My One-Star Roster is in the works and filling in quite nicely.  But a few things have happened in the last few days that deserve a few moments of everyone’s time.  Starting in the MLB:

Final Vote winners were announced.  One of my guys, Cardinals SP Carlos Martinez (who really took it to the Pirates on Thursday night; he had a little bit of luck, but a lot of skill) made the team as did Royals 3B Mike Moustakas.  My other guy was Tigers OF Yoenis Cespedes.  Moustakas deserves the spot as he is second in AL third basemen in AVG and a 2.6 WAR, but his stats aren’t page jumping the way Xander Bogaerts and Cespedes are.  But the city of Kansas City did in the Final Vote what it did for the All-Star voting as a whole and just out-voted everyone.  And I still can’t figure out why Brock Holt is an All-Star and Bogaerts isn’t.  But I digress.

The All-Star Roster is rounding out nicely.  It isn’t complete, yet, there is still two games left before the break and a player can get injured.  Plus, there are always the pitchers who pitch Sunday to rule out.  I do like the new blood in the All-Star Game, though.  15 first time players in the AL and 14 in the NL is a good look at the new, upcoming talent in the MLB.  There are still 40 returners on both rosters combined, but it’s a good look.  Also, it is an increase of last season where there were 25 first time All-Stars in the game.

The Pirates vs. Cardinals series has been grand in the two games so far.  A potential playoff match up at the end of the season, it has illustrated why these two teams are the best two in the majors.  SP Gerrit Cole gave another audition to start the All-Star Game by obtaining his MLB leading 13th win; RP Mark Melancon tied a Pirates franchise record for most saves before the All-Star Break at 29.  That also leads the MLB and there are two more games that he can add to that total with.  Matt Carpenter has shown to still be a thorn in the Pirates side as he crushed a two run home run last night.

It also showed some bad things for each team.  Cole has struck out only eight guys in 15 IP in his last two starts which is the fewest of any back-to-back starts for Cole this season.  The Cardinals are showing a lack of depth that could haunt them in the stretch due to the amount of injuries this team has sustained.  Michael Wacha has already eclipsed his innings from last season, Jaime Garcia hasn’t thrown 100 IP in the last two seasons combined, and Lance Lynn couldn’t find the strike zone last night, lasting only 4 IP.  Still a great team with a formidable roster, I just worry about how the pitching will hold up for them down the stretch.  Finally, Mike Matheny confused me with his argument after Walker got hit with the ball.  I understand he wanted a double play but the rule is that once it hits a runner, he’s out and it’s a dead ball.  They can’t change it just because.

NFL:

The big news from the NFL is that Greg Hardy had his suspension reduced from 10 games to four.  That really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone.  Given the precedents set by the Ray Rice case and the Adrian Peterson case, four to six games is what I was anticipating.  Hardy missed all but one game last season for the Panthers, just like AP, and his incident happened after the discipline ruling was changed by the NFL, just as the Ray Rice case.  And this reduction has nothing to do with domestic violence and everything to do with precedents.  You can’t change the rules on a case-by-case basis.  And Hardy had the charges against him dropped.  I’m not saying that was right in any way, but it’s what happened.  If you want to be mad at anything or anyone about it, be mad at the NFL for having such lax penalties regarding domestic violence and it taking top NFL stars having their incidents to bring the lack of a penalty to the forefront, finally forcing the NFL to update the penalty.

Sidebar: I wrote this while listening to the Avengers: Age of Ultron soundtrack.  Worth the buy; it’s very well put together and the songs are exhilarating.