All-Star 2009: Who's On Your Ballot?

The votes for the 2009 All-Star Game are coming in fast and furious. Be sure to fill out your ballot! If you're having trouble sorting out the candidates, here's a quick rundown of the leading contenders. But remember, you can vote for whoever you want. The important part is... you have to vote!

Today we'll run down the batters. In our next installment we'll take a look at the starters and relievers.

Catchers
D.C.'s Brian McCann has to be considered the favorite in the Morris Division, as he's hitting .324 (.968 OPS) with 14 HR and 44 RBI. He leads all DMBL catchers in batting average and runs created per 27 outs (8.4)... Vying for the job of backup backstop are Carolina's Bengie Molina (.290, .786 OPS, 8 HR, 30 RBI); Hillsborough's Kelly Shoppach (.255, .859 OPS, 8 HR, 31 RBI); Philly's John Baker (.313, .819 OPS, 12 2B, 26 RBI) and Vancouver's Ryan Doumit (.268, .727 OPS, 8 HR, 30 RBI)... All-Star favorite Ivan Rodriguez is likely staying home this year (.231, .633 OPS, 4 HR, 11 RBI), as is Blue Ridge's Chris Iannetta (.168, .550 OPS, 2 HR, 15 RBI).

There's not much of a race in the Hanover Division either, as Hoboken's Mike Napoli (.266, .971 OPS, 23 HR, 47 RBI) leads all DMBL catchers in OPS, HR and RBI... Fighting for second place are Amityville's Dioner Navarro (.318, .758 OPS, 2 HR, 25 RBI), Las Vegas's Joe Mauer (.294, .787 OPS, 19 2B, 46 R) and Newark's Jarrod Saltalamacchia (.284, .835 OPS, 15 2B, 35 R)... Marietta rookie Geovanny Soto has been a huge disappointment (.176, .494 OPS, 4 HR, 18 RBI in 222 AB). You also won't find much help from New Jersey's Chris Snyder (.169, .586 OPS, 9 HR, 19 RBI) or Sardine City's Miguel Montero (.238, .644 OPS, 1 HR, 16 RBI).

First Basemen
There's a fierce competition for the honor of being the first sacker for the Morris Division between Arkansas's Justin Morneau (.317, .928 OPS, 18 2B, 7 HR, 37 RBI), Hillsborough's Ryan Howard (.252, .928 OPS, 27 HR, 72 RBI) and Philly's Albert Pujols (.310, .925 OPS, 21 2B, 16 HR, 65 RBI). Finishing just outside the top three is Blue Ridge's Prince Fielder (.274, .840 OPS, 17 HR, 51 RBI) and Carolina's Carlos Delgado (.284, .886 OPS, 19 HR, 54 RBI). Bringing up the rear are D.C.'s Todd Helton (.248,. 669 OPS, 10 2B, 18 R) and Vancouver's Adam LaRoche (.240, .718 OPS, 8 HR, 25 RBI).

On the other hand, there's one clear favorite for Hanover first base -- Marietta's Adrian Gonzalez, who is hitting .304 (.925 OPS) with 22 2B, 14 HR and 45 RBI. There's a big dropoff until you can talk about second place -- Las Vegas's Carlos Pena (.232, .867 OPS, 13 HR, 34 RBI) and Newark's Jason Giambi (.252, .861 OPS, 18 HR, 45 RBI) are having productive years despite low batting averages, while Hoboken's Miguel Cabrera (.283, .821 OPS, 13 HR, 40 RBI) is having a solid but not spectacular season... You probably won't be voting for Amityville's James Loney (.256, .657 OPS, 3 HR, 24 RBI), New Jersey's Joey Votto (.246, .715 OPS, 10 HR, 31 RBI), or Sardine City's Conor Jackson (.252, .695 OPS, 6 HR, 35 RBI).

Second Basemen
There are some very good second basemen in the Morris, but standing head and shoulders above the crowd is Carolina's Dustin Pedroia. The dimunitive second sacker is proving his '08 Rookie of the Year campaign was no fluke, hitting .346 (.859 OPS) with 28 2B and 45 R. Pedroia's strongest competition was coming from Hillsborough's Ronnie Belliard, who was hitting .333 (.935 OPS) with 15 2B and 24 R before going down with an injury that cost him 31 days; he's expected to return just before the All-Star Game, but he'll likely have only about half as many at-bats as Pedroia. (Oddly enough, Belliard's replacement, Freddy Sanchez, has been even more impressive, hitting .380 with a .994 OPS, 9 2B, 6 HR and 23 RBI in just 35 games, but he's not on the ballot.) The next best options are Blue Ridge's Mark DeRosa (.276, .813 OPS, 9 HR, 31 RBI), D.C.'s Dan Uggla (.268, .848 OPS, 14 HR, 30 RBI) or Vancouver's Chase Utley (.278, .817 OPS, 19 2B, 49 R)... Some voters will instinctively vote for veterans Ray Durham (.263, .715 OPS, 16 2B, 34 R) of Arkansas and Brian Roberts (.251, .713 OPS, 16 2B, 49 R) of Philadelphia.

Over in the Hanover Division, it's a tight race between Hoboken's Ian Kinsler (.316, .875 OPS, 16 2B, 9 HR, 28 RBI) and Newark's Mike Fontenot (.308, .838 OPS, 22 2B, 6 HR, 31 RBI). The two also are well-matched defensively, with Kinsler ranking first in total chances per game (5.84) and Fontenot second (5.45)! However, Fontenot has made just one error in the field (.997 fielding percentage) while Kinsler has made 12 (.960 fielding percentage). Both should likely go to the All-Star Game; the question is really who starts. Third place goes to Las Vegas's Placido Polanco (.281, .700 OPS, 14 2B, 37 RBI); the other four candidates have really struggled: Amityville's Kelly Johnson (.238, .637 OPS, 12 R, 20 RBI), Marietta's Orlando Hudson (.231, .612 OPS, 9 2B, 27 R), New Jersey's Ian Stewart (.210, .667 OPS, 9 HR, 29 RBI).and Sardine City's Alexei Ramirez (.225, .530 OPS, 8 2B, 21 R).

Third Basemen
If they gave out a first half MVP Award, it would likely go to Hillsborough's Aubrey Huff in a landslide. He's leading the DMBL in OPS (1.131), SLG (.709), runs (69), extra base hits (51), total bases (207), runs created (87.4), RC/27 (11.9) and total average (1.250), and he's second in batting average (.353), OBP (.422) and HRs (26). He certainly should be the starting third baseman for the Morris Division... Solidly in second place is Arkansas's David Wright (.282, .898 OPS, 19 HR, 51 RBI), followed by Philly's Alex Rodriguez (.251, .824 OPS, 10 HR, 23 RBI) and Vancouver's Omar Infante (.293, .781 OPS, 10 2B, 31 RBI)... Only a total homer can justify voting for Blue Ridge's Edwin Encarnacion (.206, .619 OPS, 9 HR, 28 RBI), Carolina's Aramis Ramirez (.214, .718 OPS, 13 HR, 38 RBI), or D.C.'s Felipe Lopez (.260,. 654 OPS, 9 2B, 23 RBI).

The hot corner is usually one of the deeper positions in the Hanover Division, but this year Marietta's Kevin Youkilis (.285, .919 OPS, 18 HR, 57 RBI) is running away with it. Having good-but-not-great years are Hoboken's Hank Blalock (.269, .809 OPS, 12 HR, 47 RBI), Las Vegas's Alex Gordon (.255, .813 OPS, 10 HR, 28 RBI) and Newark's Chipper Jones (.288, .794 OPS, 9 HR, 49 R)... The career of highly touted Sardine City rookie Evan Longoria is not off to a great start (.235, .730 OPS, 8 HR, 32 RBI), and veterans Garrett Atkins of Amityville (.246, .710 OPS, 10 HR, 36 RBI) and Casey Blake of New Jersey (.231, .675 OPS, 9 HR, 33 RBI) are having tough years as well.

Shortstops
Arkansas's J.J. Hardy is having his long-awaited breakout season, hitting .290 (.817 OPS) with 9 HR, 35 R and 41 RBI. His only competition this year is coming from Philly's Jimmy Rollins (.304, .782 OPS, 26 2B, 12 SB, 44 R, 36 RBI); if for whatever reason you don't like either one of those guys, you can make a case for Carolina's Mike Aviles (.282, .733 OPS, 6 HR, 34 R), D.C.'s Jose Reyes (.265, .717 OPS, 52 R, 10 3B, 14 SB) or Vancouver's Jerry Hairston (.293, .743 OPS, 22 2B, 37 R)... Only blood relatives are likely to vote for Blue Ridge's Michael Young (.256, .664 OPS, 15 2B, 38 R) or Hillsborough's Ryan Theriot (.262, .608 OPS, 3 2B, 30 R).

If you're looking for a Cutter to send to the All-Star Game, look no further than Hanley Ramirez. The Hoboken shortstop is hitting .285 (.860 OPS) with 17 2B, 12 HR, 44 R and 43 RBI. It's a long way down until you get to second best -- take your pick between Amityville's Orlando Cabrera (.305, .737 OPS, 11 2B, 33 R) or Marietta's Derek Jeter (.287, .691 OPS, 11 2B, 26 R)... Rounding out the ballot are Las Vegas's Yunel Escobar (.238, .713 OPS, 7 HR, 19 RBI), New Jersey's Jhonny Peralta (.211, .631 OPS, 8 HR, 26 RBI), Newark's Ramon Vazquez (.254, .740 OPS, 5 HR, 25 RBI), and Sardine City's Stephen Drew (.250, .714 OPS, 20 2B, 25 R).

Morris Outfielders
There are a number of supremely qualified Morris Division outfielders. Remember you can only vote for three, and then look at these five: Arkansas's Ryan Ludwick (.305, 1.006 OPS, 22 HR, 62 RBI); Blue Ridge's Carl Crawford (.322, .846 OPS, 46 R, 10 3B, 15 SB); Carolina's Grady Sizemore (.305, .929 OPS, 12 HR, 37 RBI), Hillsborough's Shin-Soo Choo (.311, .963 OPS, 20 2B, 35 R), Philly's Andre Ethier (.312, .936 OPS, 11 HR, 40 RBI). Tough decisions!

Speaking of which, the voters will have a difficult time deciding what to do about Arkansas's Rick Ankiel. The pitcher-turned-outfielder is hitting an impressive .320 (1.095 OPS) with 17 HR and 52 RBI, but has just 191 plate appearances, far short of the 226 required to qualify for the leaderboard. Ankiel is in a strict platoon, with just 17 at-bats coming against lefties compared to 152 against righties, and it's hard to predict if the voters will love him for his numbers or ignore him as a part-time player.

Even after you consider those six for just three spots, you're still leaving off a number of guys with impressive numbers -- Arkansas's Skip Schumaker (.330, .804 OPS, 12 2B, 41 R), Blue Ridge's Nate McLouth (.257, .802 OPS, 11 HR, 41 RBI), D.C.'s Carlos Beltran (.251, .771 OPS, 14 HR, 48 RBI, 13 SB), Hillsborough's Nick Markakis (.269, .827 OPS, 24 2B, 64 R), Philly's Fred Lewis (.281, .777 OPS, 12 2B, 9 SB) and Alex Rios (.285, .770 OPS, 24 2B, 8 SB, 48 RBI), and Vancouver's Curtis Granderson (.277, .875 OPS, 12 HR, 41 RBI) and Ryan Spilborghs (.297, .825 OPS, 6 HR, 35 RBI).

On the bubble -- at best -- are Blue Ridge's Hunter Pence (.240, .731 OPS, 8 HR, 25 RBI), D.C.'s Jay Bruce (.253, .772 OPS, 15 HR, 43 RBI) and Hillsborough's Carlos Lee (.241, .680 OPS, 12 HR, 54 RBI). The "I heard of this guy" voters are the only ones who will be casting ballots for Carolina's Magglio Ordonez (.232, .618 OPS, 4 HR, 30 RBI) and Randy Winn (.239, .579 OPS, 7 2B, 23 R), D.C.'s Hideki Matsui (.244, .648 OPS, 4 HR, 40 RBI), or Vancouver's Adam Lind (.182, .533 OPS, 7 2B, 12 RBI).

Hanover Outfielders
Of the top five batters during the first half, four play in the Morris Division. The Hanover Division's sole exception is Josh Hamilton, who put up some ridiculous numbers (.359, 1.031 OPS, 21 2B, 16 HR, 61 RBI). The Marietta center fielder is surely going to the All-Star Game; who will be standing on either side of him? The most logical choices are New Jersey rookie Elijah Dukes, who is hitting .284 (.945 OPS) with 15 2B, 14 HR and 35 RBI, and Newark veteran Manny Ramirez, who bounced back from a disastrous first month to finish the half batting .270 (.902 OPS) with 13 2B, 22 HR and 71 RBI. A few other possibilities are Marietta's Brian Giles (.287, .825 OPS, 8 HR, 44 R), New Jersey's David DeJesus (.292, .843 OPS, 11 HR, 51 R) and Newark's J.D. Drew (.245, .874 OPS, 19 HR, 61 RBI).

Then there's a dropoff to the next tier of guys: Amityville's Pat Burrell (.234, .816 OPS, 12 HR, 34 RBI), Las Vegas's Matt Holliday (.263, .778 OPS, 9 HR, 34 RBI), New Jersey's Fernando Tatis (.278, .782 OPS, 9 HR, 31 RBI), Newark's Bobby Abreu (.275, .793 OPS, 21 2B, 38 RBI).

Name recognition is probably the only reason anyone would vote this year for Amityville's Torii Hunter (.240, .652 OPS, 12 2B, 32 R) or Jacoby Ellsbury (.218, .584 OPS, 2 3B, 9 SB, 20 R), Las Vegas's Vladimir Guerrero (.254, .626 OPS, 2 3B, 5 SB, 23 R) or Ichiro Suzuki (.254, 2 3B, 23 R, 5 SB), or Marietta's Jason Bay (.240, .705 OPS, 10 HR, 30 RBI).

It's tough to make a case for any of the outfielders from Hoboken -- Marlon Byrd (.279, .718 OPS, 10 2B, 17 R), Ryan Church (.245, .661 OPS, 3 HR, 14 RBI), or Denard Span (.269, .712 OPS, 12 2B, 39 R). Ditto for Sardine City -- Ryan Braun (.258, .751 OPS, 13 HR, 43 RBI), Raul Ibanez (.249, .712 OPS, 7 HR, 41 RBI), and B.J. Upton (.241, .675 OPS, 16 SB, 41 R).

Designated Hitters
With Pujols the incumbent at first base, the Endzone Animals have to use Mark Teixeira as the Designated Hitter -- which is bad news for the other Morris Division candidates for DH. Teixeira is hitting .339 (1.068 OPS) with 18 HR, 25 2B and 69 RBI. It's tough to make a case for anyone else, but the also-rans would be Arkansas's Lance Berkman (.265, .813 OPS, 12 HR, 50 RBI), Carolina's Xavier Nady (.301, .829 OPS, 7 HR, 25 RBI), and Hillsborough's Brad Hawpe (.280, .882 OPS, 9 HR, 32 RBI). Blue Ridge's Jeremy Hermida (.227, .621 OPS, 5 HR, 21 RBI) and D.C.'s Derrek Lee (.236, .661 OPS, 6 HR, 28 RBI) are having truly awful seasons... Vancouver's David Ortiz has missed two months with an injury, but that didn't stop the Commissioner's Office from putting him on the ballot. He's hitting just .233, but his .880 OPS (8 HR, 27 RBI) is impressive; on the other hand, he has just 122 plate appearances. Ortiz might return in time for the All-Star Game but he'd probably be better served taking the three extra days off.

Newark's Jack Cust leads all Hanover DH candidates in OPS (.849) -- but you have to be able to overlook his 116 K in 73 games. (He also has 19 HR and 48 BBs, making him master of the Three True Outcomes.) If you can't put your trust in Cust, then maybe try Amityville's Johnny Damon (.282, .825 OPS, 9 HR, 34 RBI) or Marietta's Milton Bradley (.281, .833 OPS, 10 HR, 54 RBI)... Sardine City's Carlos Quentin is hitting .250 with an impressive .835 OPS (9 HR, 20 RBI), but he's played in just 43 of his team's 74 games (186 plate appearances). He rakes against righties (.863 OPS in 141 AB) but sits against lefties (.629 in 19)... There's also Las Vegas's Chris Davis (.257, .796 OPS, 16 HR, 53 RBI) and New Jersey's Mike Jacobs (.254, .829 OPS, 19 HR, 48 RBI)... There was a time Cust was thought of as the Poor Man's Adam Dunn; now the Hoboken DH is the one hoping to move into Cust's tax bracket (.179, .735 OPS, 15 HR, 27 RBI, 69 K in 62 G).

Well, that's it for the batters. Remember, you can vote for whoever you want -- including a write-in candidate! Next time we'll discuss the pitchers. But you don't have to wait for us -- if you're ready, go ahead and vote!