My All-Star Ballot

AL:
C - Jason Varitek
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Brian Roberts
3B - Melvin Mora
SS - Miguel Tejada
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Johnny Damon
OF - Torii Hunter
DH - David Ortiz

NL
C - Ramon Hernandez
1B - Derrek Lee
2B - Marcus Giles
3B - Aramis Ramirez
SS - Felipe Lopez
OF - Carlos Lee
OF - Jason Bay
OF - Bobby Abreu



Nothing out of the ordinary, except that I refuse to vote for Alex Rodriguez out of principle. Just can't bring myself to vote for that sack of douche. And besides, does he have sextuplets? No. Melvin Mora does, so therefore he is clearly the better player. Oh and I give the nod to Torii Hunter over Vlad Guerrerro because a.) I refuse to acknowledge the existence of that team that changed its name in Anaheim and b.) Hunter is better defensively, steals more bases and is hitting for some decent pop this year.

Also, I should point out just how much I hate everything to do with the MLB All-Star game. Most fans just don't have a clue when they're voting. This isn't the "Get As Many Yankees In The Starting Lineup As Humanly Possible Game" or the "Well, Sure There's A Younger, Better, Lesser-Known Player With Better Numbers At The Position, But Let's Put In The Over-The-Hill Big Name Player Instead Game". Case in point: Tino fucking Martinez was leading AL first basemen in the voting earlier this week. I think finally fans came to their senses and overrode the asshole Yankee fans and Teixiera took over the lead, thankfully. In the NL, nobody is hitting at the shortstop position except Lopez, but somehow Cesar fucking Izturis is leading the voting. And Carlos Lee is buried down at 14th right now amongst NL outfielders, despite the fact that he's leading the league in RBI's and he's #2 in homers. The only category Carlos Beltran is leading him is amount of money wasted on his salary, yet he's set to be one of the three OF starters.

The other thing I hate is that "this game counts" as MLB proudly touts in their advertisements. It shouldn't. No game in which it is mandatory to have a member of the D-Rays, Royals or Rockies on the team should determine who gets home field advantage in the World Series. If I'm playing for home field advantage, I don't want Emil fucking Brown or Dewon fucking Brazelton to have anything to do with it. Just because Bud Selig got embarrassed by a tie one year does not mean we should make a silly midseason game determine what goes on in September. Give it to the team that has the best record that year, it's the only fair way.

Fantasy baseball update

Since my NL-only team, the only one of the three I have that I gave a rat's ass about, is devastated by injuries right now, I went ahead and made a midseason league team to ease my pain. I did get a filthy eight innings and 13 K's outta my boy Peavy last night in what was a return to dominance for him after struggling with the flu. And hey, I did get Scotty Rolen back off the DL this week too, so maybe a run back at the top of the standings isn't out of the question.

Nevertheless, I had to draft myself a fresh, injury-free team. As usual, I drafted pitching-heavy, landing Peavy, Jake Beckett (who subsequently went and got hurt, so much for that injury-free part), Brandon Webb, Carlos Silva at the top of my staff and Bronson Arroyo and Jeff Weaver to balance out the rotation. Top that off with my, also usual, handful of nasty middle relievers in the pen, and those pitching cats are going to be mine every week. Closers have got to be the most overrated players in fantasy sports. You go ahead and take ERA killers like Jose Mesa, Dan Kolb and Keith Foulke, i'll take guys that contribute across the board like Justin Duchsherer, Scot Shields and Scott Linebrink. Come talk to me when my ERA is below 3 at the end of the week and my WHIP is 1.15. Oh, and did I mention that this league counts holds? Give me that trophy now.

Offensively, I went a little more pop-leaning than usual, netting Mark Teixeira, Adam Dunn and Mr. Second Half, Eric Chavez. The rest of the lineup is filled with solid, productive guys like Ramon Hernandez and Johnny Damon. Throw in up-and-comers like Nook Logan, Tad Iguchi and Jason Ellison, and hopefully the offense can hold up its end of the bargain. The league started scoring this week, and I'm off to an early lead, so things look promising.