Cyrus Torres to start Season 9 All-Star Game

Well, it seemed like a longshot once upon a time, but today it was announced that the starter of tonight's All-Star Game for the American League will be none other than our own Cyrus Torres, whose accomplishment is made even more impressive by the fact that he's a rookie and he made his first 4 starts of the year in AAA.

Torres is currently 11-0 (easily possessing the most wins for a pitcher this year who has yet to lose, not to mention being tied for 2nd in the majors in wins). His 2.76 ERA and 1.12 WHIP both rank first in the league among all qualified starters, and while his 87 strikeouts don't seem terribly impressive, his 7.32 K:IP ratio is actually 13th in the league. Better yet is that he has a ratio of exactly 3 strikeouts for every walk, ranking him third in the AL in that category (interestingly, our other rookie SP, Jeffery Rivera, is an impressive 5th with 2.88). In 15 ML starts this year, he's had 13 quality starts, and a 14th in which he gave up 4 runs over 8 innings ("quality start" or not, I'd take that any day). He's tied for 3rd in the AL in quality starts despite only making 15 starts so far this year (as opposed to the 19 made by those ahead of him). Basically what I'm saying is, Torres has easily been the best or second-best SP in the league this year as a 23-year old rookie. Only Tampa Bay's Warren Hargrave can really make a claim as being the AL's best pitcher so far this year, and it's close enough that if they continue at their current paces, Cy Young Award voters may have a tough time picking a winner. I think it's safe to say, however, that barring a total meltdown or the second coming of Jesus getting called up from AAA, Cyrus Torres is cruising to this year's Rookie of the Year award.

More good news comes in the form of us having three other players either voted or selected to this year's All-Star team, giving us four overall:

- Vic Servet will be starting in CF for the AL after amassing the highest vote total of any CF in either league. Servet has had a tremendous comeback year, hitting .308 with 17 homers and 23 doubles in 87 games so far this year. That home run total already eclipses last year's grand total of 14, and the doubles are more than Servet has had overall in either of the last two entire seasons. His OPS of .896 is the highest we've seen Servet have since the team played in hitter-friendly Montreal back in season 5. This will be Servet's 3rd career All-Star appearance.

- Tim Juden started the year rather disastrously, but he has come back in grand style, amassing 11 wins and a 4.07 ERA en route to being selected as a reserve pitcher on this year's All-Star team. This will be Juden's 3rd selection.

- Rob McNamara was expected to give us a solid offensive and defensive upgrade, but few expected him to be this good. In 83 games he has hit .320 with 17 home runs and 27 doubles (only 7 doubles away from tying his highest career mark). He has been a huge defensive upgrade up the middle, and his glove has been just as big a reason as his bat for our success this year. This will be McNamara's 2nd selection, and his 2nd in a row.

Danny Milligan, who is third in the league in batting average and first among all catchers, somehow missed the cut. Orval Yeats and his 68 steals (more SB than 19 teams currently possess) also missed out, but that .252 batting average certainly isn't doing him any favors.