WHO'S UP
NL aces
Led by two scoreless innings from starter Ubaldo Jimenez, the arms on the National League All-Star staff hoisted the league to its first victory in the midsummer event since 1996. The AL players who appeared in the game combined for two MVPs, three Rookie of the Year awards, five batting titles and 28 Silver Sluggers. Yet they managed to score only one run against nine pitchers. It was unearned and came on a sacrifice fly. It was a remarkable shutdown of a power-rich lineup, and it revealed how the senior circuit can finally compete with that DH league: pitching.
CROOKED NUMBERS
Jimenez became the first NL pitcher since Greg Maddux in 1988 to have 15 wins before the All-Star break. Since 1980, only seven pitchers have hit that milestone — famous because it's the midpoint to 30 wins, of course — and only two of those seven have been able to keep the pace in the second half. The other quick starters:
| PITCHER, Team | YEAR | First Half (W-L, ERA) | Second half (W-L, ERA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joaquin Andujar, STL | 1985 | 15-4, 2.37 | 6-8, 4.74 |
| Roger Clemens, BOS | 1986 | 15-2, 2.48 | 9-2, 2.48* |
| Bret Saberhagen, KC | 1987 | 15-3, 2.47 | 3-7, 4.61 |
| Greg Maddux, CHI (NL) | 1988 | 15-3, 2.14 | 3-5, 4.92 |
| Pedro Martinez, BOS | 1999 | 15-3, 2.10 | 8-1, 2.01* |
| David Wells, TOR | 2000 | 15-2, 3.44 | 5-6, 4.97 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez, COL | 2010 | 15-1, 2.20 | TBD |
* Won that year's Cy Young Award
WHO'S DOWN
Expanded All-Star rosters
If one of the best players in the game (infielder Alex Rodriguez) and one of the best stories at the event (reliever Arthur Rhodes) don't even appear in the All-Star Game, then we have to ask: What good are 34-man rosters anyway? Major League Baseball expanded the rosters for the midsummer classic in an attempt to give the managers more assets to treat the game less like an exhibition and more like, ahem, "it counts." The bloated rosters had the opposite effect. With all of the DL players and replacements needed, 82 players were picked for this year's game. Eighty-two! That's more than one out of every 10 currently active major-leaguers. The result was a diluted honor and too many deserving players left out of the game. "I'm looking forward to next year," Rhodes told MLB.com, "and making the All-Star team again." The right thing to do would be to wish him luck — and then make it harder for him by reducing the roster spots.
CHATTERBOX
Cheerily optimistic about their chances almost from the day they dealt Milton Bradley to the Seattle Mariners, the Chicago Cubs have instead spiraled into the most disappointing season of the Lou Piniella era. They've had spats and slumps, scapegoats and skids, and covered all sorts of friction, from A to Zambrano. As they fell 10½ games back — their largest division deficit at the break since 2006 — they've lacked a little bit of everything except drama. Taking measure of the Cubs season via quotes:
On the eve of opening day • "It will be really enlightening for us. We'll learn a lot about everybody this year. So far, so good. It'll be nice to get off to a good start and keep all (of) this positive energy going. I think we have the right team." Owner Tom Ricketts, April 1. (MLB.com)
On May 17, when 5½ games back • "Lou's going to keep his job, bottom line because we're going to win. We're going to go to the playoffs. You can mark the day I said it, today." Outfielder Marlon Byrd. (Chicago Sun-Times)
On June 17, 6½ games out • "You get tired of being nitpicked, and I get tired of being criticized unjustly. ... I've won over 1,800 games as a manager, and I'm not a damn dummy." Manager Lou Piniella, to Chicago reporters.
On June 28, Carlos Zambrano goes on restricted list to get treatment for anger management • "Like Arnold Schwarzenegger said: 'I'll be back.'" Zambrano. (Chicago Tribune)
On July 1, with Cubs 10½ out • "It's tough, and the No. 1 reason it's tough is because nobody lets anything go of the past. I was here four out of the 100 years. You talk to most people, they act like I was here the whole 100 years. I'm only 61 years old." Reds manager Dusty Baker, who preceded Piniella as Cubs manager. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
At the All-Star break • "I don't like the Cubs. And I'm not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back. We are Cincinnati Reds. We're taught to hate everything in the Central Division. That's just how it is." Reds first baseman Joey Votto, in jest. (ESPN.com)
On Thursday, 10½ games back • "We put ourselves in this spot that we didn't foresee coming, and we're not pleased about it. ... It's a situation where we have good enough players to be a lot better than what we've done. We just didn't do it.'' GM Jim Hendry on not adding via trades. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Sources: Post-Dispatch research, Baseball-Reference.com.
