The latest news as of July 2, 2015:

MLB

• With voting for the 2015 All-Star game set to end tonight, it’s looking like Dodgers rookie Joc Pederson just might end up in the N.L.’s starting lineup. Though he was 6th among N.L. outfielders in the most recently-announced tally, three of the five players ahead of him are injured ***
• Pederson was named Hitter of the Month for June by ESPN’s Home Run Tracker. Why? Pederson hit for home runs of at least 450 feet. That’s more than any entire team hit in June, and one more than the Dodgers hit without him in all of 2014. His MLB-best average this season is 431 feet ***
• Kevin Pillar hit .365 in June, 2nd-highest (tie) in the A.L. His 18 RBIs tied for 10th ***
• From the ‘If only’ category: MLB’s top two hitters have Jewish dads but identify with another religion (see our Not a Jew page). As of today, Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt leads the N.L. with a .350 average, while Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis tops the A.L. at .346 ***
• On this date (1980): Ross Baumgarten of the White Sox pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout of the Angels. He allowed only a seventh-inning single by Rod Carew, who at the time was married to a Jewish woman ***
• Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun is 8-for-15 with 3 RBIs over his last 3 games. He’s 7th in the N.L. with 52 RBIs ***
• Guess which former MLB star was in Israel last month? ***

Minor leagues

• Like many catchers, Angels prospect Charlie Cutler (AAA) would rather throw out a runner than trying stealing himself. On Tuesday he stole a base for just the 9th time in 1,794 minor-league at-bats ***
• Cardinals prospect Rob Kaminsky (High-A) pitched 7 innings of two-hit ball Tuesday for his sixth win of the season. He went 3-1 in June with a 1.16 ERA and five times as many strikeouts (26) as walks (5) ***
• In his last four home-field starts, Nats prospect Richard Bleier (AAA) has given up just one run in 30 innings ***

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