AL All Star Roster w/ WARP3
STARTERS
C
Joe Mauer
Minnesota
9.1
1B
Kevin Youkilis
Boston
7.9
2B
Dustin Pedroia
Boston
8.1
3B
Alex Rodriguez
New York
8.1
SS
Derek Jeter
New York
3.5
OF
Josh Hamilton
Texas
7.6
OF
Manny Ramirez
Boston
5.9
OF
Ichiro Suzuki
Seattle
7.6
DH
# David Ortiz
Boston
2.9
PITCHERS
RHP
@Justin Duchscherer
Oakland
6.7
RHP
Roy Halladay
Toronto
8.4
LHP
Scott Kazmir
Tampa Bay
4.5
LHP
Cliff Lee
Cleveland
9.1
RHP
@Joe Nathan
Minnesota
5.9
RHP
Jonathan Papelbon
Boston
5.7
RHP
Mariano Rivera
New York
8.9
RHP
Francisco Rodriguez
Los Angeles
6.7
RHP
Ervin Santana
Los Angeles
6.1
LHP
Joe Saunders
Los Angeles
6.4
LHP
@George Sherrill
Baltimore
4.8
RHP
@Joakim Soria
Kansas City
6.4
RESERVES
C
@Dioner Navarro
Tampa Bay
7.3
C
Jason Varitek
Boston
3.4
1B
Justin Morneau
Minnesota
7.9
2B
Ian Kinsler
Texas
10.4
SS
Michael Young
Texas
8.5
3B
Joe Crede
Chicago
5.5
3B
@Carlos Guillen
Detroit
6.6
OF
J.D. Drew
Boston
7.9
Carlos Quentin
Chicago
6.1
OF
Grady Sizemore
Cleveland
7.9
DH
Milton Bradley
Texas
8.4
Mauer and Navarro are the two catchers I picked; having a 3rd catcher makes sense, but there really isn't one deserving. Pudge Rodriguez is 6.1, and not for nothing, but he's a first ballot Hall of Famer. In fact, keep reading the relaunched list of the 200 Greatest Major League Baseball Players ever to see the historical esteem in which Ivan Rodriguez should be held. He should be the 3rd catcher this season instead of Varitek. I took Giambi (6.2) as my backup to Youkilis at first, but Morneau's having a better season, they got that right. The fans picked Pedroia, who is having a good year, but not as good as Kinsler, who still has the highest WARP3 in the AL, or my choice for backup, Brian Roberts (9.6). Adding Roberts would allow the AL to drop Sherill as the Oriole rep, which would be an upgrade. My AL starting shortstop is also the backup, also from the Rangers, and he's having a wildly better year than Jeter, who frankly, has been terrible. I named Jeter as my backup, but that's dumb; Orlando Cabrera's WARP3 is 7.3, he should be the backup to Young. But Jeter, as the SI player poll correctly noted, is the most overrated player in baseball and the fans voted him to start.
My third basemen were ARod, Guillen, and Longoria (10.2) Evan Longoria not only is having a better year than Joe Crede (and is a rookie playing for the best team in baseball) but he's having a better year than ARod. The worst decision made this year was not naming him to the team; you should vote early and often to make him the 32nd player on the AL roster. They did a great job with the AL OF, my only difference was Jermaine Dye (8.5) instead of Ichiro. Ichiro and Manny won the fan vote - actually, Ichiro's WARP3 is significantly better than Manny's and Carlos Quentin's - it's the two of them who shouldn't be going to the All Star game, Ichiro's a good choice. In the NL post, I said that Brian Wilson was the worst All Star this year; technically, it's David Ortiz (2.9) elected by the fans, but he won't play with the injury - he's replaced by Bradley and should be. Taking Quentin over Dye is a weird decision.
There are 6 closers on the AL roster. This is ridiculous. I speak to this at more length in my NL post where I'm irritated with their having 4 closers. I chose 3 for each league, and that's probably 1 more than I'd actually pick if you put me in charge (and you should). As with the NL, 7 of my 12 pitchers made the roster. Instead of Kazmir (4.5) Sherrill (4.8) KRod (6.7) Santana (6.1) and Papelbon (5.7) I had Danks (7.6) Marcum (6.3) King Felix (7.8) Harden (4.5) and Greinke (6.5). Sherill was chosen to get an Oriole, but as discussed, Brian Roberts could fix that. If they replaced Varitek with Pudge, they'd have a Tiger; then they wouldn't need Guillen, who could be replaced by Roberts. Replace Kazmir with Danks, Sherill with Felix -- KRod is a better choice than Harden, Marcum's had a better year than Santana, but he's hurt, so that's a reasonable swap - and then take Greinke over Papelbon. Cliff Lee should start for the AL. Go vote for Evan Longoria.
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