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The American League and National League will play for home-field advantage in the World Series in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game, and as is the case every year, there should be no shortage of enthralling moments.

Before a pitch is even thrown, Great American Ball Park will be buzzing, as the Cincinnati Reds will honor a few of the franchise’s greats.

Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Barry Larkin figure to get a huge ovation from the home crowd when they’re announced as the winners of the Franchise Four voting:

Once that’s done, the players will be introduced. It’s always fun to hear who get the loudest cheers and who gets booed.

There’s little doubt the hometown kid Todd Frazier will receive the longest and loudest reception, especially after the show he put on in Monday’s Home Run Derby:

As the only other Reds player representing the NL, expect Aroldis Chapman to get a nice hand from the home fans.

With plenty of NL Central foes in the game, pay attention to the reaction from Reds fans when guys like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Jhonny Peralta and Yadier Molina are introduced. 

The excitement should only pick up when the actual game starts.

Greinke Against the Top of the AL Order

NL starting pitcher Zack Greinke—who has an MLB-best 1.39 ERA at the break—faces a fearsome top of the order.

AL manager Ned Yost is batting Mike Trout leadoff, Josh Donaldson second and Albert Pujols in the three-hole. 

Trout and Pujols are former teammates of Greinke, who pitched part of the 2012 season with the Los Angeles Angels.

Trout has by far the highest WAR in the AL according to ESPN. Pujols’ 26 home runs are tied for the most in the league, with Trout of course, and Donaldson is tied for third in the AL with 60 RBI. 

It’s going to be fascinating to see how Greinke handles those matchups in the top of the first inning. 

Lifetime against Greinke, Donaldson and Trout have a very small sample size, going just 1-for-3 and 3-for-7, respectively. Pujols, meanwhile, is 8-for-23 in his career against the Los Angeles Dodgers hurler. 

None of the three have taken Greinke deep before, but look for that to change when Trout digs into the plate on Tuesday night.

Rising Stars

There’s an infusion of young talent in the league right now, and it will be on display Tuesday night.

ESPN’s Peter Gammons recently talked about the emergence of young players across the majors:

After an underwhelming start to his career, Bryce Harper was under pressure to have a breakout 2015 season. His peers voted him the most overrated player in the game for the second straight year, according to Scott Allen of the Washington Post, but Harper is making sure that won’t happen a third time.

Nolan Arenado is making his first All-Star Game appearance, and a lot of fans who aren’t familiar with the Colorado Rockies star third baseman may be surprised to see what the 24-year old is capable of. He’s hitting for average and power this season, while playing his usual stellar defense.

If the ball is hit to the left side when he comes into the game, there may very well be an exceptional diving stop or barehanded throw to first from Arenado.

Dodgers rookie Joc Pederson exhibited his power to all fields in Monday’s Home Run Derby, and he’ll be in the starting lineup on Tuesday night.

When you include players such as Rizzo, Bryant, Gerrit Cole, Joe Panik, Manny Machado and many others, the 2015 All-Star Game signals what appears to be a promising era for MLB. 

This is the chance for commissioner Rob Manfred to market his stars the way the NBA does. A lot of these players aren’t only premier athletes, but they’re good people off the field as well.

There’s more star power in the league than there has been in quite some time, and it would be a shame if MLB misses out on a great opportunity to gain fans and promote the sport.

Keuchel vs. Rizzo/Harper

The lefty-on-lefty matchups of Dallas Keuchel against Rizzo and Harper should be interesting when you look at the numbers.

Of left-handed batters with at least 50 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers, Rizzo is third in batting average—behind Dee Gordon and Nori Aoki—at .338. Harper is fourth at .329.

In such situations, Harper and Rizzo are first and second in OPS, at 1.092 and .966, respectively.

They’ll both get a chance to bat against Keuchel, assuming he pitches at least two innings, since Rizzo is sixth in the NL batting order.

In terms of southpaws with at least 20 innings pitched against fellow lefties, Keuchel’s 0.56 WHIP is the lowest, and his 32 strikeouts are second in baseball.

Good pitching tops good hitting, so Rizzo and Harper will manage just weak contact against the Houston Astros ace.

Prediction

It’s hard to remember a time when so many pitchers have dominated on a nightly basis the way they have in the first half. These guys will all be pitching in the same game on Tuesday night, coming in with fresh arms at one or two innings at a time, making even the best of hitters uneasy at the plate.

It’ll be a low-scoring affair—for an All-Star Game at least—and the NL team has the edge because they’re slightly deeper at pitcher.

Madison Bumgarner will receive the MVP honors for a few outstanding innings out of the bullpen in the NL’s 4-3 win.

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The full All-Star Game rosters were released on Monday night, and players like Prince Fielder, Jason Kipnis and Nolan Arenado—whom many felt should have started at their respective positions—made it as reserves.

Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer headline the starting pitchers on the National League team, while American League manager Ned Yost will have to choose between Felix Hernandez, Chris Archer, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Sale, David Price and Sonny Gray to start the game.

Here are the full rosters for both the AL and NL teams:

This year, more than in past seasons, there seem to be a lot of worthy candidates who were left off the roster because of competition at certain positions.

With the fans voting in Nelson Cruz as the starting designated hitter and Fielder’s being recognized by his peers for his efforts at DH halfway through the season, Alex Rodriguez was left off the AL team and the final fan vote.

Considering Rodriguez’s contributions to the success of the first-place New York Yankees to this point—16 home runs, 47 RBI and a .903 OPS—Jayson Stark of ESPN told Mike and Mike that A-Rod got snubbed:

There were snubs on the NL side as well.

An argument can be made that a guy like Justin Turner, who is having a breakout year, hitting .315 with 11 home runs and a .948 OPS, deserved the nod over D.J. LeMahieu of the Colorado Rockies. 

Apparently Turner hasn’t impressed his fellow players throughout the league as much he has D.J. Short of NBC Sports:

But Monday night wasn’t all hard feelings.

Jacob deGrom and Keuchel, two of the more promising young pitchers in the game, were among those who learned they’ll be playing in their first All-Star Game:

The kids weren’t the only ones receiving the news for the first time in their careers, however.

A.J. Burnett is in the midst of perhaps his best season this year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitching to a 1.99 ERA and a 7-3 record.

Burnett has accomplished a lot over his 17-year big league career. He’s led both leagues in shutouts, won a World Series and tossed a no-no while walking nine batters. 

But he had never made an All-Star team until Monday night. Pirates and NL teammate Andrew McCutchen is delighted for Burnett, according to Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Yost and NL manager Bruce Bochy have the unenviable task of choosing the starting pitchers, with a myriad of justifiable options at their disposal.

Scherzer may have been the best pitcher in the sport over his past four starts, Greinke has the lowest ERA in MLB and Cole has an MLB-leading 12 wins. You would have to figure Bochy will hand the ball to one of those three to start the game, passing over his own guy, Bumgarner.

Stark noted that Scherzer could join elite company next Tuesday in Cincinnati, but according to Chris Johnson of MASN, Scherzer’s in line to start on Sunday for the Washington Nationals, which would take him out of the discussion:

Yost, meanwhile, has to decide between former Cy Young winner Price, the three pitchers with the lowest ERA’s in the AL—Gray, Keuchel and Archer—and Sale, the AL leader in strikeouts with 147.

John Buccigross of ESPN believes Keuchel deserves the distinction, and Keuchel’s peers seem to agree, according to Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle.

We’ll see if Yost shares the same sentiment.

For now, fans have to decide which AL and NL players merit the final roster spots on each team.

Johnny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Jeurys Familia, Carlos Martinez and Troy Tulowitzki are the candidates for the NL, while Xander Bogaerts, Yoenis Cespedes, Brian Dozier, Brett Gardner and Mike Moustakas earned the last chance to make the AL squad.

Twitter campaigning is in full effect:

Cueto and Kershaw haven’t been as dominant as people have grown accustomed to, but they still have had very good seasons, with a 0.92 and 1.04 WHIP, respectively.

Familia, meanwhile, has a 1.13 ERA and 0.88 WHIP and converted 23 of 25 save opportunities.

There are enough great starting pitchers in this game, but Familia—someone probably unfamiliar to many fans—deserves to put his talents on display on the big stage.

The AL candidates are all pretty even, but Bogaerts is a guy a lot of people were starting to write off but is really proving some doubters wrong with a nice first half.

So with that, it’s up to the fans to round out the two rosters and play the role of general manager, something they love to do in the comments sections.

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The Colorado Rockies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 behind a three-RBI day from Michael McKenry, in the first game of a doubleheader at Coors Field on Tuesday.

In need of a spot starter, the Dodgers turned to reliever Juan Nicasio—who entered Tuesday 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA—to make his first start of the season. Nicasio allowed one run—an RBI infield single to Daniel Descalso—on three hits in two innings of work, before being replaced by Ian Thomas.

Jorge De La Rosa, who came in with a 1-2 record and 6.51 ERA, returned to the mound after missing a few starts with a cut on his middle finger and had himself a solid outing. He allowed three runs, on four hits and walked four in six innings, indicating that the injury is behind him.

The southpaw gave up a 477-foot bomb to Joc Pederson—his 15th of the season—with a man aboard in the third inning that put Los Angeles ahead 2-1. 

McKenry then answered with a two-run shot of his own—his third of the year—off Thomas in the bottom of the fourth, giving Colorado a 3-2 lead.

De La Rosa got into some trouble in the top of the fifth inning and needed 41 pitches to get out of the frame. 

He walked Adrian Gonzalez to force in the tying run with the bases loaded, but limited the damage by getting the next bater, Howie Kendrick, to ground out and end the inning.

In the bottom half of the frame, the scorching Nolan Arenado gave Colorado the lead again with an RBI single. McKenry followed by driving in his third run of the game with an RBI double to left-center field, extending Colorado’s lead to 5-3 lead.

Ben Paulsen capped the scoring with a solo home run in the seventh inning, providing the Rockies with an insurance run they wound up not needing.

John Axford finished things off with his 10th save of the season. He’s 10-for-10 in save opportunities in 2015.

The Rockies improved to 23-27 with the win and are now 6.5 games behind the 30-21 first-place Dodgers. 

With the second-half of the doubleheader still to come, and another game against Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Colorado has an opportunity to gain some ground in the NL West race.

First pitch of the nightcap is set for 8:40 p.m. ET on Tuesday at Coors Field. Zack Greinke (5-1, 1.48 ERA) starts for Los Angeles and will try to go deep into the ball game since the Dodgers needed six innings out of their bullpen in the first game. 

David Hale—who allowed two runs in 6.2 innings in his season debut against the San Francisco Giants last week—takes the mound for Colorado, as it looks to sweep the doubleheader.

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It’s been 107 years since the last time the Chicago Cubs were at the summit of the baseball world, but if you look around the diamond when they’re on the field, you’ll see a core group with the potential to end the curse.

While the infusion of young talent may give fans hope that the Cubs can become a National League force in the foreseeable future, Joe Maddon’s club has shown signs early in the 2015 season that it can contend sooner than expected.

Since getting off to an up-and-down start, the Cubs have won six of their last seven games, and at 21-16, they’re in second place in the NL Central, behind the major league-best 25-13 St. Louis Cardinals.

If the season ended today, as the cliché goes, the Cubs would host the one-game playoff against the Washington Nationals.

Granted, it’s a small sample size, but Chicago is 6-4 against teams with a winning percentage of .500 or better. The only club with a more favorable record against opponents over .500? The Cardinals.

Through trades, free agency and the development of players in the farm system, general manager Theo Epstein has constructed a roster that’s ready to play meaningful baseball deep into the season.

You can’t talk about the Cubs’ ascendance without mentioning Anthony Rizzo. 

Rizzo was one of Epstein’s first acquisitions when he took the job in October of 2011. The first baseman was acquired before the 2012 season from the San Diego Padres in a package centered around pitcher Andrew Cashner. 

While Cashner has panned out just fine atop the Padres rotation, it’s hard to make the argument that San Diego won that deal.

After belting 32 home runs and compiling a .386 OBP last season, en route to a top-10 finish in the NL MVP voting, Rizzo is again making a case that he’s one of the premiere players in the league.

Rizzo’s .344 batting average places him eighth in the majors, while his .470 OBP is second to only the scorching Bryce Harper. Furthermore, he has more walks (22) than strikeouts (17) on the year.

One of the biggest improvements in Rizzo’s game is his newfound ability to hit lefties.

While he hit .230 against southpaws from 2012 to 2014, Rizzo’s average is at .467 in 30 at-bats against them so far in 2015.

This type of production puts Rizzo on pace for another MVP-caliber season, except this year there are other guys in the lineup who opposing pitchers must be careful with.

Epstein traded two minor league pitchers to the Arizona Diamondbacks this offseason for veteran catcher Miguel Montero and, so far, the move looks brilliant. 

Montero has a .950 OPS, a vast improvement over last year’s starting backstop Welington Castillo’s .685 OPS from a year ago.

But Epstein wasn’t done dealing. The Cubs also got their leadoff hitter, Dexter Fowler, in a trade with the Houston Astros this winter.

The Cubs are getting what they traded for, as Fowler’s .270/.354/.411 slash line is right around his career average.

Entering the 2015 season, the Cubs had three prospects—third baseman Kris Bryant, second baseman Addison Russell and right fielder Jorge Soler—ranked in the top 12 by Baseball America.

Soler—who made his debut in August of last year—possesses a respectable .273 batting average and .346 OBP in his first full season, but he is playing in the shadows of the other two Cubs phenoms.

In order to delay his service time, Chicago’s front office waited until April 17 before promoting Bryant. He’s lived up to the billing since the call-up, hitting .291 with a .426 OBP and four home runs.

There was a buzz in the air at Wrigley Field last Monday night when Bryant hit a bomb into the new left field bleachers, his first in front of the home crowd. He drilled a total of three home runs last week, exhibiting one of the many attributes—power—that made him a highly touted draft pick out of the University of San Diego in 2013.

Patrick Mooney of CSNChicago.com likened the combo of Bryant and Rizzo in the Cubs lineup to the Oakland A’s duo of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

Mooney wrote last week:

At a time when offense is down throughout the game, the Cubs have hoarded power hitters. Bryant led minor-league baseball with 43 home runs last year. Rizzo doesn’t look satisfied with one All-Star selection, putting up a 1.055 OPS so far this season. Maybe this could be Bash Brothers 2.0

Per FanGraphs, Bryant has a .426 BABIP, which is unsustainable and well above the league average, suggesting his batting average is destined to drop.

Even so, he’s showing patience not often seen in young hitters, as evidenced by his 24 walks. Therefore, if that batting average does take a bit of a dip, he should still find a way to help the team offensively.

Russell made his big league debut just a few days after Bryant and hasn’t enjoyed the same instant success as his teammate—he’s batting .247 in 24 games.

But his minor league numbers indicate it’s too early for the Cubs to be concerned about his performance. In 2014, across three levels in the minors—with the majority of his games coming in Triple-A—Russell hit .295 with a .350 OBP. 

He’s also playing out of position.

A shortstop by trade, Russell has had to man second base while the incumbent, Starlin Castro, remains in his natural spot.

Since bursting onto the scene as a rookie in 2010, Castro has never completely justified the hype. He quietly bounced back from an awful 2013 campaign and put together a solid season a year ago. 

Right now, his average sits at .273, but the problem with Castro continues to be his plate discipline. He’s walking in just 4.4 percent of his plate appearances, according to FanGraphs.  

Though starting left fielder Chris Coghlan’s hitting below the Mendoza Line, the Cubs have enough offense to get by if their pitchers perform to their potential.

After posting a 6.23 ERA in April, Jon Lester is throwing like a guy making $155 million over the next six seasons. He’s 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA this month. 

Jake Arrieta and Jason Hammel, meanwhile, are proving last year was no fluke. They have 2.77 and 3.11 ERAs, respectively.

The back end of the rotation is shaky and according to Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune, Tsuyoshi Wada is taking Travis Wood’s spot on the staff after Wood was moved to the bullpen this weekend.

Also concerning for Chicago is that Kyle Hendricks looks nothing like the guy who finished with a 2.46 ERA in 2014.

Furthermore, the bullpen is ranked 23rd in baseball with a 4.32 ERA. 

But bullpens tend to be hot-and-cold over the course of a season anyway, and you don’t need five starting pitchers come playoff time.

Besides, it’s not like the top teams in the NL are without flaws of their own.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have lost Brandon McCarthy for the season and Hyun-jin Ryu was transferred to the 60-day DL earlier this month.

While they’re the hottest team in baseball, the Nationals showed earlier this year that they’re not exactly unbeatable. Even if it continues playing exceptional baseball through September, Washington tends to underperform in October.

The Cardinals keep winning without their ace, Adam Wainwright, but as we saw last year when two wild card teams—the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants—made the World Series, all you have to do is make the tournament. All bets are off once that happens.

Last year, the Royals went on a magic carpet ride that culminated in their first trip to the Fall Classic since 1985. 

Like the Royals in 2014, the Cubs play with youthful exuberance.

They also have a balanced lineup—with speed at the top and some pop in the heart of the order—to go along with what’s for the most part a very dependable rotation.

A lot has to go right for these young Cubs to play deep into October, but they have enough talent on their roster to make a run at the World Series—an event the majority of their fanbase has yet to see them play in.

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