Rating the A.L. All-Stars

The rosters for the 75th Major League Baseball All-Star game were announced Sunday and, as usual, there were a few surprising choices, a couple of snubs and a whole lot of Yankees.
Today, in the first of a three-part series this week, I’ll break down the American League starting lineup.
(For those of you surprised that I’m not talking about Coach K today, I’ll say this – Mike Krzyzewski staying at Duke is a non-story. Oh, you’ll hear plenty about it this week and when the college basketball season starts (I have 153 as the over-under on how many times Dick Vitale mentions Coach K’s NBA flirtations… per game – “Ohhhh, Mistah Paatrick, Coach KKK wazz gonna go to the NBA to be with Kobe, but hee couldn’t bearr tha thoughtt of leaving the Cam-A-ron Cra-ZEES, and they LUV him”) but essentially this is a story about something that was going to happen but didn’t. Duke fans shouldn’t be relieved, they should be angry. Coach K playing footsie with Mitch Kupchak was like a husband meeting a young, nubile blond at a bar and going back to her apartment and waiting until they got in to bed before saying, “I can’t do this”. Sure, he made the right decision, but only after making about thirty wrong decisions before that. This decision should have been a no-brainer for Coach K – ahh, I’ve written more than I wanted to about this. Onto the A.L. Starters…)

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez – Detroit Tigers

Pudge starting at catcher was the easiest selection on the A.L. squad. Since coming to Detroit, Pudge has been the catalyst behind the Tigers 17-game improvement over the same time last year (the Tigers have an outside chance at matching their 2003 win total before the All-Star break). And a scorching June that saw I. Rod become the first non-Rockie player to hit .500 in a month since Roberto Alomar in 1997 was just icing on cake.
Should Be: Rodriguez

1st Base – Jason Giambi – New York Yankees

I’m not going to bash the concept of the fan-vote because, after all, the All-Star game is an exhibition. Sure, Lance Berkman deserved to start in the N.L. Outfield over Sammy Sosa, but does anybody outside Houston and the immediate Berkman family want to see Lance in the outfield over Sammy?
That being said, the fans really blew it with this pick. Not only is Giambi having a terrible year (.231, 11 HR, 31 RBI) but most fans won’t even recognize him after his steroid-deprivation left the formerly husky Giambi looking like Craig Counsell. Some fans who haven’t watched much baseball this year will remember the once-rotund Giambi and be shocked at how gaunt he is now. It’ll be like voting for Ruben Studdard last year in American Idol and finding out he now looks like Tito Jackson.
But, it’s not Giambi’s fault that baseball finally started to loosely enforce its steroid ban and he had to finally play by the rules.
It’s also not on him that the A.L. 1st base crop is pretty thin or that the best A.L. 1st baseman this season, David Ortiz, wasn’t even on the All-Star ballot.
Should Be: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

2nd Base – Alfonso Soriano – Texas Rangers

How Alfonso Soriano got to be the leading vote-getter in the American League is beyond me. It’ll be one of the great unsolved mysteries of the world, like the popularity of James Taylor and why the Warriors re-signed Adonal Foyle for $41.6 million. If only Robert Stack were still alive to narrate.
But I digress. Soriano has pretty good numbers (.292, 15 HR, 52 RBI) and is a great fielder, but he strikes out too much, walks too little and has an anemic (for him) .795 OPS (on-base + slugging percentage).
Should Be: Ron Belliard – Cleveland Indians

Shortstop – Derek Jeter – New York Yankees

Can everybody get off Jeter’s jock already? Yes, he’s improved his batting average from .173 to .278 in the past two months – but should we really be excited about that, considering he came into the season as a career .317 hitter? Why are people giving him credit for not hitting under .200? Of course he shouldn’t be batting under .200, he gets $20 million a year. Jeter’s improvement from the worst-hitter in the league to one in the middle of the pack isn’t cause for celebration.
And while I’ve been told by more than a few people that I was wrong about the difficulty of his face-smashing catch, I’ll revise my thoughts in this way: the catch was routine, the aftermath showed how much desire and determination that Jeter has on the field. But that desire and determination turned into recklessness, as Jeter had a few other moves to make instead of running head-first into the stands.
Anyway, Jeter isn’t the best shortstop in the A.L. this year by a long shot.
He is 7th among eligible A.L. shortstops in batting average and 6th in slugging and OPS. Hardly the resume of an All-Star starter.
Should Be: Michael Young – Texas Rangers

Third Base – Alex Rodriguez – New York Yankees

If I was feeling plucky, I’d make a case for Hank Blalock here, but my argument would be as forced as John Kerry’s forced praise of the man he once openly disdained, John Edwards.
Should be: Rodriguez

Outfield – Vladimir Guerrero – Anaheim Angels
Outfield – Manny Ramirez – Boston Red Sox
Outfield – Ichiro Suzuki – Seattle Mariners

It’s ridiculous that baseball lists all outfielders on the All-Star ballots under a generic “outfield” heading, instead of allowing fans to vote on left-fielders, center-fielders and right-fielders. This year, the fans took two right-fielders (Vlad and Ichiro) and a left-fielder. If this game “counts” as baseball wants to have us believe, then why wouldn’t they pick somebody who knows how to play center?
Anyway, Vlad and Manny are the two best hitters in the American League and deserve their spots in the starting-lineup. Ichiro, meanwhile, will be playing in his fourth-straight All-Star game and, except for his rookie season, hasn’t deserved a spot on any of them.
Carlos Beltran would have been the deserved third-starter, but because of his recent trade to Houston, there is a number of players that could theoretically be in the third-spot.
Lew Ford has dazzled in Minnesota, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield have recovered from slow starts in the Bronx and Jermaine Dye has had a Travolta-like resurgence this season. Hell, even Rondell White would have been a better choice than Ichiro.
Should Be: Guerrero, Ramirez, Lew Ford – Minnesota Twins

Later this week: N.L. Starter breakdown and A.L./N.L. reserves breakdown. Tomorrow: Why Kobe Bryant needs to go to the Clippers.