MLB History

Baseball history is littered with undeserving All-Star selections, due in large part to the rule that each team must be represented. In today's era of bloated all-star rosters, it's hard to imagine a good player playing his entire career without ever making an all-star team. Here are some of the best players to never make it to a mid-season classic.

Catcher- Cliff Johnson

As most of us know, the Pirates have stunk for a long, long time.

Since 1992, the Buccos have made mistake after mistake in the development, trading, drafting, and signing of free agent players. Every time a player starts to pan out, the Pirates trade him for an average of three prospects.

When you're lucky, one of those three pan out. Then you trade that guy for three more prospects and hope one of those pans out so you can start the vicious cycle again.

When you pan over this era, you see a few deals that have been good ones, not many, but a couple have worked out.

On July 6, 1971, New York's most beloved franchise, the New York Mets, announced that ace left-hander Jerry Koosman was being placed on the 21-day disabled list.

Koosman started against the Montreal Expos at Shea Stadium, but was forced to leave following only one inning of work. After the game, Mets' manager Gil Hodges said Jerry had developed tightness in his left side.

A team spokesman told reporters, "They don't know what it is. It could be his shoulder or his back or a virus. They don't know what."

The New York Mets are now crossing their fingers. It was announced late Friday night that their dynamic leadoff man, Jose Reyes, will undergo an MRI for his injured right oblique. This story was first reported by ESPN's Adam Rubin .

When does the Major League leader in losses by a pitcher generate major buzz amongst the teams looking to add pitching at the trade deadline?

When that pitcher has a 3.08 ERA, 112 strikeouts in 120 innings pitched and just threw a one hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, in which he allowed only a two-out first inning single before holding the team hitless the rest of the way.

Or, to put it another way, when that pitcher's name is Roy Oswalt.

If there is anything we've learned from recent baseball history, it is that the good teams make the obvious moves when the time comes to make them, but the great teams make the right moves when no one else sees them.

To my mind, the best recent example of the difference between obvious moves and good moves comes from the Ken Williams Era in Chicago.  After the 2004 season, Williams traded Carlos Lee to the Milwaukee Brewers for Scott Podsednik and allowed Magglio Ordonez to sign with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent.

You could feel the buzz the moment you stepped out of your car.

Whether you parked your buggy somewhere along Abbott Street or off Michigan Avenue, or in the Firestone lot across the street from the ballpark, the air was teeming with baseball electricity.

Maybe the Blue Jays were in town, or the Yankees. Perhaps those darn Orioles.

Yesterday we did the All-Time National League All-Star Game Starting Lineup, based on which players had the most All-Star Game starts, by position.

Today, we look at the American League team.

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Cliff Lee to the Yankees! Prince Fielder to the Giants! Dan Haren to the Cardinals! Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox!

As the 2010 Trade Deadline approaches—and speculation runs rampant regarding this year’s potential blockbuster deals—we should temper the frenzy by revisiting the decade’s biggest blockbuster busts.

There have been plenty of significant Most Valuable Players through the history of Major League Baseball, but which 10 are the best of the bests?

From studs in the American League like Mickey Mantle in 1956, 1957, and 1962, to duds like the AL’s Dustin Pedoria in 2008, let’s power rank the 10 most valuable MVPs to ever play America’s Pastime.

As a side note, I want to go ahead and inform readers that this is—by far—the toughest top 10 list I’ve ever had to put together, and just because some of the current talent may be towards the back end of (or not even