MLB roundup: Hometown hitter might be future Home Run Derbies

After two years of controversy in the seemingly innocuous Home Run Derby, Major League Baseball might mandate the inclusion of a hometown slugger in the annual All-Star break event.

New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano was booed throughout Monday's event in Kansas City. He was the American League's "captain," and he failed to select Kansas City Royals designated hitter Billy Butler as one of his three teammates, instead going with the Detroit Tigers' Prince Fielder, the Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista and the Los Angeles Angels' Mark Trumbo.

Cano previously announced his intention to pick a Royal, but he failed to follow through on his promise.

Fielder was booed during last year's Derby in Phoenix, as he didn't select a Diamondback to be part of his National League roster.

Selig said the rules might be changed for next year to guarantee a player from the home team participates in the event.

"I felt badly (Monday) night," Selig told members of the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday. "Robinson Cano certainly picked people he thought should be on it -- as Prince (Fielder) did last year and (NL captain) Matt Kemp did this year. I understand hometown loyalties and I'm sympathetic to that, but this was tough."

The New York Mets will be the host team for the 2013 All-Star Game.

--Regional interleague rivalry games will grow more scarce under the plan Major League Baseball has proposed for use beginning in 2013.

The Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, New York Mets and New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels and other regional pairs have played six times head-to-head in recent years. The new format might reduce that number to four, according to Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Weiner discussed the proposed changes in a meeting with the Baseball Writers Association of America, the Chicago Tribune reported.

One of every three years, when the divisions of the local rivals are playing, those teams could still meet in a two three-game series. In other years, however, Weiner said the local teams might play a pair of two-game series.

--The Atlanta Braves plan to start veteran right-hander Ben Sheets in Sunday's series finale against the New York Mets.

It will be the first big-league start for Sheets since July 19, 2010.

Sheets, 33, has undergone two elbow surgeries and last pitched in 2010 with the Oakland Athletics. He had his best years with the Milwaukee Brewers where he was a four-time All-Star. He has a 90-92 record with a 3.79 earned run average.

--New York Mets right-hander Dillon Gee will be placed on the 15-day disabled list after a blood clot was found in the artery in his right shoulder.

Gee was taken to the hospital in New York after experiencing numbness in his fingers and was scheduled to undergo several tests including an angiogram and MRI on Monday when the clot was discovered.

Gee, 26, is 6-7 with a 4.10 ERA this season and 21-15 in his career. He was scheduled to pitch in one of the opening games this weekend Atlanta.

--Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay is primed to begin a rehab assignment at Class A Clearwater on Thursday, the beginning of his road back from the disabled list that began May 29. He has been sidelined due to a right latissimus dorsi strain.

It's the latest minor victory along the way, which included clearing hurdles by throwing his first bullpen session after one full month of rest recently in Miami, after which Halladay said his shoulder has responded well.