All-Star Starters...?

So apparently, yesterday the New York Post spilled the beans on the All-Star starters. The Hardball Times has the list (scroll down a bit): Mauer, Youkilis, Pedroia, Rodriguez, Jeter, Ramirez, Hamilton, Ichiro and Ortiz, with Cliff Lee on the mound. Follow the link for the NL guys.

From the performance perspective, I've only got a few nits to pick from that list (Jeter and Manny, to name two); however, according to this story from the Post's George King today, there were some "incorrect" players listed yesterday. So I'm not sure which story is referring to which list, and the above players may not be entirely correct. We'll see if it matches the final starters when they get announced today, and I'll have more thoughts then.

Rules for the Ambidextrous

I'm sure you remember the video I circulated previously about Pat Venditte, the Yankees' ambidextrous pitcher who danced the batter's box tango with a switch hitter in his professional debut.

Well, as a result of that incident, the minor league umpires' commission has created new rules to deal with it. It seems that the pitcher must now declare which arm he's pitching with first; the batter can then decide where he wants to bat. This seems like it would pretty much neutralize any advantage an ambidextrous pitcher would have.

In other news, check out the Newark Star-Ledger's coverage of one of the things that makes Yankees/Red Sox great: interminable games.