No Sox Should Start All Star Game

Jason
With the All-Star balloting over tonight, I finally carved out a few hours to vote for the All Star game. Here's the surprise: the defending champions shouldn't have any players among the starters.

I think that it says a lot about the strength of the league and the balance of the Red Sox that that don't have a clear top player at any position, outside the injured DH of course. Now the fan voting is going to go elsewhere. As a Red Sox fan, I'm going to greatly enjoy having all those Sox sitting in the home dugout at Yankee Stadium. But, when it came to my ballot, I couldn't put any Sox on it -- not even via the hanging chad.

Here's my AL ballot
C J Mauer
1B J Morneau
2B I Kinsler
3B Arod
SS Michael Young
OF J Hamoltion
OF Sizemore
OF Carlos Quentin
DH None

My philosophy for the All-Star game is that the current year should matter most. However, the previous year should get some consideration. I don't have a hard-and-fast equation, but in my mind, it's about 80% this year.

Pedroia is having great years, but Texas's Kinsler is playing better than even Chase Utely right now. Youk also deserves some consideration, but he's a bit behind Morneau in my eyes. Nowhere else are any of the Sox regulars even close.

In the NL, I went with:
C B. McCann
1b Berkman
2b C Utley
3b A Ramirez,
ss H Ramirez
OF Beltran
OF Lee
OF Bay

The catcher race is close between McCann and Martin. Soto, will having a good rookie year, shouldn't be even close. Shortstop is another close call with Reyes finishing second in my eyes. Second is a run away. In the OF, Jason Bay is having a heck of a comeback year, which put him over for me.