The All-Star rosters were announced by Major League Baseball on Sunday. Here are few notes of interest:

REDS - Closer Francisco Cordero gets the nod and is the team's lone representative. The right-hander will be making his third trip to the mid-summer classic. He made it in 2004 as a Texas Ranger and then again while playing for the Brewers in 2007. There was speculation that Johnny Cueto would be the choice from the team, but a deep pool of starters and Cordero's solid numbers (20 of 21 save conversions) made the veteran the pick.

PUJOLS TO VOTE GETTER - The NL MVP is well on his way to another amazing year, leading the majors with 31 homers and 82 RBIs. He collected 5,397,374 votes to finish with the second-highest total in history, trailing only Ken Griffey Jr.'s six million votes in 1994. Pujols has made the NL team eight times in nine seasons and will be making his sixth start.

WAKEFIELD FINALLY GETS NOD - Starter Tim Wakefield made his first All-Star roster in his 17th season, one of a major league-high six Red Sox headed to Busch Stadium for the July 14 game. The 42-year-old right-hander is tied for the big league lead with 10 wins.

LEFT OUT - Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, both 12-time All-Stars, weren't expected to make the rosters, but their absence was compelling nonetheless. Ramirez was suspended for the first 50 games of the season for violating MLB's drug policy and A-Rod missed time following hip surgery after admitting in spring training to using steroids when he played for the Rangers.

FINAL VOTE - The 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote on MLB.com will determine the 33rd N.L. roster spot, a competition that will feature shortstop Cristian Guzman of the Nationals, outfielder Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, third baseman Mark Reynolds of the D-backs, third baseman Pablo Sandoval of the Giants and outfielder Shane Victorino of the Phillies. Fans can now begin voting to select the final player for each League's 33-man roster via the 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote on MLB.com, casting their votes from a list of five players from each League over a four-day period. In the A.L. third baseman Chone Figgins of the Angels, third baseman Brandon Inge of the Tigers, second baseman Ian Kinsler of the Rangers, outfielder Adam Lind of the Blue Jays, and first baseman Carlos Peña of the Rays will be competing for the final spot.

COMPLETE ALL-STAR ROSTERS

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It was seventy years ago that Lou Gehrig said goodbye (July 4, 1939):

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Can we all just get along?:

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 (from Wall Street Journal)

The New York Yankees’ 18-game streak without committing an error, which ended earlier this month, highlighted the stat’s increasing irrelevance to analysis of fielding proficiency.

While the Yankees’ feat was impressive, it also happened in an environment when fewer plays are being scored as errors than ever before. Through Tuesday, the overall major-league fielding percentage this year — the sum of putouts and assists divided by the sum of putouts, assists and errors — is 0.9841, the highest in major-league history.

Fielding proficiency is inching slowly towards perfection, from 0.9837 last year, 0.9836 the year before and 0.9832 in 2006, when the Red Sox set the previous record for an errorless streak of 17 games, according to data provided by Sean Forman of Baseball Reference.Yet such small shifts have a big effect on the probability of a team emerging from a given set of 18 straight games with clean stat sheets. For an average team so far this season, that probability is one in 59,100. That’s minuscule, but it’s twice as likely as it would have been when Boston pulled off its shorter streak. And it’s nearly 11 times more likely than an 18-game streak would have been when the St. Louis Cardinals set the prior record of 16 games in 1992, with a leaguewide fielding proficiency of 0.9811.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

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From Associated Press...

NEW YORK (AP) — The barrage of home runs at new Yankee Stadium is being caused by shorter dimensions, not weather, according to AccuWeather.com. The meteorology company said Tuesday that 20 of the 105 home runs hit at the $1.5 billion ballpark would not have gone out of the old Yankee Stadium.

"For someone attending a game at the new Yankee Stadium or watching on TV, the size of the playing field appears to be the same," AccuWeather meteorologist Tim Buckley said in a statement Tuesday. "The dimensions at select corners of the field are identical — and the posted numbers on the walls reflect that. However, detailed schematics of the park reveal some nuances that have significant implications."

Speculation has centered on whether there is a wind tunnel in right field caused by either the open concourses or the slope of the stands, which is less steep that the original Yankee Stadium.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

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from the Daily News...

Not only Yankees' closer Mariano Rivera serve up a rare four-run inning in taking the loss, he stepped out of character and publicly disagreed with a key strategic decision by his manager in an ugly 9-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at the Stadium.

After Tampa Bay had taken a 6-5 lead on Joe Dillon's tiebreaking single, Joe Girardi elected to have Rivera intentionally walk pinch hitter Evan Longoria two outs later, and the move blew up in their faces when B.J. Upton extended the lead with a single to center, leading Girardi to remove the closer from the game before Tampa Bay would add two more runs in the inning.

"That's the manager's decision, if it was me I would pitch to him," Rivera said when asked about the decision to walk Longoria. "That's what I do. I'm not going to go there to intentionally walk guys. I think I have good stuff to get people out. But that's the manager's decision. That's why I'm not the manager."

COMPLETE ARTICLE

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Watching A-Rod's would-be-flyball leave the yard to tie up Saturday's Yankees-Phillies' match-up epitomized exactly how ridiculous the setup at the new Yankee Stadium.

Balls are flying out a record pace, something like 3.5 bombs per game. There is a real chance that they will break the Coors Field mark of 303 homeruns hit in a stadium in a season at a stadium. That was set in 1991.

Philadelphia Inquirer columinst Phil Sherridan called out the Bronx Bombers' brass in his Sunday column.

"When the most steroid-tainted team in baseball builds a stadium that makes Citizens Bank Park look like the old Polo Grounds, you can expect a lot of home runs. And when the most notorious steroid-linked active player returns after surgery, it should surprise no one that seven of his first 10 hits are home runs," Sheridan wrote.

Mike Lupica added more in his insight in Sunday's New York Daily News.

"Ballplayers looking to hit home runs in bunches apparently don't need to use steroids anymore. They just have to pay a visit to the new Yankee Stadium, which suddenly looks like the performance-enhancing capital of the world," Lupcia claimed.

"It's why the Yankees have to jump on this thing right now, balls flying out of the place like they've spent $1.5 billion recreating the dimensions of the park where they play the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa."

Don't expect a power shortage anytime soon in the Bronx.

The new $1.5 billion stadium is supposed to be a near-replica of the stoic old one just across the street, but with more modern amenities like more toilets, slightly bigger seats, and added luxury boxes. But the differences, though minor on the grand scale, could be crucial. Greg Rybarczyk, the creator of Hit Tracker, which tracks every home run in Major League Baseball, used satellite imagery and photographs of the old stadium, and engineering plans for the new park, and determined that right field is indeed shallower in the new stadium.

Rybarczyk also found that the right field fence in the old stadium was about two feet higher than the current one — which could mean the difference between a fly ball and a homer in some cases.

Rybarczyk is also investigating the intriguing possibility that this season's balls could be "livelier" than last year's. "Manufacturing processes tend to shift and drift over time," he said, "And it's entirely plausible that this year's batch of baseballs is within specification, but just slightly more resilient than the prior year's batch."

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Pat Venditte, 23, is Major League Baseball's only ambidextrous pitcher. The righty/lefty is more than just a Youtube star though... He is getting people out. At one point in April, the pitcher's ERA was 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings and hadn't blown a save in five games.

Venditte had 23 saves last year for the Staten Island Yankees, with a 0.83 ERA. 

The possibilities with Pat make him very intriguing. It takes all the strategy away from the other team as far as whether to use a right-handed or left-handed pinch-hitter. It also takes pitch counts out of the equation, because he can pitch darn near every day. 

Venditte is literally two different pitchers on the mound. From the right side, Venditte brings a 90 MPH fastball, a curve and a nice change. However from the left side, Venditte throws sidearm with a nasty slider and a change. He's a five pitch pitcher.

Venditte says that he knows he would never have made it this far without his special talent, but thanks to his parents encouraging the use of both hands at an early age he is closing in on his dream of playing in "the show." 

Here's an article from Rick Reilly about Venditte.

How do you beat a guy who throws righty and lefty? You don't.

And who can forget this ESPN clip of the cat-and-mouse game between Venditte and a Switch-Hitter.

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Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.

1. Johan Santana will get two extra days of rest and won't pitch until Wednesday. He is out as a two-start pitcher for week five. John Maine, who was supposed to start on Sunday, will go on Monday, making him a two-start pitcher. He should be categorized as a "Risky Business" pitcher this week.

2. The rainout has given Cole Hamels some extra time to heal as he won't be pitching until Friday. He's only starting once this week. Joe Blanton will start tonight against the Cardinals and is now an extreme "Risky Business" type pitcher.

3. A.J. Burnett will no longer be pitching on Tuesday. That task belongs to Phil Hughes. He'll be going twice this week and should be considered a low-end "Solid Start".

4. Shane Loux will still be pitching twice this week for the Angels even though he got pushed back one day. Anthony Ortega will no longer be going twice, but Joe Saunders will be. He starts Monday and Saturday and is a pretty "Solid Start".

COMPLETE WEEK 5 TWO-TIME STARTERS

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Fantasy owners waiting patiently for C.C. Sabathia to deliver on his "elite starter" fantasy status, were at least given a glimpse of what is good about the $180 million man on Monday night in the Yankees' 4-0 loss to the Tigers.

Sabathia dropped to 1-2 with the loss and was outpitched by Justiin Verlander, but he did go the distance and struck out a season-high seven batters. Through is first five starts, the former Cy Young winner has posted a 1-2 record with a 4.73 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 19 K"s. Hardly the numbers you would expect out of a pitcher that carried his price tag, but it is early.

Consider his numbers early last season as a member of the Indians (was traded to Milwaukee in July). Sabathia started the 2008 season by posting a 1-5 record in his first seven starts while allowing 32 runs in 36 1/3 innings (7.93 ERA) with a 1.87 WHIP. That parlayed into him becoming one of the best buy low candidates in recent memory.

Last year, he was pitching for a contract though. This year he's pitching as the highest-paid arm in the history of the game in a city where if things go wrong it is not pretty.

While I am not expecting him to go a run as impressive as last year's after he got dealt to the Brewers, but Monday night's start was a good sign of things to come for Sabathia. His career numbers tell me all that I need to know and I still put him as a top five fantasy pitcher right now. It may be a good time to gage what it would take to land him in a trade.

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