Cy would look nice on free-agent resume

The Angels’ Francisco Rodriguez is on pace to save 65 games this season, which would break the major league record of 57, set by Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago White Sox in 1990.

Thigpen finished fourth in voting for the American League Cy Young Award, behind 27-game winner Bob Welch, 21-game winner Roger Clemens and 22-game winner Dave Stewart.

The AL might not have a 20-game winner this season, which could help Rodriguez toward the Cy Young.

“I don’t know how much credit they give to relief pitchers when it comes time to vote for the Cy Young,” he said. “It’s never crossed my mind.”

In the last 15 years, one reliever has won: the Dodgers’ Eric Gagne, in 2003. Rodriguez knows all about that year.

“He had 55 saves, no blown saves and an ERA under 1 [actually, 1.20],” Rodriguez said. “It was a crazy, unbelievable year.”

Rodriguez has 39 saves, three blown saves and an ERA of 2.30.

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Want stability? Hire a stuntman

Don Mattingly joined the Dodgers’ coaching staff last week, becoming the team’s fourth hitting instructor in two seasons and the eighth since the turn of this century.

The Angels have had one hitting instructor in that time: Mickey Hatcher, a frequent target of fans on talk shows and message boards. When the Angels hired Mike Scioscia as manager in 1999, he selected Hatcher as his hitting coach.

The only hitting coaches with longer tenures have worked under multiple managers: Rudy Jaramillo, with the Rangers since 1994, and Terry Crowley, with the Orioles since 1998.

The Dodgers’ hitting coaches since Scioscia and Hatcher joined the Angels, in chronological order: Rick Down, Jack Clark, George Hendrick, Tim Wallach, Eddie Murray, Bill Mueller, Mike Easler and now Mattingly.

The reserves on the Dodgers’ 1988 World Series championship team, Hatcher included, branded themselves the Stuntmen.

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He blinded me with science?

Commissioner Bud Selig bluntly admits that tying the result of the All-Star game to home-field advantage in the World Series helps Fox attract viewers. Although it might be fairer to award home-field advantage to the league with the most victories in interleague play, Selig rejects the concept.

Better for fans to focus on one game, he figures, than on a 126-game interleague slate that ended this year with a makeup game in Pittsburgh.

“This is more dramatic,” Selig said. “This has more of an impact.”

He scoffed at the idea that traditionalists are offended by the “This Time It Counts” All-Star scheme, noting that home-field advantage in the World Series previously was rotated between the leagues.

“You didn’t use Einstein’s theory of relativity to determine where the game was played before,” Selig said.

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This and that from Milwaukee

The early leader for executive of the year: the Brewers’ Doug Melvin, who not only traded for CC Sabathia but got the deal done in the week before the All-Star break rather than waiting until the July 31 deadline. That enabled Sabathia to start three of seven games for the Brewers, with the break in between. He won all three. ... As the Angels’ Ervin Santana posted a 3.27 ERA at home last season and an 8.38 ERA on the road, Scioscia consistently dismissed any thought of starting Santana only at home. Brewers Manager Ned Yost last week adopted such a pitcher platoon, with Dave Bush (2.49 ERA at home, 6.95 ERA away) starting only at home.

-- Bill Shaikin