I am a bigger Adam Dunn fan than most anyone, but he probably doesn't belong on the squad. Willingham or Encarnacion would have been better choices.

The NL Home Run Derby team is Kemp (captain), Beltran, Stanton and CarGo.

Mark Trumbo has revealed he has accepted an invitation to be on the team and it sounds like Prince Fielder will be on the AL team as well.

Speaking of travesties, Lance Lynn is 27th in the NL in ERA and 30th in WHIP. He's 10th in Ks. How is he doing on this team, other than LaRussa being a joke of an All Star game manager?

I love to bash TLR as much as the next guy, but Lynn was a player's choice. WINS!!!

Altuve is first guy 5-5 or shorter to hit 5 HR since Fred Patek. Yes, really.

Oh but is he 'scrappy?' I'm guessing he would be, if he was white.

Sandy Alderson's first tweet in months:

Wright vs.Sandoval: A city of 8 million was outvoted by a city of 800,000.

Lynn was 10-3 with a 2.42 ERA when the players picked him. A totally resonable selection.

Ah, well, that makes a pretty big difference. Grumbling withdrawn.

I think it would be cooler to watch old timers come in to pitch the All Star game than relief pitchers.

Wright vs.Sandoval: A city of 8 million was outvoted by a city of 800,000.

Quality over quantity.

/smug

It doesn't hurt that every team must be represented and Altuve is the only representative of the Astros.

Altuve was voted in by the players. Playing for the Astros had nothing to do with his selection.

. . . the Nationals could conceivably place four players on the NL team if Harper wins the final vote. Wow.

Going to be difficult for Harper to win when many of his supporters will be without electricity throughout the voting period. Sure, there are smart phones, but who will use up their limited battery life to vote 25 times?

As of 9:00 PM tonight, 27% of the Metro DC area homes are still without power, including just under 50% of Montgomery County. Given PEPCO's track record, a lot of those people will be lucky to get their power restored in time to watch the All-Star game, let alone in time to be participating in any internet votes.

As of 9:00 PM tonight, 27% of the Metro DC area homes are still without power, including just under 50% of Montgomery County.

I am currently sleeping in my office because of this -- Montgomery County resident, natch.

The real pisser is that I didn't lose my power until AFTER the storm had passed. LONG afterwards -- 12:30 on Saturday afternoon, in fact? WTF could have possibly happened there??

I really think it's time to drop the "every team gets an All-Star" policy. Huston Street has pitched 20 innings. That Greinke or Cueto has to stay home so Huston Street can be there is a disservice to the game in my opinion.

And there are too many damn relief pitchers every year.

As far as crimes against selection go, closers with a hot half-season screwing over veteran starters. Case in point: almost the entire AL bullpen over Jake Peavy.

Extend that to basically the entire pitching selection over Peavy, who is pretty close to Verlander in numbers and probably has a case over anyone else on that roster.

Also, at risk of sounding like a huge White Sox homer, I think Pierzynski could have an argument over any AL catcher. Mauer is the only one better offensively, and he has half the time at the position.

I wanted to complain about Zack Greinke getting snubbed, but:

1. That's a fantastic NL pitching staff, and it's hard to say anyone doesn't belong. Miley's there because you need a D-Back, and he's certainly been good if not quite at the level of the other guys. Street's there because you need a Padre, and he's been just about as good as any reliever in the NL when he hasn't been on the DL. The least worthy discretionary pick is probably Lance Lynn, and two starts ago he would have been right in the middle of the pack.

2. Greinke's possibly not even the best pitcher left off the team: Bumgarner, Cueto and McDonald didn't make it either. Then there's Vogelsong and Zimmermann (if you like WAR), no-hit Santana, Capuano, Burnett, Dempster, etc.

So I guess I can't really complain. Heckuva year for pitchers in the NL.

Josh Reddick wuz ROBBED.

I love All-Star Game threads. In fact I'm fairly certain I love All-Star Game threads more than I love the actual All-Star Game.

The thread for the 2008 ASG is still one of the most memorable aspects of that entire season for me and that's saying something, since that was the year the only legitimately great Cubs team in my lifetime seemed to reel off great moment after great moment.

But it's weird that the argument has become a defense of the notion that the first half of the current season, which is the only information on the performance of players for this season, shouldn't be that highly considered when choosing this year's all star team.

If it makes it easier for you to navigate this thread and discussion to set up a false strawman to knock down, then so be it. But I didn't say or do what you are saying I did. All I did was include second half data with this years data to see how things would look. If you would apply logic and reason, you would understand that what I posted does indeed include information from this seasons performance. Hence "the last 162 games". In one particular case that data happened to show things a bit closer between Sandoval and Wright, at least by one measure, and you kinda freaked out about it.

I guess I should have voted for Ellsbury.

Now see THIS is whats kinda weird.
Nobody is telling you to elect Ellsbury. What I posted is just one more data point to consider, not some be all end all list that should be adhered to strictly without thinking. Nobody told you to stop thinking, stop reasoning. There are all sorts of caveats, buts, and qualifications to make when looking at that list, or any other for that matter.

There's 16 qualified pitchers in the NL with ERAs under 3. There's 6 in the AL. As a whole, there's only 17 qualified AL pitchers with ERAs under 4 while there's 39(!) in the NL. There's a sizable difference in R/G, NL teams score 4.20 a game, AL teams 4.45, but that doesn't come close to explaining the whole difference. Is it just a health thing?

I really think it's time to drop the "every team gets an All-Star" policy. Huston Street has pitched 20 innings. That Greinke or Cueto has to stay home so Huston Street can be there is a disservice to the game in my opinion.

Joel Hanrahan is also there, although his team already has a representative.

I think the "players vote and their second choice gets onto the team" rule is a worse one, as Walt Davis explains in #85. Bryan LaHair is one of two Cubs on the team, because an unspecified number of players voted for him ahead of Joey Votto. Chase Headley deserves to make the All-Star team one of these years, and he could have been in LaHair's spot.

It'd be nice if the player balloting could be done just after the fan balloting closed, so they knew who had been picked already. I don't have any idea about how the logisitics of that would work.

Also, Kemps participating in the derby but not the game, which is kinda weird.

Also, Kemps participating in the derby but not the game, which is kinda weird.

See, I don't get that. The HR derby has to be far more strenuous than playing CF for 2 innings and batting once.

See, I don't get that

Chicks do not dig "I helped my league's representative secure home field advantage for the World Series."