AL Starters

 

C – Joe Mauer Min

1B – Jason Giambi NYY

2B – Mark Loretta Bos

3B – Troy Glaus Tor

SS – Derek Jeter NYY

LF – Manny Ramirez Bos

CF – Vernon Wells Tor

RF – Jermaine Dye Chi

 

Reserves

 

C – Ramon Hernandez Bal

1B – Travis Hafner Cle

1B – Jim Thome Chi

1B – Paul Konerko Chi

2B – Mark Grudzielanek KC

3B – Alex Rodriguez NYY

SS – Miguel Tejada Bal

SS – Orlando Caberera LAA

OF – Grady Sizemore Cle

OF – Alexis Rios* Tor

OF – Ichiro Suzuki Sea

OF – Nick Swisher Oak

 

*OF – Gary Matthews Jr. Tex

(replaces the injured Rios)

 

Starting Pitchers

 

Johan Santana Min

Roy Halladay Tor

Francisco Liriano Min

Justin Verlander Det

Mike Mussina NYY

Curt Schilling Bos

Scott Kazmir TB

 

Relief Pitchers

 

BJ Ryan Tor

Jon Papelbon Bos

Mariano Rivera NYY

Bobby Jenks Chi

Joe Nathan Min

American League Analysis

 

Kansas City provides a real problem for the AL team.  I begrudgingly chose Grudz because second base is a weak position in the AL.  In other words, the difference between Jose Contreras and Mark Redman or Trot Nixon and Emil Brown is greater than the difference between Brian Roberts and Mark G.

 

Surprisingly, the Rangers and A’s (and less surprisingly, the Angels) have just borderline All Star players to offer.  Rios’ injury conveniently allowed me to avoid using Otsuka and F-Rod over Rivera, Nathan, and Jenks.

 

Leaving off Jose Contreras was tough, but if you’ve only made 14 starts by the halfway point in the season, you’d better be leading your league in ERA to get into the All Star Game. 

 

Ramon Hernandez is a catcher with 59 RBI and an arm similar to I-Rod’s; I had to overlook the errors and passed balls and put him on the team (he does catch easily the hardest thrower in the majors, Daniel Cabrera, so maybe that excuses the passed balls a bit).

 

Michael Young, oddly enough, has a ton of double and very few home runs playing in a ballpark that drastically inflates homers and depresses doubles.  He’s grounded into 18 double plays and has a pretty empty .315 average.  I’m certain the departure of Alfonso Soriano has helped his fielding stats some (since he no longer needs to shade so far up the middle now), but I don’t believe that he’s become a reliable fielder overnight.  I would take Carlos Guillen over him, and did take Orlando Cabrera over him to avoid putting in a lesser Angel.

 

GMJ has always been a good fielder, and his grab of Mike Lamb’s ball was certainly impressive.  More importantly, he’s been the leadoff hitter that the Rangers have been searching for for a long, long time.  Along with fellow ex-Cub CF Corey Patterson, GMJ is a fantastic candidate for the AL Alex Gonzalez of the Marlins Award, so we’ll give him his accolade now.

 

I split votes for A-Rod, Glaus, and Lowell at 3B when I voted at Wrigley and the Cell.  Looking at it more closely now, Lowell’s edge on defense doesn’t quite offset the fact that he has hit 6^th and 7^th all year, and simply hasn’t been relied upon as a run producer in the way that Glaus and A-Rod have.  The three players have similar OPS figures, but Lowell’s is inflated by all of those cheap doubles that he’s hit off the Green Monster.  Glaus is no more or less deserving than A-Rod; I just didn’t want to see three Yankees in the starting lineup.

 

Oh, and I put Giambi as the starter at first because he’s actually a first baseman, not because I value his offense over Thome and Hafner’s.

 

National League Commentary

 

Despite having two more teams than the AL, there’s really no undeserving player on my NL All Star roster due to the Mark Grudzielanek rule.  The problem in the NL, if you could call it that, is that most of the best hitters are corner infielders.  I don’t have a problem with nine corner infielders if they’re clearly the best choices.  Besides, Pujols, Berkman, Garciaparra, Cabrera, and Sanchez can all play non-CI positions.  They’re really just corner infielders because that’s what suits their particular team’s needs.

 

I do sort of regret leaving Andruw off the squad, but in the end, teammate Edgar Renteria was almost as valuable offensively as Jones was, while playing a more important position (although not playing it as well).  Sanchez can easily play shortstop and Bay can easily play center, so it was kind of a tossup, and I took the underdog.

 

Webb gets the start for being second in the NL in ERA despite playing in the most extreme hitter’s park in baseball.  The only starter I regret leaving off is Oswalt, but since his own manager did the same, I can’t feel too guilty.  Young and Carpenter simply did not have the IP to make it.

 

Richard has made me a Saito believer.  By taking him and the two obvious choices, I can just say that all relievers with sub-2 Earned Run Averages get selected.

 

Overall

 

Whether you look at my squad or the actual selections, the NL has a much better looking roster than the AL.  This is especially true of the starting lineups, where it’s basically the Yankee and Red Sox All Stars versus the NL All Stars.  This certainly contradicts everything we know about the two leagues, with the AL finishing 56 games better than the NL at the end of Interleague play.  But I stand by my assessment.  The NL will break its losing streak of All Star games this year.