Kuzul

Yesterday Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the All Star Game in Anaheim on July 13. Let’s take a look at the American League Roster.

Starters

C: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins

1B: Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins

2B: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees

SS: Derek Jeter, New York Yankees

3B: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays

OF: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays

OF: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers

OF: Ichiro, Seattle Mariners

DH: Vladimir Guerrero

Reserves

C: John Buck, Toronto Blue Jays

1B: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

2B: Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

2B: Ty Wigginton, Baltimore Orioles

SS: Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers

3B: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

3B: Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox

OF: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays

OF: Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays

OF: Torii Hunter, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

DH: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

SP: Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox

SP: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox

SP: CC Sabathia, New York Yankees

SP: Phil Hughes, New York Yankees

SP: Trevor Cahill, Oakland A’s

SP: David Price, Tampa Bay Rays

SP: Fausto Carmona, Cleveland Indians

SP: Cliff Lee, Seattle Mariners

RP: Matt Thornton, Chicago White Sox

RP: Jose Valverde, Detroit Tigers

RP: Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees

RP: Joakim Soria, Kansas City Royals

RP: Neftali Feliz, Texas Rangers

Analysis

I thought for the most part, the fans got the American League starters right. Sure you can argue Morneau vs. Cabrera or Longoria vs. Beltre, but that is nitpicking.

With a couple of exceptions, I thought the players and Joe Girardi did a good job with the reserves as well. My one gripe is Jered Weaver not being on the team. You could make the argument that Weaver should be starting for the AL squad.

Weaver leads the AL in strikeouts and strikeout ratio. Tied for the lead in quality starts. Fourth in WHIP. Seventh in ERA. That is some serious pitching.

A-Rod over Michael Young? Not sure about that one. I guess that is the advantage of having your manager coach the All Star Game.

I know he plays for the Royals, but David DeJesus needs to be on this team. DeJesus is eighth in the AL in batting (.325) and ninth in OBP (.392).

There is one more spot left to be filled and us as fans get to decide it. Here are the five players up for the final roster spot.

Nick Swisher

Michael Young

Paul Konerko

Kevin Youkilis

Delmon Young

I get why MLB put Swisher on this list (Yankees = interest which = votes), but they should be embarrassed that he is on this list. Nick Swisher? Really?

Weaver, DeJesus, or Alex Rios deserve to be on this list more than Swisher does.

You can cast your vote for the final AL All Star here.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It can now be said without a doubt that the Philadelphia Phillies will not be making their third straight trip to the World Series this October.

Or at least their manager, Charlie Manuel, seems to think they won’t.

Why else would he do such a preposterous job of selecting his All-Star pitching staff and reserves?

As we all know, the Dumbest Rule in Professional Sports mandates that the winner of the MLB All-Star Game gets home field advantage in the World Series.

Thus, it only stands to reason that Manuel, the manager of the National League’s squad and also the manager of a potential World Series participant in the Philadelphia Phillies, would want to put together the best All-Star squad available to protect the Phillies’ shot at World Series home-field advantage.

Apparently, Manuel doesn’t see the Phillies back in the Series and has thus decided to sabotage whichever team it is that will eventually get there.

That is the only explanation.

Mind you, Manuel did not simply screw up one or two picks. Manuel practically picked the wrong player at almost every opportunity; everywhere that a pick wasn’t obvious, he went with the wrong one.

Consider, for example, the selection of Tim Lincecum for the pitching staff. Lincecum is one of the best pitchers in the game and is coming off consecutive NL Cy Young Awards. But in 2010, Lincecum is not one of the best 13 pitchers in the NL.  

The selection of Lincecum stands in contrast to the exclusion of Clayton Richard and Mat Latos of the San Diego Padres, both of whom have an ERA well below 3.00 (unlike Lincecum) and one of whom, Richard, is a left-hander.

Which brings up an interesting point—the American League will feature six left-handed starters out of nine, yet the National League has only one left-handed pitcher, Arthur Rhodes.  

So, to face a veritable murderer’s row of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Robinson Cano, Ichiro Suzuki, Josh Hamilton, and Carl Crawford, the National League will be armed with a bevy of right-handers and Rhodes, a 40-year-old middle reliever who, while having a great year, may not even be in the game by the time those other guys have been pulled for backups.

Have a nice weekend, all you left-handed starting pitchers: Jaime Garcia, Johan Santana, Jonathan Sanchez, and Clayton Kershaw. Charlie won’t need your services.

Manuel’s outfield picks, too, are baffling. In selecting Chris Young, Marlon Byrd, Michael Bourn, and Matt Holliday, Manuel made sure that each team in the NL is being represented at the expense of actual All-Star-caliber talent. Fact is, Colby Rasmus, Josh Willingham, and the Phillies’ own Jayson Werth are, to a man, each having better seasons than Young, Bourn, and Holliday.

Look, I realize Charlie is old school and probably despises modern statistics. So, here are some old school stats for you: Chris Young is batting .264. Michael Bourn is batting .260. Holliday has 11 home runs and 39 RBI, which both rank behind his own teammate Rasmus’ 16 and 40.

And it isn’t like Rasmus, Werth, and Willingham are the only viable alternatives. So too would Andrew McCutchen, Angel Pagan, and Matt Kemp have been better selections.

It is funny that Manuel would diss Werth in favor of marginally better outfielders, because he selected Ryan Howard over Joey Votto, who is enjoying a significantly better season than Howard.

Votto isn’t arguably better than Howard; he’s demonstratively better than Howard.

Perhaps the worst selection of all, and perhaps even of all time, was Manuel’s choice of Omar Infante, a utility infielder for the Atlanta Braves, over, well, just about anyone else in the league.

Infante has played just 56 games in 2010 and has appeared at five different positions. He is hitting .311 with a .721 OPS, one home run, eight doubles, three stolen bases, and 23 runs scored. He has 28 strikeouts to only nine walks and only 62 total bases.

Did Charlie lose a bet with somebody?

Look, I am sure Omar Infante is a nice guy, but there are 50 hitters in the National League who are more deserving of the All-Star Game than Infante.

Meanwhile, the final roster spot will be selected by fans in a vote between Votto, Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmerman, Heath Bell, and Billy Wagner, all of whom are significantly better than Infante, and frankly several other players on the roster.

The irony here is that the NL All-Star team would be better off if it took the five worst reserves and replaced them with all five of the players in the Final Vote.

Even if Charlie Manuel was doing the noble thing and trying to pick the players that most deserved to be at the All-Star Game—which he failed to do—one must be mindful of the fact that, thanks to the Dumbest Rule in Professional Sports, we are beyond the era when every team gets an All-Star and everyone that is there deserves to be there.

An All-Star roster should be filled with the best players in the league with position, team, and fluke season performance aside.

Alas, it is not to be.

So this is it, Philadelphia Phillies fans. On July 4, 2010, you got all the indication you needed that Phillies manager Charlie Manuel feels that his Phillies team has no shot at the World Series.

If he did, he surely would have given himself a better shot at winning the NL All-Star Game—and he has given himself none.

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The 2010 season has been an exciting one, in case you haven’t noticed. There have been two perfect games*, a couple of no-hitters, and rookie phenoms Jason Heyward, Stephen Strasburg, and Mike Stanton dominating headlines.

On July 13, the best players that step onto the field will come together at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Today, rosters were announced, and there were some questionable picks as to who wasn’t invited to the roster.

This slideshow examines the American League and who got snubbed. Look forward to the National League coming tomorrow!

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Three Reds were named to the All-Star Game Sunday night.

It was a proud moment for a team that isn’t used to having an abundance of all-stars, but the name that was left off made it bittersweet.

Reds’ first baseman Joey Votto was not on the final National League roster, despite being in the top five in the NL in all three major statistical categories, with a .312 average, 19 home runs, and 57 RBI.

It’s not out of the question to say that Votto has been the NL MVP this first half. How can a man that some baseball experts consider the MVP not be included on an all-star team?

The numbers are even more impressive with Votto missing extended time with a neck injury earlier in the year.

According to ESPN’s MLB Player Rater, Votto is actually the top first baseman in the NL according to their system of four different statistical metrics for evaluating player performance.

Albert Pujols is definitely the top dog when it comes to NL first basemen, so fans voting him as the starting first baseman is not a surprise. He and Votto had similar numbers, but Pujols is one of the league’s most popular players. You can’t say the same for Votto.

But when it comes to the other first basemen added to the NL roster, Votto should have gotten the nod.

When you look at the numbers, Votto’s first half surpassed those of Adrian Gonzalez and Ryan Howard.

Gonzalez’s production has been an integral part to the Padres’ resurgence. He leads the Padres in every major statistical category with .295 average, 16 home runs, and 51 RBIs.

But the same could be said about Votto being essential to the Reds’ resurgence. Votto’s hot hitting has been one of the biggest reasons Cincinnati leads the NL in hitting.

Votto leads the Reds all categories, like Gonzalez, but has had more of an impact for Cincinnati.

Toward Ryan Howard, the only reason Howard would get a pass over Votto is popularity.

Votto has four more home runs and is ahead of Howard by 18 points in batting average.

The numbers might be close, but Votto deserves to get his first selection due to how essential he has been to Reds’ charge to first-place in the NL Central.

Now, Votto goes up against Heath Bell, Carlos Gonzalez, Billy Wagner, and Ryan Zimmerman for the NL’s final man.

Of all the men on the ballot, Bell gives the only case close enough to Votto’s. The Padres’ closer leads the NL with 23 saves and has a 1.77 ERA.

None, however, have had the impact on their team that Votto has.

With one more player to select to the NL roster, Votto is the man who deserves the 34th and final spot.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Oakland Athletics have a few players that are deserving of an All-Star invitation, including Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, and Andrew Bailey.

Despite how great all of these players are playing right now, Trevor Cahill is the most deserving of any.

The 22-year-old right-hander is from the Southern California area and should be returning there to represent the A’s in Angel Stadium. Cahill is 7-2 on the year with an impressive 2.88 ERA.

Of his 12 starts, 10 have been “quality starts,” and the team has won nine of the games started by Cahill.

Trevor Cahill has won his last six decisions, which is the longest winning streak by an A’s starting pitcher since Dan Haren in 2007.

Cahill is a laid-back guy who has very quietly put up a great season; hopefully the right people are taking enough notice that Cahill will be able to join Bob Geren in Anaheim.

With multiple players having good seasons, it is possible that the Oakland Athletics will have multiple All-Stars for the first time since 2004, when Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder were both selected.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Voting for the 2010 MLB All-Star Game ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. That means this is our last chance to make a stand against the popular yet inferior big-name players who infiltrate the Midsummer Classic every year.

It’s too late for some of these races. Adrian Gonzalez and Joey Votto have no chance of catching Albert Pujols, for example, and there’s no way Shin-Soo Choo and Alex Rios will gain enough ground on Ichiro Suzuki by end of business today.

But there’s still time for some close races to be won for those who truly deserve them.

Two of the three players listed here were in second place at their respective positions at the last update. The third is already winning his race, but is facing a potential challenge from a clearly inferior rival.

Just remember as you flip through this slideshow that, if you support undeserving players, you’re going to be stuck watching them.

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The grades are in as we approach the halfway mark of the 2010 season.

What teams have lived up to the hype in the American League West, and which have laid an egg and why?

Here is a team-by-team breakdown recapping the first 81 games (almost), and what to watch for in the second half.

Who will be the movers and shakers in the second half?

What moves should teams make going forward?

Which will be buyers and sellers at the trade deadline?

Who is in the running for individual awards?

Who are the biggest disappointments and surprises?

Who will ultimately win the division, and who will fade into the abyss?

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We are nearing the halfway point for the MLB season, which means it’s almost time to play the All-Star Game.

Who deserves to make it over the guys that will make it just because of their name? Which players are having the most under-the-radar seasons?

Check out this slideshow to find out the 34 players who will be making the trip to Anaheim in a couple of weeks to represent the AL in the All-Star Game.

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There are more skills required to play baseball than there are for any other sport.

Just think about what it means to be a “five-tool player.” Only a few dozen people in the world can both hit and hit for power, let alone run, throw, and catch. That’s without even considering pitchers.

Yet, the MLB All-Star Game features just one skill competition: The Home Run Derby.

In this slideshow are 10 contests that MLB could add to its All-Star festivities that test some of the game’s neglected skills. A description of the event, five players who could compete, and my predicted winner. To prevent guys like Carl Crawford and Ichiro from dominating everything, I decided that players can partake in only one competition each.

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It is the most ridiculous thing in sports to have the fans vote for the MLB All-Star Game. Fans vote for their favorite players even if they have horrible numbers.

This year has been a prime example thus far of the stupidity of fans.

Big-name players that have been hitting very poorly, with three or four guys way more deserving of an appearance, are not only in first or second for their position, but are miles ahead of everyone else.

Begin Slideshow