Craig, 

While you may dislike the media playing the ‘what if’ story game with where Joe Mauer may be in two years I suspect that the rumor the Sox have interest in Jeff Francoeur has to have you a little giddy.  Why the interest is beyond me - we already had our drunk version of Pedro Feliz in Wily Mo - but such rumors are all part of the same game of speculation.

Isn’t All Star voting merely a populist contest to give fans a say in a game?  Vote early and often for Manny works for me.
Moving right along, the Home Run Derby got kind of killed off during the PED era, or am I missing something?

Agree with the difference and how such story can perceived as the rich team taking advantage of the poor team.  Everyone was writing about CC playing for the Yankee just a few year ago and behold their predictions were right - though it did not Karnak the Great to get that prediction right. 

However these stories are just byproducts of 1) the economic system of baseball that allows for the rich and poor team disparity, 2) the sports culture that has made mock drafts, especially in football, and rumor web sites part of our daily/weekly reading, and 3) the need for writers for fill copy requirements without doing lots of hard work investigating other stories (i.e. a lazy writers way to write a ‘creative’ story without much effort).  Not that I think any of the above justify such speculation but it has become part of our sports culture. 

In an odd way such stories may actually help the GM of the poor team save face when they eventually trade away the star play who is a former Cy Young or MVP as it was clear to everyone that there was no way in heck the player would stay with the team unless they were willing to accept a big home team discount.  People may be calling for Shapiro’s head in Cleveland but not because he got LaPorta and Brantley for CC and his having to trade CC to get value helped the Brewers make the playoff.  So maybe, in a strange way, Nic Carfado is helping Bill Smith out when he opts to trade Mauer so he get something back as everyone know that Mauer will take the highest dollar contract his agent gets and the MLBPA approves of.

Jo was the last in a long line of tomboys Hollywood forced on an unsuspecting yet ultimately interested populace in the 1970s. Tatum O’Neal, Kristy McNicol, and then Jo.  It was a type that even I as a very young kid looked at and thought . . .hmmm. Interesting.

i filled out about 20 all star ballots are the braves game just to try to get Manny in there.  I really just want to see what MLB does about it…

there is nothing wrong with the fans voting for the starting 9.  Are you telling me you don’t want to see Manny in the AS game?  Are you not a fan of interesting?