American LOLeague ALOL Stars Applesauce: NL Shuts Out AL, Wright And Dickey Make Appearances, Dillon Gee Is DL'd With A Blood Clot

The National League defeated the American League 8-0 in the 2012 All-Star game, showing that the NL really, really wanted to win home field advantage in the World Series more than the AL (OBVIOUSLY!). The Senior Circuit jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, thanks to the first inning struggles of Justin Verlander, whose command was all over the place despite becoming a Cholula Flamethrower on his very first pitch. The big blow in the first inning came off the bat of Pablo Sandoval (BOOOOOO), who hit a bases clearing/Met fan trolling triple. Of course, the real show began in the fourth inning when MVP candidate/the best third baseman in baseball David Wright entered the game. Unfortunately, Wright went 0-2 with a strikeout. TRAID! R.A. Dickey came on in the sixth and threw a scoreless inning with a strikeout, while allowing a hit and hitting a batter. Hooray R.A.!

Meet the Mets

The big story on Tuesday was that righty Dillon Gee was hospitalized with a blood clot in his right shoulder. Gee had surgery to remove the clot and was placed on the disabled list. He'll be replaced by Miguel Batista for the time being. Leaving baseball aside, here's hoping that Dillon recovers from this quickly without any complications. Toby Hyde compiled a list of Major League pitchers who had blood clots at one point or another.

Chris Young will start for the Mets on Friday in place of Gee, followed by R.A. Dickey on Saturday and either Jon Niese or Johan Santana on Sunday, depending on the status of Johan's ankle. None of those starts will be going to Chris Schwinden, however. The recently reacquired pitcher finally cleared waivers and as a result, was removed from the 40-man roster.

With Gee headed to the DL, the Mets are likely to call up a reliever prior to Friday's game and it sounds like it'll either be Robert Carson or Josh Edgin.

Interleague rivalry games, like the Mets and Yankees matchups, will be cut down to four games in 2013. You won't hear me complaining.

At Mets Minor League Blog, Toby started the midseason review of his 2012 Top 41 prospects list with #36-41.

Excellent piece at the Hardball Times, as Chris Lund reasons that Lucas Duda's swing can be "unlocked" by tweaking his toe tap, in order to keep his body more balanced.

Patrick Flood decided to ignore defensive metrics this season thanks to James Cannon Lazer but he took a peak to see how his EYEZ rated the Mets through the middle of the season. In case you haven't checked, the metrics say that Lucas Duda may be a special kind of awful out in right field.

Around the Majors

Bud Selig said all sorts of crazy things on Tuesday, making me assume he's either senile or an excellent troll. First, he said that "the appetite for more instant replay in the sports is very low". He then followed that up with the insane idea of using the DH in National League parks, while letting the pitcher hit in AL parks. I don't even know...what is going on here?

Heath Bell has been removed as Marlins closer again, as the Fish will go to a closer by committee for a little while. Remember when signing an aging closer for 3 years at $27 million sounded like a good idea? Oh right, it never sounded like a good idea.

Cole Hamels has a lot of friends at the moment, as he was recruited by Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw to consider going out to LA. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay is going to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday.

Twins lefty reliever Glen Perkins has developed into a dominant reliever and what's more, Perkins is a True SABR and he regularly checks out his numbers on Fangraphs.

Former ace starter Ben Sheets is on the comeback trail with the Braves and will make his season debut against the Mets this Sunday.

Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo is the home of the Mets' AAA team, the Bisons. But the thought behind why the stadium was built 25 years ago was to attract a Major League team that they ultimately never got.

How about this: a man in Ohio found a gigantic stash of baseball cards from nearly a century ago that could be worth millions of dollars. Lucky guy.