MLB All-Star Game 2015: Full Midsummer Classic Preview and Predictions

At its best, the All-Star Game is a great show, great theater, great entertainment.

At its best, it's great fun.

It's a chance for baseball to show off and showcase its biggest stars. This year's game, set for Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. ET in Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, tilts young. The two teams feature 11 All-Stars who have yet to turn 25 and only five who have already turned 35.

To get you ready, here's Bleacher Report's full preview, with lineups, starting pitchers, a look at the young stars and a few missing stars, the "steroid stars" and (because you demand it) my guess at how it's all going to turn out.

NL Starting Pitcher: Zack Greinke, Los Angeles Dodgers

When we did our midseason awards, it wasn't easy to pick between Zack Greinke and Max Scherzer for the National League Cy Young Award. NL manager Bruce Bochy had it easier, because Scherzer started for the Nationals on Sunday and won't pitch in the All-Star Game.

Bochy has to be thrilled to have Greinke on his side. Since Greinke signed with the Dodgers after the 2012 season, he has started seven games against Bochy's Giants and has never lost. His ERA in those seven games is 1.96.

That's good, but Greinke's ERA in 18 starts for the Dodgers this year is even better: 1.39, the lowest by a major league starter with more than 100 innings pitched at the break since 1968. His ERA for his last five starts is even better than that: 0.00, with a 35.2-inning scoreless streak.

Good luck, American League hitters.

AL Starting Pitcher: Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros

You can't blame AL manager Ned Yost for picking Dallas Keuchel as his starter. The last time he saw Keuchel, two weeks ago, the Astros right-hander pitched eight scoreless innings against Yost's Royals.

Keuchel still isn't that well-known, but he should be. His 2.23 ERA is the AL's second-best this season and in seven of his 19 starts, he hasn't allowed an earned run. Besides, he's given up only four first-inning runs all season.

Keuchel won't light up the radar gun (his fastball averages a tick under 90 mph), but he gets his share of strikeouts. And as an extreme ground-ball pitcher, he's a nice fit to start in a place nicknamed the Great American Small Park.

The top five hitters in the NL lineup are a combined 2-for-18 off of Keuchel.

NL Starting Lineup

The fans vote for the All-Star starters, but the managers decide the batting order. NL manager Bruce Bochy took the chance to put the league's two top MVP candidates in the third and fourth spots. Hard to argue with that, and hard to argue with Bochy's decision to put Andrew McCutchen in the leadoff spot.

The full lineup:

Andrew McCutchen, CF

Todd Frazier, 3B

Bryce Harper, RF

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

Buster Posey, C

Anthony Rizzo, DH

Jhonny Peralta, SS

Joc Pederson, LF

DJ LeMahieu, 2B

Just as in the American League, Bochy has three outfielders who have all played center field. He'd have a stronger lineup with Giancarlo Stanton and Dee Gordon, but the two Marlins both got hurt.

AL Starting Lineup

Orlin Wagner/Associated Press

So the American League batting order starts with Alcides Escobar, Alex Rios and Lorenzo Cain, with Omar Infante batting cleanup.

No, it doesn't.

For all the talk about the Royals dominating this All-Star Game, the lineup AL manager Ned Yost revealed Monday includes only three of his own players. It would have been four, but Alex Gordon got hurt.

Yost has plenty of power at the top, as his first four hitters combined for 94 home runs in the first half. He has plenty of speed in his outfield, too, with three true center fielders. Adam Jones moves to left field and Cain to right field, with Mike Trout staying in center.

The full lineup:

Mike Trout, CF

Josh Donaldson, 3B

Albert Pujols, 1B

Nelson Cruz, DH

Lorenzo Cain, RF

Adam Jones, LF

Salvador Perez, C

Jose Altuve, 2B

Alcides Escobar, SS

The Young Stars Game

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Baseball is forever looking for ways to connect with the younger generation. This game should help, because it really will be a celebration of the game's youngest stars.

Bryce Harper is the youngest, even though this is already his third All-Star Game. Harper and Mike Trout were a big part of the story at the All-Star Game three years ago, when they were both rookies, but now they've been joined by a whole group of players nearly as young as they are.

Harper is 22. Trout is part of an amazing cast of 23-year-olds that also includes Manny Machado, Kris Bryant, Joc Pederson and Carlos Martinez. The list of 24-year-olds isn't bad, either, with Gerrit Cole, Nolan Arenado, Joe Panik, Michael Wacha and Shelby Miller.

Postseason star Madison Bumgarner heads the list of 25-year-olds, which includes Trevor Rosenthal, Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton (who is hurt and won't play), Sonny Gray (who started Sunday and won't pitch), Kelvin Herrera, Salvador Perez, Jose Altuve and Jose Iglesias.

Who says baseball has a problem attracting kids?

The 'Steroid Stars' Game

Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Forgive and forget?

Why not, because Ryan Braun served his suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. So did Jhonny Peralta and Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal. All four "steroid stars" are All-Stars this year, which either tells you that cheating can still pay off, or that they're still pretty good playing the game clean, or nothing of the sort.

It does suggest that baseball and its fans haven't turned their backs on players who were caught cheating. Peralta and Cruz were voted in by the fans, while Grandal was added by NL manager Bruce Bochy in consultation with MLB. Braun was a late addition to the NL team, as a replacement for injured outfielder Matt Holliday.

What about Alex Rodriguez, you say?

No, he didn't make it, and if you want to believe that MLB didn't want him here, go ahead and think that. Just remember that Cruz was voted by fans to be the AL's designated hitter and that Prince Fielder was a worthy choice by the players as the second DH.

AL manager Ned Yost had little flexibility with the rest of his roster. To take A-Rod, he probably would have had to leave off one of the other two Yankee position players. And while A-Rod's stats are good, Mark Teixeira and Brett Gardner are both having better years.

It would have been fun to have A-Rod in the game, but the other "steroid stars" will have to do.

What to Watch for

Winslow Townson/Associated Press

We'll get to a pick for the final score later, but here's one prediction I'm totally comfortable with: Aroldis Chapman will hit triple digits on the radar gun. Chances are that he won't be alone.

Chapman has topped 100 mph in every game but one for the Reds this season, and he hit 104 in three different games, according to Brooks Baseball. He's topped 100 mph in each of his three All-Star Games, topping out at 102.6 mph last year.

Now he's going to be in his home ballpark, with All-Star adrenaline flowing.

Pitch speed records don't go back very far, but from what I could find on Brooks Baseball, the 2012 All-Star Game was the best for triple-digit pitchers, with Chapman, Craig Kimbrel and Justin Verlander all hitting 100 mph or more and Stephen Strasburg (99.1) and David Price (98.9) coming close.

So besides Chapman, who will light up the gun this year?

Gerrit Cole has done it regularly this season, with a top pitch of 101 mph. Trevor Rosenthal has gone up to 102 mph. Kelvin Herrera has also thrown 102 this year. Dellin Betances has thrown 100. Wade Davis hasn't thrown 100 in a game this season, but he did it last year.

Maybe someone else will do it. Chris Sale has thrown 99 mph this season for the White Sox. Jacob deGrom has been as high as 98 mph with the Mets, and in the All-Star Game he'll only be pitching one inning. Price has topped out at 97 mph for the Tigers.

It won't be AL starter Dallas Keuchel, whose average fastball is under 90 mph. Then again, Keuchel threw one pitch this year that was clocked at 94.9 mph.

Watch that gun.

The Missing Stars Game

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Nothing against the guys who are playing Tuesday night in Cincinnati, but you won't see all the stars.

It's always that way, and at least now no one asks out of the game. The stars who won't play are out with injuries, or they are pitchers who started games for their teams on Sunday.

Still, in a perfect world we'd be watching Miguel Cabrera (above), who is out with a calf injury. We'd be watching Giancarlo Stanton, out with a broken bone in his hand. We'd be watching Max Scherzer and Sonny Gray, who started Sunday.

Oh well, there's always next year.

The Banned Star Game

David Mercer/Associated Press

It's the All-Star Game. It's Cincinnati.

You didn't think you were going to get away without a Pete Rose mention, did you?

He's in Cincinnati, working for Fox Sports. He's part of the pregame ceremony, as one of the Reds' Franchise Four players.

He's still banned from baseball, although commissioner Rob Manfred has agreed to meet with him. When will that happen? Manfred isn't saying.

The Prediction: AL Wins, Sale Stars

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Sale easily could have been one of those missing All-Stars. His manager with the White Sox, Robin Ventura, didn't really want him to pitch.

But when AL manager Ned Yost met with reporters Monday in Cincinnati, he said that he has Ventura's approval to use Sale in the game.

"It's one of those deals where the world kind of wants to see him pitch," Yost said, according to Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com.

The world wants to see Sale do what he did from late May all the way through June, when he made eight starts and had double-digit strikeouts in each one. The world wants to see Yost pick an inning in which Sale will face a left-handed hitter or two so maybe we can get another Randy Johnson-John Kruk moment.

So far this season, lefties are batting .193 against Sale, with 23 strikeouts in 57 at-bats. Right-handers aren't much better, at .208.

It's not easy for a guy to pitch one inning and become the MVP, but what if it's a pitching-dominated game and that one inning is the most dominant in the game?

It probably won't happen, but here's hoping it does.

AL 1, NL 0. Chris Sale, MVP.