All-Star Stuff About All-Stars And Other MLBullets

All-Star mania...

• The All-Star teams have been announced (save for the 34th man fan voting thingy), and the Cubs got two - Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair - which has some folks complaining that a team of the Cubs' caliber shouldn't have two All-Stars. Shrug. Given the dearth of healthy talent at both shortstop and first base in the NL this year, you can understand the selections (which came by way of player vote, by the way). Forget that LaHair isn't, strictly speaking, a first baseman any more .... You can find the full AL and NL rosters here. Dusty Baker is already openly complaining that Johnny Cueto and Brandon Phillips were snubbed, and has essentially accused Tony LaRussa of ignoring his guys because of past bad blood between them and the Cardinals.

• Johnny Cueto addressed the snub in a manner befitting a middle school playground. "I see that I have great numbers," he said. "I thought the way I pitched this year, I'd have a chance to go to the All-Star Game. I don't know what happened. I don't if know the manager of All-Star Game is pissed at me because I went out with one of his girlfriends."
• On the trade rumor front, all of baseball was captivated this weekend by the will-he-won't-he saga of Carlos Lee's would-be trade to the Dodgers. Will he accept the deal? Will he reject it? Will the Dodgers be able to explain why they gave up Garrett Gould for a few months of Carlos Lee? Will we be able to forgive ourselves for being so captivated by such a meh move? That's how ready we are for trade action.
• And, to make us feel even more silly, last night, reports surfaced that the Dodgers had told Lee to stop worrying about it, because the deal was off. They wanted to move on, so they have. Thus ends (?) the Carlos Lee to the Dodgers saga.
• Much more compelling? The Phillies are reportedly calling around the League to see if teams are interested in trading for free-agent-to-be Cole Hamels. Sure, teams are interested. But are they willing to give up four to five prospects, include some top tier (the reported asking price) for a two/three-month rental of Hamels?
• As expected, Diamondbacks starter Daniel Hudson will have Tommy John surgery after tearing his UCL.
• A bad break for the Indians: they're going to be without Lonnie Chisenhall for 10 to 12 weeks after he broke his wrist on a hit by pitch this weekend.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.