MLB All-Star rosters continue to change

Reporting from Phoenix â€”  Used to be you couldn’t tell the players without a program. But even that won’t help much at Tuesday’s major league All-Star game since the rosters for the American and National league teams were still in flux long after the program had gone to the printers.

Sixteen players selected to participate in the midsummer classic will not be playing, although only four are on the disabled list. Six others were starters who pitched for their teams Sunday, making them ineligible to pitch again Tuesday.

The latest wave of changes took place Sunday when eight players were selected to play in the game for the first time, with San Francisco infielder Pablo Sandoval, Arizona catcher Miguel Montero, Atlanta reliever Craig Kimbrel and Pittsburgh pitcher Kevin Correia joining the NL team. Pitchers David Robertson (Yankees), Alexi Ogando (Texas), Michael Pineda (Seattle) and Ricky Romero (Toronto) were added to the AL squad.

Things have gotten so out of hand, in fact, that Ogando and Romero are replacing replacements. Ogando officially was named to take the place of Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, who was named earlier in the day to take the place of Tampa Bay’s James Shields. And Romero is taking the place of injured Boston pitcher Jon Lester, who had been in line to replace Seattle’s Felix Hernandez.

Sabathia, Shields and Hernandez are ineligible to participate in the All-Star game because they pitched Sunday.

Other players who pulled out Sunday were the Mets’ Jose Reyes and Philadelphia’s Placido Polanco, who are injured, and the Phillies’ Cole Hamels and San Francisco’s Matt Cain, who pitched Sunday. On the AL side, Tampa Bay’s David Price is out because of turf toe while Detroit’s Justin Verlander pitched Sunday.

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