Mid-Day News Roundup

Rehab starts set for Zumaya, Rodney

Rodney will be sent to Triple-A Toledo, where he’ll join the Mud Hens’ bullpen for his first regular-season game action this year. Zumaya will pitch in relief for Class A Lakeland, at least to begin his assignment.

Tigers All Star chances not looking good right now.
MLB announced the latest voting totals for the All Star Game starters and Detroit’s best chance, Pudge Rodriguez, has dipped in the voting so far to third. He trails Jason Varitek and Joe Mauer.

The closest any Tiger currently stands towards a starting spot is Edgar Renteria, second to Derek Jeter among candidates at shortstop. Miguel Cabrera is third behind Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell at third base, the position Cabrera was playing when the ballots were finalized, while Placido Polanco trails Dustin Pedroia and Robinson Cano in his defense of the starting nod at second.

Mixed-up May.
Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown looks at the teams that are sorry to see May end and those elated it’s finally June. The Tigers, of course, are part of the latter group.

For the Tigers, April was bad and May was worse. But, now they’re standing in June. And, about that, they can believe only one thing: Good thing it’s not May. That was not a pretty picture.

Verlander not earning his paycheck.
Fox Sports’ Dayn Perry lists the 10 players who aren’t pulling their respective weight so far in 2008. It’s a veritable who’s-who, including Detroit’s ace.

The Tigers in 2008 have been a veritable superfund site. … You can point to any number of guys who aren’t getting it done, but Verlander, the Tigers’ ace, stands out. This season, Verlander is toting around an RA (runs allowed per nine innings) of 5.82, and he’s been even worse than that away from Comerica Park.