National League All Star Selections

Yesterday I did the American League All-Star selections and we looked at the differences in the starters and who should have been starting. Today we will look at the National League...

C - Geovanty Soto - He is deserving of his start. He has been the best catcher in the major leagues this year and he is a rookie. Reserves: Russell Martin and Brian McCann, both of these guys are deserving of their selections. Left out: None


1B - Lance Berkman - Probably the best player in the first half this year along with Josh Hamilton. Very deserving of his selection. Reserves: Adrian Gonzalez and Albert Pujols, both deserving of their selections as well. Left out: Derrek Lee, Ryan Howard and Mark Teixeira are victims of a deep position.


2B - Chase Utley - No doubt deserving of his selection. Reserves: Dan Uggla, deserving as well. Left out: Brandon Phillips.


SS - Hanley Ramirez - Best SS in the National League period. Reserves: Christian Guzman and Miguel Tejada. Guzman gets the nod as the Nats representative and also leads the NL in hits and Tejada has played well but Reyes has better stats overall in all categories. Left out: Reyes


3B - Chipper Jones - Leads the majors in avg but battles health issues. Reserves: Aramis Ramirez has good numbers but David Wright has better numbers in all categories and a gold glove defense. Surprised he was not selected. Left out: Wright


OF - Ryan Braun, Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukedome - Braun is deserving of his selection but I question Soriano, who is hurt, and Fukedome, who has decent stats but not like Holliday, Ludwick, McLouth, Corey Hart or Carlos Lee. Fukedome is a beneficiary of the foriegn vote from Japan like Ichiro. Hell, Fukedome can't even touch his teammate, Derrek Lee's, numbers! Soriano has good numbers even while missing over 20 games but I believe any of the others deserve the start more. Reserves: Holliday, McLouth and Ludwick. Left out: Lee, Hart, Burrell


In case you didn't know how the selections are made I will tell you. The fans pick the starters, the players elect the reserves and the managers select the pitchers. Although I feel as if the fans got most of it right in the NL, unlike the AL, I feel as if they missed it with Soriano and Fukedome and more so with Fukedome. He has worse numbers than any of the guys I mentioned and those guys deserve it more. It is not their fault they were not born in Japan where they can receive millions of votes.

The players missed it on Reyes and Wright and I also feel as if the all star teams do not need 3 catchers and they could lose 1 catcher to add a guy like Derrick Lee, Ryan Howard, David Wright or Jose Reyes.

And Clint Hurdle, I have one question for you... What in the hell were you thinking picking your player, Aaron Cook, over Cole Hamels??? I know you want to please you guys but Cook is not half the pitcher Hamels is this year or any year for that matter. Hamels has double the K's as Cook with a better ERA. He does have 2 less wins but that is because of lack of run support. And also I cannot see Johan Santana not in the all star game. He has the same ERA as Zambrano with more K's and he does have less wins but blame that on the HORRIBLE Mets bullpen and not Santana. I believe Zambrano is deserving of his selection and I'm just using him as an example but Billy Wagner should not be on the team over Santana because he has cost him 2 games that I know of. How many closers do you need in an all star game?

Anyways... I will never understand the all star selections. I know it is tough to compile a team of all stars when you have so many guys to choose from but lets not leave deserving guys at home while guys with less numbers get the nod OK?