Stars and Gripes (My All-Star picks)

I know we have a little bit of time left, but I felt inspired now, so I decided to post my picks for the 2006 MLB All-Star Game in Pittsburgh. 

My picks have nothing to do with popularity.  All of my picks were well thought out and researched.  There will always be great players with great seasons left off of the team because it's a popularity contest as far as the starters go, and each team has to have a participant.

Well, I didn't use those rules.  This is my opinion of who SHOULD BE in the All-Star game and I still had to painfully omit a couple of great ballplayers.  But I still think I came up with a much fairer cast of players than the actual game will boast.  Not every team is represented.  Not every star is here.  Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong.  I look forward to your comments.

American League Starting Lineup:

RF Ichiro, Seattle Mariners
2B Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners (believe me, I'm as surprised as you are to see that I have two Mariners on the team, let alone in the starting lineup, but after gathering a lot of info, I feel they deserve it, even if their team is pretty dreadful this year....)
SS Miguel Tejada, Baltimore Orioles
1B Travis Hafner, Cleveland Indians
CF Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays
C Ramon Hernandez, Baltimore Orioles
LF Jermaine Dye, Chicago White Sox
3B Hank Blalock, Texas Rangers
P Johan Santana, Minnesota Twins (I know, I know, everyone thinks Jose Contreras should be here, or maybe even someone else, but I can't ignore how consistently phenomenal Santana has been and his strikeout numbers are much better)

National League Starting Linuep:

SS Edgar Renteria, Atlanta Braves (A couple of weeks ago, this would've been Hanley Ramirez in a landslide, but he's starting to show a little more of his rookie colors and Edgar is quietly having a stellar year)
LF Alfonso Soriano, Washington Nationals
1B Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
3B David Wright, New York Mets (For awhile it was a dead heat--and I mean thisclose--with Miguel Cabrera, but Wright has been better recently.  That being said, if Cabrera does better than Wright from now until the game, I think he deserves it.  Both of them are having superb years.)
RF Jason Bay, Pittsburgh Pirates
2b Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
CF Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies
C Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves
P Brandon Webb, Arizona Diamondbacks

American League Reserves:

Chicago White Sox:
SP Jose Contreras
RP Bobby Jenks
1B Paul Konerko
1B Jim Thome
2B Tadahito Iguchi
Toronto Blue Jays:
SP Roy Halladay
RP B.J. Ryan
3B Troy Glaus (Power numbers were hard to ignore in his case)
OF Alex Rios
New York Yankees:
SP Mike Mussina
RP Mariano Rivera
SS Derek Jeter

Detroit Tigers:
SP Kenny Rogers (I don't like this man, but like I said, it's not a popularity contest as far as my selections go.)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays:
SP Scott Kazmir
OF Carl Crawford
Minnesota Twins
SP Francisco Liriano
RP Joe Nathan
Boston Red Sox:
SP Curt Schilling
RP Jonathan Papelbon (they should almost let him start the game.  He's the MVP of the AL right now.  And the Cy Young Award Winner)
Cleveland Indians:
C Victor Martinez
OF Grady Sizemore
Anaheim Angels:
OF Vladimir Guerrero
Oakland Athletics:
1B/OF Nick Swisher
Texas Rangers:
SS Michael Young

National League Reserves:

Los Angeles Dodgers:
SP Brad Penny
1B Nomar Garciaparra
San Francisco Giants:
SP Jason Schmidt
Cincinnati Reds:
SP Bronson Arroyo
St. Louis Cardinals:
SP Chris Carpenter
3B Scott Rolen
New York Mets:
SP Pedro Martinez
RP Billy Wagner
SP Tom Glavine
OF Carlos Beltran
1B Carlos Delgado
Florida Marlins:
SP Josh Johnson
2B Dan Uggla
SS Hanley Ramirez
3B Miguel Cabrera
San Diego Padres:
SP Chris Young (by the way, what's wrong with Jake Peavy this year?)
RP Trevor Hoffman
Colorado Rockies:
RP Brian Fuentes
OF Brad Hawpe
Philadelphia Phillies:
RP Tom Gordon
1B Ryan Howard
Chicago Cubs:
C Michael Barrett (just edging out Arizona's Jonny Estrada)
Houston Astros:
1B Lance Berkman
Milwaukee Brewers:
OF Carlos Lee

Top 10 snubs from the American League (in order of how much they deserved to crack the squad)

1.  Joe Mauer, C, Twins (I'd nominate picking 3 catchers and leaving off someone else, but I fear this will not happen.)
2.  David Ortiz, 1B, Red Sox (Had a tough time leaving him off, but you can only have so many first basemen on the team.)
3.  Orlando Cabrera, SS, Anaheim Angels (Numbers almost identical to Michael Young's.  I'd have no problem with O.C. making it to the team instead of Young.)
4.  Shea Hillenbrand, 1B/3B, Toronto Blue Jays (having a great year, but other than his average, his numbers don't jump out at you and he's not consistently great.)
5.  Alex Rodriguez, 3B, New York Yankees (I'm actually a fan of his, though everyone seems to hate him now, but I think this year, with his numbers down a little, Glaus deserves it more.)
6.  Justin Verlander, SP, Detroit Tigers
7.  Mark Buehrle, SP, Chicago White Sox
8.  Akinori Otsuka, RP, Texas Rangers (quietly having an awesome year out of the bullpen and took over the closers role marvelously.)
9.  J.J. Putz, RP, Seattle Mariners (see Akinori Otsuka)
10.  Robinson Cano, 2B, Yankees (leads all AL 2B in BA, but his other numbers are kind of weak.)

Top 10 National League Snubs:

1.  Freddy Sanchez, IF, Pittsburgh Pirates (he's come out of nowhere to put up some pretty stellar numbers)
2.  Brandon Phillips, 2B, Cincinnati Reds (people thought he'd make a lot of all-star teams while in Ohio...with the Cleveland Indians.  After they gave up on him, he's made an amazing turnaround in Cincy, to help lead the Reds from out of the gutter to the top of the NL standings.)
3.  Carlos Zambrano, SP, Chicago Cubs (just keeps going out there and doing his job and not getting nearly enough fan fare for it.)
4.  Derek Lowe, SP, Dodgers (his numbers don't blow you away, but you can't ignore his impressively low ERA and consistency this year.)
5.  Chris Capuano, SP, Milwaukee Brewers
6.  Jason Isringhuasen, RP, Cardinals (He leads the NL in saves, but he also seems to have a bad inning once every couple weeks or so)
7.  Shawn Green, OF, D-Backs (Is doing a good job of getting on base and hitting for average, but we'd all like to see a little more power from him.)
8.  Felipe Lopez, SS, Cincinnati Reds (His stolen base numbers are really surprising, but the rest of his numbers have been up and down all year.)
9.  Chad Cordero, RP, Washington Nationals
10.  Jonny Estrada, C, D-Backs