The Real AL All-Star team

It's that time again, the All-Star voting process! Yes go to mlb.com and fill out your ballots, but wait who are you voting for? Are you voting for a life time achievement award player like Derek Jeter? Or a guy who really deserves it like Asdrubal Cabrera. The MLB All-Star game is very unique. It's the only game that actually matters. It gives the winning league home field in the World Series. An exhibition game shouldn't be deciding important future events. But is this what makes the MLB All-Star game the best?

In terms of All-Star games the Pro Bowl is a joke and the hockey one is a real life fantasy draft where one guy gets a car for getting picked last. Humiliated plus a free car? Sign me up. The NBA All-Star game is the only other All-Star game that somewhat excites. You also have the dunk contest and 3 point shoot out, but those are getting old with the one super star and then 3 second rate talent players. Via Blake Griffin vs. Mcgee. Clearly baseball has the better All-Star game and festivities. Home Run Derby > Dunk Contest. 

I still think we should change the voting process though. The fans are voting in older less deserving players into the All-Star game. It's a good thing we have newer metrics to decide who gets into the Hall because if people went off Gold Gloves and All-Star appearances people like Derek Jeter would be a top 50 player of all-time. When he just cracks the top 100 in my mind. And I'm a Yankees fan. 

Here's an outlook on who's leading American League voting so far. I'll be going into who deserves to be an All-Star starter so far and who doesn't. The new roster sizes for All-Star games has become inflated so I do state again starters. 

Catcher
Russell Martin NYY, 1,712,156
Alex Avila DET, 1,093,070
Joe Mauer MIN, 1,041,798

First base
Adrian Gonazalez BOS, 2,027,537
Mark Teixeira NYY, 1,774,024
Miguel Cabrera DET, 1,295,547

Second base
Robinson Cano NYY, 2,649,737
Dustin Pedroia BOS, 1,518,231
Ian Kinsler TEX, 1,129,023

Third base
Alex Rodriguez NYY, 2,063,520
Adrian Beltre TEX, 1,752,729
Kevin Youkilis BOS, 1,381,381

Shortstop
Derek Jeter NYY, 1,931,670
Asdrubal Cabrera CLE, 1,647,802
Elvis Andrus TEX, 1,180,962

Outfield
Jose Bautista TOR, 3,042,091
Curtis Granderson NYY, 2,406,946
Josh Hamilton TEX, 1,799,339
Jacoby Ellsbury BOS, 1,447,715
Ichiro Suzuki SEA, 1,231,035
Carl Crawford BOS, 1,222,687
Nelson Cruz TEX, 1,123,608
Nick Swisher NYY, 937,365
Brett Gardner NYY, 796,905
J.D. Drew BOS,  778,871

Designated hitter
David Ortiz BOS, 1,974,918
Michael Young TEX, 1,428,833
Jorge Posada NYY, 810,672

If you're counting at home that's seven Yankees and Red Sox in the starting line up. Five of them are Yankees. Some of them deserve to be there, but others not so much. I guess the American league consists of three fan bases at the moment Yankees, Red Sox, and Rangers. This years voting should further more prove that it's a joke of a system. It's not like major sports writers would get it write either though. Here we go position by position. 

The catcher spot is off by a little bit. Russell Martin has had a good year so far, but the chunk of it has been a great April. I wouldn't base an All-Star appearance off one month of the season. His 1.7 WAR is good, but not better than Avila's 2.5 WAR. Avila is also ahead of Martin by a good .40 points in wOBA, and .100 points in SLG. 

 At first base the voters got it right. They also even got the top 3 in voting right, but switch Miggy and Tex around. The first base position in baseball is very deep right now. You have Pujols, Votto, Gonzo, Tex, Miggy, Fielder, Morales, etc. All great first basemen, but it's not hard to see Adrian is the starting man at first base. A 3.9 WAR, a full point above the 2nd American League 1st basemen Miguel Cabrera. I don't usually go nuts about batting averages, but a .352 at this point in the year is really amazing. Fenway is going to make him into a even better player. Scary thought for Yankees fans. 

First base the voters 

Second base is really off. While Pedroia, Cano, and Kinsler are all having good years there has been two better guys who can either take the starting job. Ben Zobrist and Howie Kendrick lead the AL 2nd Basemen WAR department respectively. A 3.2 for Zoby and a 3.1 for Kendrick. After leading the league in WAR in 2009 Zobrist still doesn't get the credit he deserves as a good player. He and Zimmerman should go down as the most underrated players in this era of baseball. 

Third place is perfect. You have your top 3 AL 3B vote getters and your top 3 AL 3B WAR leaders in order. Alex is having a great year without going yard every so often. He's turned into a line drive type hitter with the occasional homer. Beltre hasn't slid off the deep end like I thought would happen and he's added to the Rangers dangerous offense. And Youk has made a nice transition from first to third. A truly great defensive and offensive player. 

*Face palm* Derek Jeter is the AL SS leading vote getter. And it looks like it might stay that way. His career accomplishments will get him into the All-Star game year after year until he retires. Not really fair, but it's most likely true. The media is killing him and yet he's still in the game as of now. Either Cabrera or Alexei Ramirez deserve the starting job. Jeter ranks 8th in WAR behind the other AL shortstops. This is more about how is Jeter in than who is in. 

Overall the outfield and DH are solid. I really would vote the exact same people into the game. Granderson and Bautista are killing the ball. And Josh Hamilton is the reigning MVP. Who else would you want in the All-Star game? In fact I'd chose any of these 3 guys to win the AL MVP this season. 

My AL starting line up would look like this. 

C - Avila

1B - Gonzalez

2B - Zobrist

3B - Rodriguez

SS - Cabrera

OF - Bautista

OF - Granderson

OF - Hamilton

DH - Ortiz