It may be the All-Star break, but the news hasn't taken a break.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

Apparently hitting a walk-off sac fly only merits a little Gatorade bath.

It appears Ben Sheets will be the first Brewer pitcher ever to start the All-Star Game. It's an honor, certainly, but it also means I'll be holding my breath for the first 2-3 innings. Sheets also won Dayn Perry's first half NL Cy Young, which is much less prestigious but comes without the risk of injury in a meaningless game.

Home Run Derby participants can choose anyone they want to throw pitches they're going to launch into the stratosphere. Ryan Braun, given those roughly 6.4 billion options, has chosen his agent, Nez Balelo. Huh?

Beyond the Box Score is the most recent blog to debunk the "Derby Curse" theory. But if you're looking for a reason to curse during the Derby, feel free to try out the Home Run Derby drinking game.

With six starters and five spots, there's still talk that the Brewers may use a platooned fifth starter, with Dave Bush starting at home and Seth McClung starting on the road. I can't wrap my brain around that logic...statistics would suggest it would work...but how could it?

Maybe next season, one of them can close. Salomon Torres won't say if he's planning on retiring after this season.

The Sabathia trade has been met with pretty widespread approval. In fact, even Matt LaPorta thinks it was the right move.

These brawls are always entertaining when someone else's minor leaguers are in them: here's video (and crappy news coverage) of Saturday night's brawl in Huntsville's game. (h/t Brewerfan.net) I'm guessing suspensions will be coming out shortly for this mess.

On injuries:

Kelvim Escobar will have surgery to repair a torn right labrum and will miss the rest of 2008 and likely some of 2009.
Pedro Martinez left his start Saturday with a sore groin.
Dodgers P Takashi Saito will undergo an MRI to determine the severity and cause of tightness in his elbow.
Kerry Wood will miss the All-Star game due to a blister on his pitching hand.

Reports are coming out that Nats GM Jim Bowden and special assistant Jose Rijo are under investigation for skimming signing bonus money from Dominican players. Obviously, everyone involved is innocent until proven guilty. With that said, if there turns out to be truth behind the allegations, this is a slimy thing to do at best. Many, if not most Dominican players grow up in tremendous poverty, and anyone caught taking money off the top of their first opportunity to do better should never work in baseball again.

Here's a better way to produce some extra cash: Some Korean teams may consider reducing their night games to save on energy costs. The electricity needed to power one night game could power one house for more than six months.

Sabathia's home run was cool, but he's still got a long way to go to reach this milestone: With a home run Friday, Rick Ankiel has now hit more home runs (33) than he's given up (32).

So how bad is Mariners DH Jose Vidro? Apparently it depends on who you ask. Tangotiger asked the question twice, once to non-Mariner fans and once to Mariner fans, and reached an interesting conclusion.

Oh, and the guy who checks IDs at Wrigley Field is sleeping on the job.

Drink up.