Canada’s All-Stars

Tonight begins baseball’s mid-summer classic, the All Star Game and Events.  With the ever popular home run derby taking place tonight, Canadian’s can cheer for BC native Justin Morneau who represents the Twins in the event.

Tomorrow night’s game has a few Canadians in the line-up, although none are starters.  The NL side includes L.A. Dodgers’ catcher Russ Martin and Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster, with Justin Morneau the sole AL player.

Three Canadian players are not a lot, but this is probably a fair representation given the year a lot of Canadian players are having.  Francis and Bay are experiencing off-years, and even though some players like Joey Votto and Matt Stairs are having good years, they’re not all-star caliber.

Phillipe Aumont (Mariner’s #1 draft pick) was the lone Canadian in the futures game.  Although these numbers look a little bleak for Canadians in the game, there’s not only a solid core in the majors right now, but a growing number of prospects making their way through the minor system.  With the growth we’ve seen in the past few years, I think it is safe to expect more in the future.  Maybe we will look back at 2008 as an off year, but of course, it’s not over yet!

… and to Russ Martin

Russ martin was named last year’s Tip O’Neill award winner for being the top Canadian player in 2007.  This month the Canadian Baseball hall of Fame travelled to LA to present Martin with the award.

Last season he batted .293 with 19 homeruns and 87 RBI.  This season his average currently stand at .306, not bad for an excellent defensive player.

The Struggles of Gagne

2002-2004 were defining years for Eric Gagne.  For those three short years, he was one of the most dominating pitchers in baseball.  His ERA’s never went above 1.00 in an era were 3.00 is respectible.  The game was over once his name was called because nobody was going to do much off of him.  I remember hearing the roar of the Los Angeles crowds when his name was announced … they then knew they could leave early to beat the traffic because the game was over.

He holds the record for consecutive saves at 84, where the next closest is Gordon at 54 and Hoffman at 41.  Noboday has ever come close to this record, reminding me of a certain hit streak.  At the time of the streak, he was regularly compared to Bob Gibson’s 1968 season … with little debate.

But an elbow injury sidelined him for over a year, and now he’s never been the same.  Today it was announced the Milwaukee Brewers have dropped him as the closer.  It’s sad to see a pitcher with such a great multi-year performance see it end because of an injury.  What would have happened if he had stayed healthy.  Would more pitching records fall like the consecutive saves?

Eric Gagne was a very good pitcher who gave us one of the greatest pitching performances in history.  But that will be hard to remember after the recent struggles.  Which is a shame.