My All-Star Team: National League Pitchers

So far we've covered the hitters from the American League, the hitters from the National League, and the American League pitchers, so now we'll try to tackle the National League pitching. Again, we'll use some of the same criteria we used in the American League to dwindle down the competition until we find the winners. 8 starters, 5 relievers. And since I may have erred in leaving Jose Valverde out yesterday, we'll start with the relievers today (for some reason, Baseball-Reference hasn't updated from last night so we're missing the Arthur Rhodes blow-up and any other pitching performances from last night in the analysis):

Relievers: Again, 25 innings pitched qualifies you for our All-Star pickings so 66 National League relievers are in our mix to start things out. We'll start as we did yesterday by eliminating anyone with a 3.50 ERA or higher. So say so long to 20-save man Francisco Cordero (4.25 ERA), 15-save Octavio Dotel (4.85), Wilton Lopez (0.88 BB/9 but 3.52 ERA), Rafael Betancourt (6.6 SO/BB but a 5.33 ERA), Joel Hanrahan (13.07 K/9 but 4.26 ERA) or Arizona's closers from 2010 Chad Qualls (8.88 ERA) or Aaron Heilman (3.51 ERA). That eliminates 31 players to quickly chop the relievers list to 35 as we try to get down to 5.

Read more>>

Oh That Jonathan Papelbon

He's such a good teammate. In response to his team maybe putting in a waiver request for Billy Wagner:

"What has he done? Has he pitched this year?" Jonathan Papelbon told WEEI.com. "Is he ready to pitch or is he not? ... I think our bullpen is good where we're at right now. Don't get me wrong. But I guess you could always make it better. It's kind of like the [Eric] Gagne thing, I guess."

Nice job, Papelbon. Way to roll out the red carpet for the guy.

Billy Wagner Back in 30 Days?

I think the New York Mets need to get a new medical staff. The New York Daily News reports that Billy Wagner thinks he'll be back pitching two innings in a major league game in 30 days. That follows Jose Reyes who was determined to be day-to-day with a hamstring tear, John Maine who somehow got an arm injury from the flu, and J.J. Putz was OK to pitch even though he had to have a bone spur removed. Oh yes, and Carlos Delgado was day-to-day as well...and may be out for the entire season.

Awkward...(but not as awkward as Artie Lange on the Joe Buck show...wow)