Published: Friday, Jul. 03, 2009

Updated: Friday, Jul. 03, 2009

Decisions, decisions for All-Star managers

Rays’ Maddon has to educate himself on rest of the AL

Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield is having a heck of a year for the Boston Red Sox.

“I did not know that,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “That really blew me up.”

Former Rays pitcher Edwin Jackson is among the league leaders in ERA.

“I did not know that,” Maddon said.

Maddon didn’t realize the years Adam Lind, Aaron Hill and Scott Rolen are having for Toronto until last weekend, when he looked ahead to the Rays’ recently concluded three-game series with the Blue Jays.

“I didn’t even realize (Los Angeles Angels center fielder) Torii Hunter was having the year he’s having until we played them,” Maddon said.

It’s not as if Maddon doesn’t care about opposing players, it’s just that he only has time to concern himself with the players on his team and the team the Rays are playing. It’s a steady stream of injury reports, hitters’ spray charts and pitcher-batter matchups.

“I’m pretty much locked into that routine,” Maddon said.

That’s why Maddon planned to spend part of Thursday’s off-day in Arlington, Texas, scanning the stats across the American League. Part of the spoils of managing in the World Series is you get to manage the All-Star Game the following year. And part of the problem of managing the All-Star team is having a say on who is invited to the Mid-Summer Classic and who isn’t.

Maddon is not the type of manager who stays up late watching ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.” He relaxes after games by watching “Dirty Jobs,” “How It’s Made,” and, his favorite, reruns of “The Office.”

“A lot of this stuff I swear to you I haven’t paid attention to,” he said. “I have tunnel vision about it.”

But, he added, “I will admit, though, I have looked at numbers a little bit more, almost from a fan’s perspective. I have actually looked a little bit more than I would have other than the team we’re playing next.”

All-Star Game managers don’t have as much input on their roster as most think. The fans vote for the starters, the players vote for the reserves. The manager has to pick the remaining seven spots on the 33-player roster, four of whom must be pitchers, and choose which five players will be included in the final online vote to select the last player on the roster.

Last year that player in the American League was Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, who will start this year as per the choice of the fans.

The commissioner’s office also has a hand in helping the managers select those final players. Keep in mind, each team has to be represented, so sometimes the final spots go to the best players on the worst team, but only if those players can fill the three-position-player/four-pitcher quota.

For managers, this is the absolute worst part of managing the All-Star Game.

“I haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Maddon said. “What I’m still waiting on is the results of the elections, the fan voting and the player voting and at that point waiting until how it all shakes out and what decisions are to be made. I’d like to believe that I trained myself to be fair and to look at all the different data in regards to who deserves to be on that team.”

The Rays sent a franchise-best three players to the 2008 All-Star Game. And that came during a season when Maddon said the Rays really didn’t have a true All-Star.

It’s a little different this year. Longoria is a lock. Carl Crawford leads the major leagues in stolen bases, is batting .321, and defends his position better than any left fielder in baseball. Shortstop Jason Bartlett is batting .366 and is second behind the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter in votes at their position.

And what about Ben Zobrist? The super utility player has started at six positions before replacing Akinori Iwamura after Iwamura injured his knee May 24. Zobrist is batting .267 with 16 home runs and a .632 slugging percentage.

Some of Maddon’s toughest picks could involve his own players, who in other years, he would be pushing hard to make the All-Star team.

“I think a lot of it will take care of itself,” Maddon said. “They’ll be a couple of tough decisions to make and hopefully, I’ll get enough good information at the end, a lot of good advice and attempt to make the right decisions.”