-The return of Big Time Timmy Jim? Maybe not. But Tim Lincecum offered the Giants a look at what they’ve been missing all year on Saturday. Lincecum pitched 8 shutout innings, striking out 11 Houston Astros. Bear in mind, the Astros had a perfect game thrown against them earlier this year by the Giants’ Matt Cain. Regardless, Lincecum had been the worst pitcher in baseball for the first 3 ½ months this season. A performance like that, against any team, is big. He’ll face the Phillies on Friday.

-The last time Ben Sheets started a Major League Game, Richard Nixon was in the White House. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, it had been 2 years since the former star had toed the rubber in a Major League game. Sheets, now an Atlanta Brave, went out yesterday and pitched 6 shutout innings. Gone was the electric fastball and 12-6 curve that made him a star in Milwaukee, but Sheets still managed to pitch well in 100+ degree heat.

-The Cincinnati Reds had perhaps the best start to the second half of any ML club, as they swept their hated division rival, the St. Louis Cardinals. Last night’s game was the most exciting of the series, with Scott Rolen delivering a two-run double in the bottom of the 8^th and Aroldis Chapman touching 100 MPH in the 9^th to pick up the save. The Reds now hold a 1 game lead on Pittsburgh in the NL Central.

-Jacoby Ellsbury and Matt Kemp returned to the Red Sox and Dodgers, respectively, on Friday and did so with a bang. Ellsbury went 6-14 in his three games, while Kemp went 5-9 in his 2 games (the Dodgers gave him yesterday’s game off).

-This could go in the daily Nats update, but deserves mention here: Yesterday, Marlins manager and noted Buddhist Ozzie Guillen complained about the amount of pine tar on Bryce Harper’s bat in the 19 year old’s second at-bat. Harper offered his bat to Ozzie, which led to the Zen Master spewing off a number of pixilated words in Harper’s direction. After the game, Guillen called Harper disrespectful, probably because he didn’t swear back at Guillen. Harper called Ozzie great.

The Nats took 2 of the 3 games this weekend against the Marlins and will wrap up their 4 game set tonight.

Yesterday saw Stephen Strasburg pitch 6 shutout innings, followed by a near implosion by Tyler Clippard in the 9^th. Regardless, Clippard escaped unscathed, despite loading the bases with 0 outs.

Edwin Jackson and Carlos Zambrano will face each other in the finale tonight. Get your pine tar ready. Game time is 7:10 on MASN.

The US Mens National team (basketball) will take on Brazil in an exhibition game at Verizon Center tonight. Game time is 8 p.m. on ESPN 2.

Your baseball matchup of the day sees the Diamondback and Reds facing off in Cincinnati at 7:10. Wade Miley and Bronson Arroyo will take the mound. The Reds will look to continue their hot start to the second half.

While Justin Verlander might have been the only logical choice to start the MLB All-Star Game last night, he certainly wasn’t the smartest choice. Verlander is a pitcher who relies on repetition and building up his arm in each start. Last night, he didn’t have that luxury and instead of coming out with his 92 MPH fastball, Verlander tried to ramp it up to 99 MPH and lost command of his pitches. And the American League, before they could bat, lost control of the game.

The National League won 8-0. Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera won the MVP award, though his Giants teammate Pablo Sandoval easily could have won the award. In fact, the entire National League pitching staff could have shared the award. They allowed 0 runs on just 6 hits against the American League’s best hitters. Only Clayton Kershaw surrendered more than 1 hit.

With the win, the National League’s champion will have home-field advantage in the World Series. The National League has won the previous two All-Star Games and the previous two World Series championships.

Dwight Howard has not been traded yet.

So, the Botelho Bulletin will likely not appear over the next few days. There are no Major League Games between now and Friday night. There’s a AAA All-Star Game tonight, but, really no one should care about that, outside of Royals prospect Wil Myers.

If something big happens over the next few days, like a Dwight Howard trade, I will update.

With it being the All-Star break, your editors decided to put a bow on the first half of the MLB season.

The American League is shaping up to be a two-team race between the Yankees and Rangers. Each team leads their respective divisions thanks in large part to their offensive production. The Yankees have been beset with injuries on the mound, but have more than stayed afloat in the absence of CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera. Texas has not had much bad luck fall on them this season, save for the loss of Neftali Felix, and has been a near wire-to-wire leader in the AL West.

The team to look out for in the AL is the Angels, who have surged over the last month and a half, thanks in large part to Rookie of the Year favorite Mike Trout, who leads the league in batting average and stolen bases. The Angels boast a solid pitching rotation and have gotten great bullpen work out of players you’ve never heard of.

In the senior circuit (that’s the National League), things are a little more unclear. Your current division leaders are the Nationals, Pirates, and Dodgers.  Had you gone to Vegas in March and bet on that trifecta, you too would own a dressage horse by now.

Each of those teams, unlike their AL counterparts, have gotten by thanks to pitching. But the Natratgers are not the only contenders in the NL. San Francisco, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Arizona, and Atlanta all possess realistic shots at overtaking their division leaders.  Look for the NL to have a wild finish in late September.

AL MVP: Mike Trout (OF/Los Angeles)

NL MVP: Joey Votto (1B/Cincinnati)

AL Rookie of the Year: Mike Trout (OF/Los Angeles)

NL Rookie of the Year: Wade Miley (SP/Arizona)

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (SP/Detroit)

NL Cy Young: RA Dickey (SP/New York)

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. The festivities (Anthem, player introductions, etc.) begin at 7:30 p.m. on FOX. The game will start sometime around 8 p.m. Matt Cain will start for the National League. Justin Verlander will start for the American League. The game is played in Kansas City, Missouri.

If don’t watch the All-Star Game, but you didn’t miss a Republican debate, you should be sent to North Korea immediately.

What Roger Federer did over the last fortnight is no small wonder. For years now, the mainstream media (who only follows tennis 3 times a year…sorry Australia!) has said that Roger is done. Wimbledon was supposed to be Novak Djokovic’s time. The Serbian seemed poised to officially separate himself from Federer and Nadal. This looked even more likely when Nadal was eliminated by Guy Whose Name We’ve Already Forgotten, early on in the tournament.

Federer and Djokovic’s seminfinal matchup really wasn’t ever close.  Federer won in 4 sets to advance to the finals. In the championship, he would face Brit Andy Murray. Murray arrived in the finals with the weight of Queen Elizabeth on his back as he was the first Englishman to play in a Wimbledon final in over 70 years.

Murray jumped out to a rather easy first set victory. Then Roger (and the rain) arrived and put to bed any hopes that Murray could vault himself into the true upper echelon of men’s tennis. Federer’s Wimbledon victory is his 7^th and first since 2009. Today, Roger will return to the #1 spot in the ATP rankings of tennis players.

Federer turns 31 next month. He is, by most metrics, at the point when his career will begin to decline. But for two weeks in London, in the summer of 2012, he looked like a 20 year old again.

With the NBA’s free agency period underway, there has been a lot of movement over the last week.

The biggest story, of course (sorry Nick Young) was Steve Nash agreeing to a sign-and-trade with the Los Angeles Lakers. Nash will give LA the floor general they’ve lacked since Magic Johnson left (don’t go into a thing about Derek Fisher…just don’t).  Nash might be 93 years old, but he still possesses better on-court vision than anyone in the sport. He makes LA an instant contender for the 2012-13 season.

3,000 miles away, Ray Allen decided to leave the Boston Celtics and join their current Eastern Conference rival, the Miami Heat. He’ll give Miami the aging wing player with aching legs that they so desperately already possess.

Elsewhere, Deron Williams resigned with the Brooklyn Nets, thanks, maybe (?) to the Nets acquisition of Joe Johnson from Atlanta for a package of spare change, Devin Harris, and Thanksgiving leftovers.

In non-free agent news, Team USA announced their final roster for the 2012 Olympics. It is as follows: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Andre Igoudala, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, Eric Gordon, Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis, Chris Bosh, and Rudy Gay. They are considered the light favorites.

Baseball entered its All-Star break last night. The Home Run Derby will be played tonight at 8:00 (ESPN). Matt Kemp, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Gonzalez, and Carlos Beltran will swing for the NL. Robinson Cano, Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, and Jose Bautista will swing for the AL.

Tomorrow will feature a first-half recap. There is no game of the day today (other than the Derby) because there are no games.

In the upset of the tournament (apologies to Greece), the Italians used two Mario Balotelli goals and a workman-like performance in net from Gianluigi Buffon to eliminate Germany and advance to their first European Championship since their 2000 loss to France.

The Italy/Spain final is a rematch from the first weekend of the tournament, when the two teams drew 1-1. There will be no drawing in the final on Sunday.

As many expected, Kentucky forward Anthony Davis was the first overall selection in the 2012 NBA Draft, going to the New Orleans Hornets. NOLA used their second lottery pick (10^th overall) to draft Duke guard Austin Rivers, establishing, in the span of an hour, one of the best young nucleuses in the league.

Elsewhere, the Charlotte Bobcats drafted Davis’ college teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with the second overall pick. The Wizards followed by taking Florida freshman Bradley Beal. Cleveland surprised many by drafting Syracuse guard Dion Waiters with the fourth pick, despite the fact that Waiters never started a game in his two years in college. Finally, Sacramento rounded out the top 5 by taking D.C.-native and Kansas forward Thomas Robinson.

The surprise of the draft, though, may have been that there were no surprises. No big trades (apologies, as always, to Tyler Zeller). No shocking picks (we call those Mouhamed Sene’s). The fans booed NBA Commissioner David Stern. They cheered Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver. And the ESPN analysts talked about wingspan and upside.

–Great Pitching Performance #1: Felix Hernandez. Maybe it’s because he plays for a terrible team (that’s exactly what it is), but King Felix doesn’t get enough notice for just how good he is. Last night saw a return to form for the King, after a bit of an off season. Hernandez threw a shutout and struck out 13 Red Sox hitters and got the minimum of run support from his teammates to lead Seattle to a 1-0 victory.

-Great Pitching Performance #2: Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner came within one hit of throwing his first career no-hitter, as he led the now first place San Francisco Giants to a 5-0 victory over the Reds. Cincinnati’s only hit came off the bat of Ryan Hanigan. Bumgarner struck out 8.

-Great Pitching Performance #3: Andrew Cashner. The Padres decided last month to conver the electric-armed (and often-injured) Cashner to a starting pitcher role. They sent him to the minors where he was dominant. Last night, in his return to the Majors and his debut as a full-time starter, Cashner took a no-hitter into the 7^th inning before surrendering a line drive single to Carlos Lee. Cashner dominated the Astros, though, in the previous six innings, striking out 9 and walking just 1. The Padres rallied in the 9^th for a 7-3 victory.

-Mediocre Pitching Debut #1: Trevor Bauer. Pitching in his MLB debut on short rest (which is apparently the way to do this sort of thing…?), Diamondbacks prospect Trevor Bauer pitched 4 innings, surrendering 2 runs and striking out 3. Better things to come.

-Coming off of a week-long series with their cross-state rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates now find themselves just 1 game back in the NL Central. The Pirates begin a weekend series tonight with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Yesterday was just your run-of-the-mill 11-10 extra innings game between the Nationals and Rockies. The Nats were on the 10 run side of the equation and drew to a disappointing split with the Rockies.

Starter Edwin Jackson was rocked for 8 runs early and exhibited as much life on his fastball as Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Nats were able to sustain an unsuccessful rally thanks to a late-inning homer by Bryce Harper that traveled up I-25 to Cheyenne.

The Nats begin a three-game series in Atlanta tonight. They enter the series with a 3 ½ game lead on the Braves. Your weekend pitching matchups and start times:

Friday: Ross Detwiler v. Randall Delgado (7:35 p.m.)

Saturday: Stephen Strasburg v. Mike Minor (4:05 p.m.)

Sunday: Gio Gonzalez v. Tim Hudson (1:35 p.m.)

Soccer: Spain v. Italy (Sunday 2:45/ESPN)

MLB: Tigers @ Rays (Friday 7:10/MLB.TV……Justin Verlander v. David Price)

And then some tennis and stock car racing, and I’m sure a golf tournament. Perhaps some cage fighting and some bowling.

Enjoy your weekends. Safe travels to those hitting the road, rail, or sky.

I missed a huge story in yesterday’s Bulletin. Total oversight. So consider this your old news update.

Beginning in 2014, college football will finally turn to a playoff system to determine the National Champion. A yet to be determined board will determine the four best teams and place them in a seeded tournament using the current bowl system. They’ll apparently measure strength of schedule, win-loss record, and give preference to conference champions. In short, the BCS, for all intents and purposes, is dead.

So commence the arguing over who is the fourth best team in the country. Bear in mind that last year’s 4^th and 5^thplace teams in the BCS were Stanford and Oregon. And Stanford was the 4^thseed. And they didn’t win the Pac-12. And they lost to Oregon. Let’s hope the humans get it right.

Something about Cristiano Ronaldo not having a penalty kick…

-The San Francisco Giants completed their first ever shutout sweep of the LA Dodgers, outscoring the boys in blue 13-0 in the series. The teams are now tied for the NL West lead.

-The Baltimore Orioles had found a diamond in the rough in Jason Hammel. Hammel had been a less than successful pitcher for the Rays and Rockies before coming to Baltimore in an offseason trade. Up until 7:05 p.m. yesterday, Hammel had been a revelation. Then he got lit up by the Angels and all was made right with the world.

-The Chicago Cubs are terrible. They proved that yesterday by surrendering 17 runs to the New York Mets.

-Chase Utley returned to the lineup for the Philadelphia Phillies last night and delivered a home run in his first at bat. Then the Phillies lost. And again, all was made right with the world.

-(an editorial) The Colorado Rockies are an embarrassment to baseball. You’ll recall that the Rockies have employed a 4-man rotation of underqualified starters. Yesterday, they promoted an ill-prepared AA prospect to start against the best team in the National League (the Washington Nationals). That prospect (Edwar Cabrera) was shelled by the Nationals. 6 runs in 2 1/3 innings. It is never a good idea to promote and expose a raw pitching prospect to Major League hitters. Especially on a team that is going absolutely nowhere and has very little. The Rockies need as many good young pitchers without destroyed psyches as possible. It does no good in promoting a guy like Cabrera nearly a year too soon.

As you could probably tell in the previous bit, the Nationals exploded offensively again last night, en route to an 11-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies. They continue to possess the best record in the National League. They’ll look to take the series against Colorado this afternoon. Edwin Jackson will face Josh Outman (3:10/MASN).

Germany v. Italy (2:45/ESPN). The winner will face Spain in the Euro Final on Sunday.

My baseball game of the day features one of my favorite prospects in the game, Diamondbacks pitcher Trevor Bauer. He’ll make his MLB debut tonight against the Atlanta Braves, down in the Peach State. He’ll oppose Jair Jurrjens. Game time is 7:10. You’ll need to have some sort of MLB package to watch.

The Bulletin may not be watching Bauer’s debut live tonight though, as one of its favorite sporting events will be taking place. That, of course, is the 2012 NBA Draft. The Draft starts at 7:30 and airs on ESPN. The Bulletin wrote an NBA Draft preview over on his weblog.

The semi-finals get underway in Euro 2012 this afternoon when Spain and Portugal square off in the Battle for Iberia (sorry, Andorra).

The Spanish, as you may be aware, won the World Cup in 2010 and Euro 2008. They haven’t lost a knockout game in a major tournament since a 3-1 loss to France in the 2006 World Cup. The Portuguese are playing arguably their best soccer since the 2004 European Cup Championship (they lost the final to Greece). The two played most recently in November 2010 in Lisbon. On that day, Portugal handed Spain their worst loss in over 45 years. That was a friendly. This will be anything but.

–Behind what some are calling a “virtuoso performance” by Ryan Vogelsong, the San Francisco Giants moved to within a game of the Dodgers last night in the NL West. The loss was LA’s 8^th in its last 10 games and it appears the team is finally coming back to Earth after exceeding expectations through the first 2 ½ months of the season. LA will have a good chance to win today in the series finale, as the Giants will send Tim Lincecum to the mound. Imagine reading that sentence a year ago…

-Perhaps it’s not the “Tumble Heard Round The World” but it’s close. Reds closer Aroldis Chapman has struggled mightily in his role since moving from whatever it was that his role was before being moved to closer. Last night, though, Chapman pitched well to pick up the save. Following a strikeout of Brewers human Martin Maldonado, Chapman celebrated by doing two tumbles towards home plate. After the game, Reds stars Joey Votto and Jay Bruce took Chapman aside to explain to him that he is an idiot and they’d prefer not to get hit by an angry Brewers pitcher in today’s game. So maybe all will be right with the world.

-The hashtag #umpshow has caught on this season on social networking site Twitter. #umpshow is used to describe the situation of an umpire taking over a game and becoming the story. Last night’s Yankees/Indians game became an #umpshow. Yankees outfielder Dewayne Wise lept into the stands to make a catch of a foul ball. That ball bounced off of his glove, rolled, and landed about 10 feet to Wise’s left. In fact, it was picked up by a fan in the stands, who held the ball in the air. Not to fear though, third-base umpire Mike DiMuro didn’t need to see any of that. He ruled that Wise made the catch without asking to see the ball. #umpshow

-Rangers starter Yu Darvish shook off a slow start to last night’s game against the Detroit Tigers to pitch 7 strong innings. Darvish struck out 10 Tigers. The Rangers offense was powered by Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton, who each hit home runs. Hamilton’s was his 24^th of the season.

-The Boston Red Sox are 2 games out of a Wild Card slot. Just store that one in your memory bank.

A day after an incredibly frustrating offensive performance, the Nationals went out and broke a number of franchise hitting records, because that makes sense.

The Nats beat the Rockies 12-5. They added 21 hits. Every starter had at least one hit. Gio Gonzalez had an RBI. And hitting coach Rick Eckstein didn’t get fired.

The Nationals now sport the best record in the National League, which is kind of remarkable for a team that is 4-6 in their last 10 games.

Game 3 of this 4 game series with the Rockies will be played tonight. Jordan Zimmermann will take the hill for Washington. Colorado called up AA prospect Edwar Cabrera to make this start. Game time is 8:40 p.m. Cabrera might be back in AA by 9:30.

Spain v. Portugal (2:45/ESPN)

Baseball game of the day: Angels @ Orioles. Jered Weaver faces Jason Hammel. Weaver is 7-1 with a 2.40 ERA. Hammel is 8-2 with a 2.61 ERA. Game time is 7:05.

-It’s not often that you see two complete games pitched in the same matchup. It’s really uncommon for that to happen when the final score is 8-0. But it happened last night in Kansas City when the Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa was coming off of a doubleheader on Sunday and rather than overwork their bullpen, manager Joe Maddon decided to put Alex Cobb out there as a sacrificial lamb. Cobb surrendered 8 runs on 13 hits in his complete game. Afterward, he was called “heroic” by Maddon. Memo to Joe Maddon: might want to tone down the hyperbole.

-Barry Zito got himself back on track last night and the Giants offense exploded for 8 runs, as they pulled to within 2 games of the Dodgers in the NL West. Pablo Sandoval led the way for the Giants with 3 hits and 2 runs scored.

-Day 1 of life without Youk ended poorly for the Boston Red Sox last night as they fell to the Toronto Blue Jays 9-6. The Blue Jays, though, suffered a loss that they could ill afford when starter Henderson Alvarez left the game with a back injury. He joins Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek on the list of Blue Jays starters with injuries. But that’s okay because they signed Jamie Moyer yesterday.

-The New York Yankees remained the hottest team in baseball, beating the Indians 7-1 thanks to 7 strong innings from Hiroki Kuroda and a Robinson Cano homer.

-Baseball’s most inconsistent pitcher, Mat Latos, found himself on the upswing last night. And then some. Latos pitched a complete game with 13 Ks against the Brewers. Expect a line like this next time he goes out: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB. Ah the majesty of Mat Latos!

Last night’s game may have been the most frustrating of the season. At least, the new “most frustrating game of the season.” Stephen Strasburg was as good as he’s been until he surrendered a triple to Dexter Fowler to lead off the 6^th and followed that by throwing an errant 95 MPH fastball at Marco Scutaro’s head. Scutaro left the game and Strasburg appeared to be very shaken by the errant pitch. And it showed. Carlos Gonzalez scored Fowler and then Todd Helton hit a sac fly to give the Rockies a lead they wouldn’t surrender. Colorado won 4-2.

The Nats will have the chance tonight to make right what they made wrong last night. Gio Gonzalez will oppose Christian Friedrich. Game time is 8:40 on one of the MASN networks.

Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (10:15). Clayton Kershaw will face Ryan Vogelsong in a game the Dodgers really need to have to try to slow down the momentum that the Giants have right now. 

The Miami Heat remain NBA Champions. This is a fluid situation. We’ll do our best to keep you updated.

Well, the semifinals are set for Euro 2012. Germany continued to flash its superiority in the face of the Greeks, this time on a soccer pitch. Saturday saw Spain surgically and methodically destroy the French. And yesterday, England and Italy set soccer’s US popularity back 20 years, by playing to a 0-0 draw, with Italy prevailing 4-2 on penalty kicks.

The semifinals will take place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week (all times are 2:45 on ESPN)

Wednesday: Portugal v. Spain

Thursday: Germany v. Italy

The final will be played on Sunday.

-The R.A. Dickey train made an abrupt stop last night in Queens. Mechanics are still trying to find the problem with the locomotive, though some pinstripes were found in the engine block.

-Former Nationals prospect Derek Norris (part of the package Washington sent to Oakland for Gio Gonzalez) hit his first career HR yesterday and made it a walk-off as the A’s salvaged a game in their1 weekend series with the Giants.

-The Arizona Diamondbacks will promote their top prospect, Trevor Bauer, on Thursday to make his debut against the Braves.

-Kevin Youkilis was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Chicago White Sox yesterday for pitching prospect Zach Stewart and human being Brent Lillibridge. The White Sox head to Fenway Park in mid-July.

-Biggest Series This Week: Dodgers @ Giants. San Francisco enters this 3-game set just 3 games behind the Dodgers, who have cooled off a bit while the Giants have been playing their best baseball.

The Nationals are, without a doubt, going through their worst stretch of 2012. They mustered just 5 runs in their 3-game series with the Orioles over the weekend, managing to win just Saturday’s game.

While this is happening, Ryan Zimmerman is going through perhaps his worst stretch of his career. He ranks near the bottom of all qualifying hitters in OPS+ (Don’t worry about not knowing what that is. Just know that you don’t want to rank near the bottom of it). Much of the blame can likely be placed on a shoulder that has been ailing Zimmerman for much of the season. He received a cortisone shot yesterday and plans to continue without a DL stint. But it’s clearly affecting his ability to hit.

The Nationals will begin a 4-game set in Denver today against maybe baseball’s worst team, the Colorado Rockies. Because it’s a 4-game series, the Nats will get to see all of Colorado’s starting pitchers, as they’re going with a 4-man, 75 pitch-per-start rotation, that so far has been a wild success (it’s good to be 3-14 in your last 17 games, right?).

Tonight, Stephen Strasburg (9-1, 2.46 ERA) will oppose Jeff Francis (0-1, 8.56 ERA). Game time is 8:40 on MASN.

(From here on out, most of these will be the best potential matchup in baseball. Sometimes it’ll tie into the “Biggest Series of the Week,” other times it will be about pitching matchups. And some days, like today, I’ll just be grasping at straws.)

Toronto @ Boston (7:05). Henderson Alvarez and Felix Doubront will take the hill, which is about as sexy as a spray tan. Regardless, this will be the Boston Red Sox’s first game without Kevin Youkilis. It’ll be (a little) interesting to see how the team responds. Or some sports writer narrative. Again, I’m just grasping at straws here. It’s not a particularly exciting night for baseball matchups. Just watch the Nats/Rockies game like a good human being. Or, I don’t know, volunteer your time for a cause you support.