MLB: ALL-STAR WEEK /// COLORADO ROCKIES, NOT TOO LATE FOR A JUMP ABOVE .500

FOR more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com . . . SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner). MLB: IT’s that time of year when a large number of MLB fans start saying to the American and National Leagues, “Show us what you got,” while others prefer asking that of individual players belonging to one or both leagues. Since 1933, professional baseball’s All-Star week has been that kind of a fish bowl, and since national TV coverage began several decades ago the annual event has been an iconic American experience, last year watched by around 27 million Americans. This year will be no different for players from a sizeable number of MLB’s 30 teams. Yes, last place franchise in either league, the Houston Astros, will be represented, by quality catcher, Jason Castro, batting average .266, with 31 RBI’s and a dozen home runs. He’ll be joined by top hitter from the AL’s Detroit Tigers, Miguel Cabrera, BA .367 (best in MLB this season), with 95 RBI’s and 30 HR’s, also by Jhonny Peralta of the Tigers, BA .300, 99 hits, 25 of them doubles. Among pitchers to be seen during the All-Star game will be the AL’s Grant Balfour (Oakland Athletics), closer Mariano Rivera (NYY); from the NL Clayton Kershaw (LAD), Cliff Lee (Phila.), Jason Zimmerman (Wash. Nationals), closer Sergio Romo (SFG). SOME BACKGROUND--- . . . Since 1933, the National League has won the All-Star game 41 times, the National League 37 times. . . . The longest All-Star game winning streak, that is, a League winning year after year, belongs to the AL---12, from July 1987 onward. . . . The second longest All-Star game winning streak (year following year) belongs to the NL---11 wins from 1972 on. . . . Third longest All-Star winning streak is owned by the NL---8, starting 1962. Rarely has either League failed to win the All-Star game two or more years in a row. Solo wins followed by a loss in the next year has occurred less than five times for either League. . . . The first All-Star game MVP was selected in 1962---the NL’s L.A. Dodger Maury Wills shared the award with the AL’s L.A. Angels Leon Wagner. Since then, an NL MVP has been selected 27 times, an AL MVP 24 times. . . . The longest All-Star MVP selection winning streak belongs to the AL and the NL, 12 apiece, the NL from 1972 on, the AL from 1997. . . . Only three ballplayers have been All-Star MVP’s more than once: Willie Mays (NL-SF G), 1963 and 1968; Steve Garvey (NL-LAD), 1974 and 1978; Carl Ripken, Jr. (AL- Balt. Orioles), 1991 and 2011. . . . Of note is that the All-Star MVP is rarely the MVP selection at the end of the baseball season. Such has happened fewer than six times since 1963. . . . Last year’s All-Star winning team? The NL, with a shutout of the AL for the sixth time. The MVP for All-Star game-2012 was the NL-SFG’s Melky Cabrera. . . . This year’s All-Star AL starters will be from seven AL teams, three from the Baltimore Orioles (1B Chris Davis, SS J.J. Hardy, OF Adam Jones), the rest from the Minnesota Twins (Catcher, Joe Mauer), the N.Y. Yankees (2B Robinson Cano), the Detroit Tigers (3B, Miguel Cabrera), the Angels (OF, Mike Trout), the Toronto Blue Jays (OF, Jose Bautista), and from the Boston Red Sox (DH, David Ortiz). . . . The All-Star NL starters will be from six NL clubs---St. Louis Cardinals (Catcher, Yadier Molina, and OF, Carlos Beltran), Cincinnati Reds (1B, Joey Votto, and 2B, Brandon Phillips) the Colorado Rockies (SS, Troy Tulowitzki. and OF, Carlos Gonzalez), from the N.Y. Mets (3B, David Wright), and from the Washington Nationals (OF, Bryce Harper). . . . . . COLORADO ROCKIES---On Sunday, the Rockies won their last game prior to All-Star Week, 3-1, versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, an upside keeping the Colorado franchise in contention for a post-season slot by being only four games behind NL West first place franchise, the Arizona Diamondbacks, though the 46-50/.479 Rockies are now in third place behind the Dodgers by two wins. Not good, though, is that within the NL the Rockies are way back, ninth among the league’s 15 teams. Within the entire MLB, the Rockies are 18th among 30 clubs, therefore in MLB’s bottom half. The team had a good April this year, winning 16 games, losing 11, but May was a reverse ride---12 wins, 16 losses. In June, the Rockies failed to do much better, winning 13 and losing 15. And not once since the season started have the Rockies won more than three games straight, while they’ve suffered a five game losing streak in June and were swept by the Diamondbacks in July, a team they needed to at least split a series with in order to prevent a drop back within the NL West. Yet the Rockies are among a small number of MLB clubs sending three players to Tuesday night’s All-Star game---SS Troy Tulowitzki, OF Carlos Gonzalez and IF/OF Michael Cuddeyer, who achieved a 27 game hitting streak this season. The Rockies are also among only three ball clubs with two players chosen to “start” Tuesday’s All-Star game---Tulowitzki, and Gonzalez, with Cuddyer on the All Star reserve list. Too, on Friday last the Rockies experienced their fourth shutout of the year, defeating the Dodgers 3-0, with RH starting hurler, Juan Nicasio, throwing seven innings with no earned runs and ending the Dodgers five-game winning streak. In spite of more losses than wins, Rockies talent seems to surface big time. . . A leap ahead is possible for the Rockies after the All-Star break, starting with a three game series vs. the 42-51 Chicago Cubs (fourth place, NL Central), followed by four games vs. the 35-58 Miami Marlins (last place, NL East), then three games vs. the 38-56 Milwaukee Brewers (last place, NL Central). That’s three teams with worse records than the Rockies now hold. The Marlins are also the second worst team within the entire MLB, just two games up on the AL’s Houston Astros. If nothing else, winning the lion’s share of these 10 contests could serve as a buffer against possible July and August losses to currently top-of-the heap teams, especially vs. the NL’s 54-41 Atlanta Braves, NL Central’s 56-37 Pittsburgh Pirates and the AL’s 53-43 Baltimore Orioles. END/ml