BASEBALL
	5.11.04 One Man's Early Season All Star Ballot Well, we are not quite a month and a half into the season and already you can go to mlb.com to vote for this season's all star team.  There is always a lot of debate once the teams are named about how the selection process is terrible and such and such a player got screwed out of a spot.  I generally try to ignore all of that - the all star game is supposed to be an exhibition for the fans of the players they would like to see.  Generally the players that are having the best seasons get picked, but it doesn't really bother me when a mediocre player off to a hot start gets snubbed in favor of a tried and true star.  That being said, if I were to pick an all star team based solely on performance to this point in the season, here is my list: American League 1B - Jason Giambi - he's batting .284 with 8 homers and 19 RBI, and there really isn't another first basemen in the AL that's close at this point. 2B - Ronnie Belliard - a huge suprise here, he's hitting .283 with 12 RBI and 2 sb - Rafael Soriano is close at .325 with 3 homers, 23 RBI and 4 steals, and I'd expect Soriano to overtake Belliard well before the all star game. SS - Michael Young - another suprise because Young wasn't supposed to be playing short this year, but he's hitting a red hot .368 with six homers, 26 RBI, and 3 steals.  Miguel Tejada is the closest at .339 with 4 homers and 25 ribbies, but with Nomar hurt and A-Rod over at third base, this could be Young's year. 3B - Troy Glaus - This one is really close - Glaus is hitting .301 with 10 homers and 26 RBI, but Hank Blalock is at .321 with 6 homers and 23 RBI.  Eric Chavez is notoriously a slow starter, so he may push these two by the time the game rolls around. C - Ivan Rodriguez - a .353 average with five homers, 26 rbi, and 3 steals gives Pudge the nod, but there is a ton of competition at catcher this year.  Jason Veritek (.320 6 homers, 17 rbi, 3 steals), Jorge Posada (.304 8 homers, 23 rbi), and Javy Lopez (.355 4 homers 18 rbi) all are within spitting distance of Pudge. OF - Carlos Beltran (.308 9 homers, 26 rbi, 9 steals) OF - Manny Ramirez (.369 8 homers, 21 rbi) OF - Rondell White (.316 7 homers, 26 rbi) - these three would be in the lead right now, but Vlad Guerrero (.333 6 homers, 24 rbi), Jaque Jones (.304 6 homers, 20 rbi 7 steals), and Matt Lawton (.313 6 homers 23 rbi 4 steals - although now hurt) are close. National League 1B - Lyle Overbay (.356 5 homers 31 rbi) beats out Jim Thome (.314 10 homers 17 rbi) 2B - Marcus Giles (.337 3 homers 17 rbi 5 steals) gets the nod over Jeff Kent (.294 6 homers 25 rbi) SS - Jack Wilson (.339 4 homers 13 rbi 3 steals) is ahead of Edgar Renteria (.283 2 homers 12 rbi 2 streals), but I just can't imagine that Wilson will keep up this production much longer. 3B - Scott Rolen (.333 8 homers 35 rbi) has been quite possibly the best position player in the NL so far, but Mike Lowell (.336 9 homers 25 rbi 3 steals) really isn't that far behind C - Mike Piazza (.295 6 homers 14 rbi) wins, although any of the four AL catchers would beat him out, in the NL, Jonny Estrada is close (.322 2 homers 21 rbi) OF - Barry Bonds (.379 10 homers 22 rbi 2 steals) OF - Scott Podsednik (.293 3 homers 11 rbi 18 steals) OF - Miguel Cabrera (.296 11 homers 26 rbi) - I had to do a double take when I saw how many steals Podsednik already has, and I'm still not sure that's not a typo.  Bonds has cooled somewhat, and while Cabrera has good power so far, he's not lighting it up batting average-wise - so far a lot of OF in the NL have underperformed.  The next closest would have to be Juan Pierre (.362 7 rbi 10 steals), Sammy Sosa (.291 8 homers 21 rbi) and Adam Dunn (.286 10 homers 20 rbi). So, you don't like my list?  Send me an email with yours and I'll post it in a future article.
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