Mizzou Baseball in the Minors & Majors

■ Not meant to be for Kinsler (Dallas News)

Sure enough, Dustin Pedroia has decided to not participate in the All-Star Game as the starting second baseman for the American League so that he can stay home with his pregnant wife. The most logical replacement for his spot seemed to be Ian Kinsler (03), who finished second in balloting to be the starter as well as the last player on the roster. Oh, yeah, Kinsler plays second base.

But Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon went with one of his own, first baseman Carlos Pena, who is hitting 23 points worse than Kinsler and with only four more home
runs.

Kinsler has had three chances now to make the his second straight All-Star team and missed out each time. Talk about not meant to be.

■ A good article about a former winner of our annual Base Cadet award: Kinsler uses trickery, proper timing when stealing third base (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Ian Kinsler has attempted to steal third base 21 times in his career, and the Texas Rangers’ second baseman has never been thrown out. He swiped No. 21 on Thursday night and scored moments later on a wild pitch.
. . .
"It’s more of a bait move," he said. "You try to make the pitcher think that you’re going. It’s about that and timing."
. . .

■ All-Star Bond impressing for Defenders (Norwich Bulletin)

Right now, everything is going Brock Bond’s (06-07) way.

“That’s the way baseball is,” he said. “Some days things don’t click and you don’t know what’s the problem. Luckily, I’ve been getting some pitches to hit and seeing the ball pretty good. I’m sticking to my approach, and it’s going good.”

Going good includes a selection to next week’s Eastern League All-Star Game.Had it not been for a tough grounder called an error instead of a hit on Wednesday in New Britain, Bond would have reached base in 55 straight games. For now, the streak ended at 51 games.

■ In praise of Brock Bond (Greg's Connecticut Defenders Blog ) [with photos!]

I mean really...a 3 for 3 game tonight with a walk and two runs scored just what you want from your leadoff batter--his BA is up to .341 and he was part of three DPs turned by CT tonight. Last night in NB he was 2 for 2 with three walks and he's reached base in like 50+ games in a row now. On yeah CT wins 4-2 in front of 5300+ at Dodd.

■ Fish make grade (Winnepeg Sun)

1B Cody Ehlers (01-04) (B-) -- The first-year Fish hasn't hit quite as well as expected but had 21 RBI in 39 games and delivered in some big spots.

■ From a comment on Yankees.ihblogs.com:

You can credit Torre Tyson (95-98), Charleston’s manager for the behavior of the kids coming through there. He demands it. He kept very close handle on Tabata, and
never had these issues. Tyson’s only 32-33 years old, but, grew up in a baseball family. His father Mike was a middle infielder with the Cards in the ’70s. His close friend was Joe Torre….that’s his connection. He was a minor league infielder out of the Red Sox system, was released and hooked on with the Yanks. He’s going to make somebody a fine manager soon.

■ All-Star Plans (AZCentral.com): Max Scherzer is going to Southern California for some surf and beach time with family.