AL All-Star Ballot

While we're on the baseball theme, I'll run down the 2007 MLB All-Star ballot and make my case for my choices.

AL
1B - Papi. A little hesitation because he's not worth beans playing first, but the competition (Teixeira, Konerko, Giambi, Hafner, or Morneau) haven't really done anything to unseat him. And come on, his OPS is over 1.000.

2B - This is a little tougher, but you've got to go with BJ Upton over Kinsler here. Kinsler has an advantage in the power numbers (barely), but his AVG has dropped to .244 lately. And despite his 4:1 K/BB ratio, BJ is batting a pretty insane .345, with an OBP of .408 and an OPS in the Papi neighborhood at 1.018. He gets the vote.

3B - blah blah, A-Rod, blah. Deservedly so, though. And can anyone explain why Alex Gordon is on the ballot here? Ugh.

SS - Another tough one. Jeter will win, but the vote should (as of now) be between Carlos Guillen and Jhonny Peralta. Jeter falls behind these two in most offensive categories except AVG, and his less than mediocre defense thus far should take him out of consideration. I guess I'll give it to Guillen, considering Peralta's quite low AVG and tendency to K.

C - Posada is hitting .365/.422/.548? Wow. I don't like the guy, but I think that probably beats out Mauer and VMart so far this year. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Mauer turn it up a notch and become the clear candidate here by July. Truth be told, I actually voted for VMart, because I really can't stand Posada.

OF - What? No Jack Cust on the ballot? Well, Vlad is a no-brainer this year. After that, I really like Torii Hunter's performance this year, hitting at a brisk .324/.354/.618 clip with 7 SBs and stellar defense in center to go with it. I think Magglio Ordonez is pretty deserving, although a lot of his big numbers this year are due to his .424 avg with runners in scoring position. Honorable mentions to Carl Crawford (5 HR, 10 SB) and Nick Swisher (.935 OPS). Please don't vote for Sammy.

NL ballot rundown coming soon, stay tuned. And click on the image above to vote yourself - up to 25 times!