Thoughts on All-Star Voting Results

First of all, JOSE!!!!!

Second of all, I think almost all of these elections are correct. On the A.L. side of things, Alex Avila, Adrian Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Bautista, Curtis Granderson, and David Ortiz are rather clearly the best at their positions. Josh Hamilton's spent a lot of time injured this year, which means there are a bunch of outfielders who've compiled better seasons, but he was last year's MVP and when he's played this year he's been great. I think that's a completely reasonable pick. On the N.L. side, Brian McCann, Rickie Weeks, Jose Reyes (!!!), and Matt Kemp are pretty clearly the best people out there.

But let's be honest, the Derek Jeter thing is absurd. His on-base percentage and slugging percentage this year are both .324, and his defense, as usual, sucks. Asdrubal Cabrera is slugging .502, and Jhonny Peralta's hitting .311/.359/.538 with good defense. Hell, there are dozens of A.L. shortstops having better years than Jeter. And I understand career numbers making something of a difference, but Jeter hasn't even been okay this year, he's been awful. Meanwhile, Robinson Cano doesn't really deserve this, but in his case I think the career accomplishment thing is more understandable. Ben Zobrist, Dustin Pedroia, Howie Kendrick, and Ian Kinsler all appear to be comparable at hitting, but doing a better job fielding; that's probably enough of a judgment call that you can't really fault anyone either way.

For the N.L., Rickie Weeks is more or less comparable to Danny Espinosa at second, and probably a little bit better than his voting rival Brandon Phillips; you can't fault the voters here, though there were other picks they could've made that would've been fine as well. Placido Polanco is probably the only hitter in the entire All-Star game who's a below-average hitter this year, though no other third basemen have distinguished themselves that much (with the exception of Pablo Sandoval, who's played about half the games). I don't think you can really complain about anything at such a weak position. As for the outfield, Andrew McCutchen is clearly the best out there, and it's a bit of a travesty that he's not even on the roster. And there are perhaps half a dozen other outfielders who arguably deserve to be there in lieu of Lance Berkman. But at the same time, I think that's kind of a reasonable pick.

As for the lineups, here's what I'd do based on these rosters. For the American League, Granderson, Cano, Gonzalez, Bautista, Ortiz, Rodriguez, Hamilton, Avila, and Jeter. (Yeah, ninth, that's right. If he's even there.) For the National League, Reyes, Braun, Kemp, Fielder, Votto (as DH), Berkman, McCann, Polanco, and Weeks.