With full All-Star rosters scheduled to be announced Sunday afternoon, the Cubs expected to be well-represented, especially with the dominant pairing of Marcus Stroman and Justin Steele at the top of their rotation.

Stroman is already preparing for his second career trip. The 32-year-old right-hander tweeted: “All-Star. Thankful and grateful always!” Sunday afternoon, ahead of MLB’s planned show releasing the news. To follow up his announcement, Stroman tweeted congratulations to Steele and Dansby Swanson for making the National League All-Star team as well.

If Stroman had his way, they wouldn’t be the only Cubs teammates joining him.

“It’s a great honor to have that validation amongst your peers,” Stroman said after his start Saturday night. “I think Justin Steele is extremely worthy. I think Nico Hoerner is worthy. I think Dansby Swanson is worthy. Probably Adbert Alzolay and [Mark] Leiter [Jr.] in the bullpen as well have been incredible. I would love to see a couple of guys get in there.”

Even after hard luck night Saturday where a pair of two-out rallies and two inherited runners scoring left him with five-earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, Stroman is fourth in the National League with a 2.76 ERA and third in innings pitched. By that combination, Baseball Reference’s win above replacement metric views Stroman as the most valuable pitcher in the MLB in this year’s first half, even ahead of Steele; MLB’s current ERA leader. 

Defensively, Swanson leads all National League shortstops in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, and Stroman has cited him repeatedly for enabling his own success. Speaking postgame Saturday night, Stroman said he was undecided on if he would pitch in the All-Star Game if asked, acknowledging that the break is crucial for him to prepare for a strong second half.

Even if Stroman and Steele do not wind up showing their abilities against the league’s best hitters on a national stage, their dominant first halves serve as a bit of a throwback. Neither have fastball velocity that sit in the high-90s nor does they rank among the league’s strikeout leaders. But his sinker-led mix piles up weak grounders and allows him to soak up innings among the league’s best, and Steele can cut and command his fastball like few others.

“His sinker is a unicorn,” said catcher Tucker Barnhart of Stroman. “There’s room for pitches that are that good.”