Posted on 06/27/2007 10:56:22 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson
Who are your picks for this year's All-Star Game in San Francisco? 32 players on a side, and each team must be represented. Voting at mlb.com ends Thursday night at midnight.
I weigh three factors: this year, last year, and career. Here are my picks, with 18 position players and 14 pitchers (9 starters, 5 relievers) on each side:
NATIONAL LEAGUE
C: RUSSELL MARTIN (LAD), Bengie Molina (SF)
1B: ALBERT PUJOLS (STL), Prince Fielder (MIL), Dmitri Young (WSH)
2B: CHASE UTLEY (PHI), Orlando Hudson (ARI)
SS: JOSE REYES (NYM), Edgar Renteria (ATL), Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
3B: MIGUEL CABRERA (FLA), David Wright (NYM)
OF: ALFONSO SORIANO (CHC), KEN GRIFFEY (CIN), MATT HOLLIDAY (COL), Carlos Lee (HOU), Eric Byrnes (ARI), Barry Bonds (SF)
P: JAKE PEAVY (SD), Brad Penny (LAD), John Smoltz (ATL), Ben Sheets (MIL), Brandon Webb (ARI), Roy Oswalt (HOU), Aaron Harang (CIN), Ian Snell (PIT), Cole Hamels (PHI); Francisco Cordero (MIL), Takashi Saito (LAD), Trevor Hoffman (SD), Billy Wagner (NYM), Brian Fuentes (COL)
AMERICAN LEAGUE
C: JORGE POSADA (NYY), Victor Martinez (CLE)
1B: JUSTIN MORNEAU (MIN), Mark Teixeira (TEX), David Ortiz (BOS)
2B: PLACIDO POLANCO (DET), Brian Roberts (BAL)
SS: DEREK JETER (NYY), Orlando Cabrera (LAA), Carlos Guillen (Det)
3B: ALEX RODRIGUEZ (NYY), Troy Glaus (TOR)
OF: VLADIMIR GUERRERO (LAA), ICHIRO SUZUKI (SEA), MAGGLIO ORDONEZ (DET), Carl Crawford (TB), Torii Hunter (MIN), Grady Sizemore (CLE)
P: DAN HAREN (OAK), Justin Verlander (DET), Josh Beckett (BOS), Johan Santana (MIN), C. C. Sabathia (CLE), John Lackey (LAA), Kelvim Escobar (LAA), Mark Buehrle (CHW), Gil Meche (KC); Francisco Rodriguez (LAA), J. J. Putz (SEA), Jonathan Papelbon (BOS), Scot Shields (LAA), Rafael Betancourt (CLE)
OK, baseball fans, now let's hear your picks and your near-misses!
Ping.
Where’s Todd Jones??? He can blow bigger leads than anyone.
Right now, Molina is the only Giant worthy of the distinction. I do have to agree with you though, Chris Young is a tough one to leave off.
Geez, I wish I had free time for this kind of stuff.
I'd put Hideki Okajima in before either Shields or Betancourt.
Notice I put Bonds on my reserves—grudgingly. He has the stats, for career, obviously, but even for this year. And the game is in SF, the only place where people will cheer for him. Nevertheless, I don’t like the guy, and he’s a cheater, at least in the past.
With the year Jojima is having, you’re leaving him off?
Oh yeah, what about Ryan Howard? I know he’s hitting a very pedestrian .250-ish and his slugging pct. is .550-ish, but I could see a few folk from the eastern half of Pennsylvania that might be a little annoyed you left him off. ;)
Good choice, I can't object. Any two of those three set-up guys would do.
In the NL I picked five closers, but in the AL I picked three closers and two set-up guys.
Posada and Martinez are having even better years. I picked one backup at each position and then two extra guys. In the AL my two extras were David Ortiz (a DH but hard to leave off) and Carlos Guillen (a SS with big numbers).
I did notice that. My main reason for leaving him off—and I’m saying this as a Giants fan myself—is that I don’t really think he’s playing like an All-Star, or at the very least, not like he’s played since about 1997.
With that said, Bengie Molina certainly deserves an All-Star invite. He’s certainly the one reliable bat in the current Giants lineup. *sigh*
Pujols and Fielder (in either order) HAVE to make the team, no question. My third 1B is Dmitri Young, ONLY because the Nats have to have a rep. Sorry, Ryan Howard, Derrek Lee, Todd Helton, and Adrian Gonzalez.
Actually, the fans are doing a pretty good job at voting this year. Ther 16 leaders right now are almost all the best choices, with only a couple exceptions.
Betancourt is a convicted cheater. No All-Star vote for him.
Go Yankee Ever Stars!
Yaz!
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