Opinion

The Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning Sunday before getting the hook with two outs and 109 pitches under his belt.

So the right-hander didn't make history in his team's 12-1 shellacking of the Cincinnati Reds. But he did ease a lot of nerves in the nation's capital.

Voting for the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game has closed, so all that remains is to find out which players will represent the American League and National League in the Midsummer Classic on July 12. 

MLB will announce the rosters Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, but we can surmise from the most recent voting update from MLB Communications how things will shake out. 

Jake Arrieta is trying to author a worthy follow-up to a Cy Young-winning season, and he's doing it on a Chicago Cubs team that's trying to end a 108-year championship drought.

Nobody ever said accomplishing either task would be easy.

School might be out for summer, but the 2016 MLB regular season isn't done teaching.

As we arrive at the season's halfway point, we've learned quite a bit about all 30 teams. Some of those lessons have been positive, some not so much. But every game presents an opportunity to learn something new and walk away with more information than we had before the first pitch of the day.

Remember when the Cavaliers were the hottest act in Cleveland? You know, what with their winning the NBA Finals and snapping the city's 52-year championship drought?

Well, they had their time. Now it's the Indians' turn, and you can practically hear them telling the Cavs, "Anything you can do, I can do better."

Although fans sometimes make strange choices for MLB All-Star Game starters, the decisions to this point will create plenty of drama leading up to the final announcement.

Voting for the July 12 game closed at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, so hopefully you were able to fill out as many ballots with your favorite players as possible before the cutoff.

This season, there’s a euphoria that has consumed Chicago Cubs fans unlike anything the city’s North Side has seen for, say, a little over 100 years.

July is a pivotal period for MLB. It's the last month before the non-waiver trade deadline. It gives us the All-Star Game. And it's when the various postseason races truly begin to heat up.

Before we rush into July's balmy embrace, however, let's take a final glance back at June, via an installment of Bleacher Report's Team of the Month.

The hottest team in baseball is spending less than $14 million on a starting rotation that might turn Cleveland into the city of champions. The richest team in baseball has more than $36 million tied up in starting pitchers who aren’t healthy enough to pitch.

Let's hold off on scheduling an MLB rookie-sophomore game during All-Star weekend.

Promising youngsters have arrirved in 2016, but these neophytes wouldn't fare well against the likes of Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa with a hopefully healthy Noah Syndergaard on the mound.