rookie is 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and has 33 strikeouts with only 12 hits allowed in 25⅔ innings. It’s an impressive debut, but some players still believe the right-hander hasn’t been in the game long enough to merit All-Star consideration over more established players.
Philadelphia shortstop Trea Turner was outspoken in his criticism of the decision to add Misiorowski to the team when Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who is 8-2 with a 2.50 ERA, didn’t make the team. The Phillies also lobbied for left-hander Ranger Suárez (7-3, 1.94).
“What a joke,” Turner told reporters.
Misiorowski said Monday he wasn’t offended.
“They’re not upset with me,” he said, adding he is as surprised as anyone to find himself in Atlanta for Tuesday night’s game.
“The last five weeks have been insane,” Misiorowski said. “I thought the All-Star break would be a chance to sit down and reflect. Now we’re here.”
Turner’s teammate, All-Star Kyle Schwarber, said Monday the attempt by Phillies players to speak up for Sánchez and Suárez “was not an attack at Misiorowski by any means. It’s an honor for him that he’s here and it should be an honor for him. It’s not his fault that he’s only pitched five games and he got named.”
Schwarber said Misiorowski could be an All-Star “every year that he pitches. It’s just more of the fact of our guys were having some really good years and some pretty good every day starts and numbers. You want them to feel like they’re gonna get represented the way that they should be.”
Schwarber added that he would likely talk to Misiorowski during All-Star week and would tell him “he’s doing a great job at what he’s doing and he’s going to be a perennial All-Star for years to come.”
Roberts said he plans to bring Misiorowski into the game as early as the fifth inning. “And it’s going to be electric,” Roberts said. “So the fans, the media, you’re going to love it.”
Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, 37, is on his 11th All-Star roster, this time as a legend pick by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. When asked about the conflicting opinions about Misiorowski, Kershaw said “I don’t think it’s conflicting. I think everybody wants the best players here.”
San Francisco right-hander Robbie Ray, 33, said Misiorowski has “an electric arm. He’s a special talent and I’m excited to watch him pitch.”
Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker, who is serving on Roberts’ staff and has experience selecting an All-Star roster, said there’s room for a player as inexperienced as Misiorowski to find a spot in Tuesday night’s showcase.
“You know what? It’s an exhibition game,” Snitker said. “He’s another great talent. … There are some guys that are very deserving. It is what it is.”
OHTANI, ACUÑA ATOP NL LINEUP
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will bat leadoff as the designated hitter for the NL on Tuesday night, and he will be followed in the batting order by left fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. of the host Braves.
Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte will hit third in the batting order announced Monday by Roberts, followed by Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado, Dodgers catcher Will Smith, Chicago Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker, New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor and Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes will start his second straight All-Star Game, MLB announced last week. Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal will make his first All-Star start for the American League.
“I think when you’re talking about the game, where it’s at, these two guys … are guys that you can root for, are super talented, are going to be faces of this game for years to come,” Roberts said.
Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres will lead off for the AL, followed by Tigers left fielder Riley Greene, New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, Toronto first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr,. Baltimore designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn, Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero, Tigers center fielder Javy Báez and Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson.
Ohtani led off for the AL in the 2021 All-Star Game, when the two-way sensation also was the AL’s starting pitcher. He hit leadoff in 2022, then was the No. 2 hitter hitter for the AL in 2023 and for the NL last year after leaving the Angels for the Dodgers.
Skenes and Skubal are 1-2 in average four-seam fastball velocity among those with 1,500 or more pitches this season, Skenes at 98.2 mph and Skubal at 97.6 mph, according to MLB Statcast.
A 23-year-old right-hander who played at El Toro High, Skenes is 4-8 despite a major league-best 2.01 ERA for the Pirates, who are last in the NL Central. The 2024 NL Rookie of the Year has 131 strikeouts and 30 walks in 131 innings.
Skubal, a 28-year-old left-hander, is the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. He is 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA, striking out 153 and walking 16 in 121 innings.
ROBOT UMPIRES MAKING ALL-STAR DEBUT
Skubal views the strike zone differently than robot umpires.
“I have this thing where I think everything is a strike until the umpire calls it a ball,” the Detroit star said Monday.
MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 and will use it in an All-Star Game for the first time on Tuesday night. Each team gets two challenges and retains the challenge if it is successful.
“Pitchers think everything is a strike. Then you go back and look at it, and it’s two, three balls off,” Skenes said Monday. “We should not be the ones that are challenging it.”
MLB sets the top of the automated strike zone at 53.5% of a batter’s height and the bottom at 27%, basing the decision on the midpoint of the plate, 8½ inches from the front and 8½ inches from the back. That contrasts with the rule book zone called by umpires, which says the zone is a cube.
“I did a few rehabs starts with it. I’m OK with it. I think it works,” said Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner. “Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve should have different sized boxes. They’ve obviously thought about that. As long as that gets figured out, I think it’ll be fine.”
Manfred anticipates the system will be considered by the sport’s 11-man competition committee, which includes six management representatives.
Many pitchers have gravitated to letting their catchers and managers trigger ball/strike appeals. Teams won 52.2% of their challenges during the spring training test. Batters won exactly 50% of their 596 challenges and the defense 54%, with catchers successful 56% of the time and pitchers 41%.
Hall of Famer Joe Torre, an honorary AL coach, favors the system. After his managing career, he worked for MLB and helped supervised expanded video review in 2014.
“You couldn’t ignore it with all the technology out there,” he said. “You couldn’t sit and make an excuse for, ‘Look at what really happened’ the next day.”
Now 84, Torre recalled how his Yankees teams benefitted at least twice from blown calls in the postseason, including one involving the strike zone.
With the 1998 World Series opener tied and the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning, Tino Martinez took a 2-and-2 pitch from San Diego left-hander Mark Langston that appeared to be a strike but was called a ball by Richie Garcia. Martinez hit a grand slam on the next pitch for a 9-5 lead, and the Yankees went on to a four-game sweep.
Asked whether he was happy there was no robot umpire then, Torre grinned and said: “Possibly.”
Then he added without a prompt: “Well, not to mention the home run that Jeter hit.”
His reference was to Derek Jeter’s home run in the 1996 AL Championship Series opener, when 12-year-old fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall to snatch the ball above the glove over Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco.
WILL YAMAMOTO BE A RED CARPET FASHION STAR?
When Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his All-Star Game red carpet debut Tuesday, stylist Whitney Etoroma expects the Dodgers pitcher to shine just as much as he does on the mound.
“I think it will be a moment,” she told The Associated Press.
The pair are making a final decision on what he’ll wear, but Etoroma is pushing for a Thom Browne runway look that will “push the envelope.”
As part of a program created in 2019, MLB provided stylists for the red carpet to Yamamoto, Seattle catcher Raleigh, Skubal and the Cubs’ Crow-Armstrong as baseball aims to raise its fashion profile and highlight the style of some of its biggest stars.
Yamamoto won’t pitch in the All-Star Game after throwing seven scoreless innings for the Dodgers on Sunday but will participate in the festivities leading up to it. He’s in his second season in the majors after signing a 12-year, $325 million contract following a seven-year career with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan.
Etoroma, who has styled scores of professional athletes, said designers have been particularly interested in Yamamoto, which she believes is because of his cool look and international appeal.
“I’m excited because fashion actually really cares about Yoshi, which is kind of a rarity,” she said. “I will say with other players in the past, they haven’t been as excited, but with Yoshi, it’s something special, something different.”
Though she has 15 different looks for Yamamoto to choose from, she’s hoping to steer him to the Thom Browne look because of the exclusivity of the brand.
“I’ve been like look, this is gonna be incredible,” she said she told him. “If you do Thom Browne, game over, that’s actually a huge level up in fashion. They don’t say yes to anybody. It has to be a very specific person and so hopefully we do that. But I’m not gonna push too much (and) if not I’m happy to go with the classic look.”
Whatever suit he chooses, it will be accessorized with David Yurman jewelry.
Wearing a visionary designer like Thom Browne might be a bit much for Yamamoto, who calls Nike his favorite designer.
“Being honest, I’m not that into fashion, but I appreciate (being called stylish),” he said in Japanese through a translator Monday.
He did say that he’s looking forward to the red carpet, but wouldn’t give any hints as to what he’s leaning toward wearing for the event.
“That’s a secret, I’m not telling,” he said.
Melanie Boppel, who recently styled Jalen Hurts and his wife Bryonna for the Met Gala, is dressing both Raleigh and Skubal for this year’s red carpet.
Skubal, a two-time All-Star who is starting for the American League on Tuesday night, has been working with Boppel to curate a look that will make him feel confident on the red carpet.
“What’s going to be really important are accessories,” she said. “He really wants to tie in Detroit, since that’s the team he plays for and he also wants to tie in the city of Atlanta since the All-Star game will be taking place in Atlanta. So, I hope to bring out those two ideas he has through accessories. We’ll see how that pans out. It might be through his wardrobe as well.”
Boppel hopes the momentum gained from Tuesday’s red carpet style will trickle down to create more interest among fans in what they’re wearing all season like there is for basketball and football.
“The day of the red carpet, there is a lot of focus on the athletes, but it’s just the longevity of style being at the forefront of the players throughout the rest of the season that’s the hard part,” she said. “There’s so many games, they’re traveling so it’s just hard to continue that. But they do get a lot of recognition for the red carpet and All-Star and that whole weekend and I hope at some point it does continue to stick and there is consistency there.”
Raleigh, who leads the majors with a career-high 38 home runs, describes his style as “very bland,” and added: “I’m not the style guy.”
But he is looking forward to sprucing up Tuesday night.
“I like looking good,” he said at All-Star media day. “I think everybody does, right? You want to look good. Especially on the red carpet. I like looking professional and putting together a good fit.”
The catcher said working with a stylist for the event has been great for him.
“I don’t love shopping too much, so it’s nice having somebody that can just throw something on, and I just can pick it and it’s easy,” he said.
And for someone who earned the nickname “Big Dumper” for his generous backside, there’s one must-have for him when it comes to clothes.
“As long as it stretches, I like it,” he said.
AP sports writer Kristie Rieken contributed to this story.