That's right, your nine rounds of individual positional balloting have been tabulated, and frankly, the Batter's Box All-Star team looks a LOT like the one that will take the field Tuesday night in San Francisco -- the only differences are behind the plate and the right side of the infield -- and, well, we don't know about the starting pitcher yet.
Here is the team you selected:
Here is the team you selected:
| Batter's Box Selection | Position | Actual Starter | COMMENT |
Jorge Posada  |
Catcher | Ivan Rodriguez  |
More than 40% of Box votes went to the Yankee backstop, just edging Victor Martinez's 34%, while fans stayed with their usual choice in Pudge. Caveat: Joe Mauer was accidentally left off the ballot initially, and though quickly added, might have received more than the 6% he did get if included from the outset. No other catcher reacehd 5% in Box voting totals. |
Justin Morneau  |
First Base | David Ortiz  |
Ortiz, who is not in reality a 1B, was not on the Batter's Box ballot -- though it's pretty much a given that Morneau, with his Canadian heritage, would have won anyway. And frankly, he deserved to -- only Kevin Youkilis (18.1%), also hosed by Ortiz's sudden conversion from DH, and Carlos Pena (11.1%) even cracked double digits in the polling. |
Aaron Hill  |
Second Base | Placido Polanco  |
In the only portion of Da Box vote that might be construed as "homerism," Jay hometown 2B Hill grabbed almost one-third of the vote, with Polanco, B.J. Upton and Brian Roberts all between 15-19%. Hill has a decent case for making the All-Star roster, if not as a starter -- the fans probably got this one right. |
Derek Jeter  |
Shortstop | Derek Jeter |
Jeter's good. Actually, he just barely edged Carlos Guillen in the Box balloting, 40% - 35.7%, but again, it looks like the fans -- and Da Box -- got this one right. |
Alex Rodriguez  |
Third Base | Alex Rodriguez |
A-Rod, like Jeter, is really good. Actually, this vote was kind of fixed, as he was only one of two players on the 3B ballot, where he "edged" hometown Jay hero Troy Glaus, 85.7% - 3.8%. The runner-up in this hot corner selection was the rather snide "Anybody but A-Rod" option, which snagged nearly 9% of the votes. |
Magglio Ordonez  |
Left Field |
Magglio Ordonez |
What do you know, given multiple options, Batter's Box selected the same three starting OF as the fans; presuming Vlad playes RF and Ichiro CF, that puts Ordonez, who is A-Rod's main competition for AL MVP right now, in LF. |
Ichiro Suzuki  |
Center Field | Ichiro Suzuki |
Ordonez dominated the AL OF vote at Batter's Box, grabbing 38.4% of the "select one" 10-candidate list votes; Guerrero and Ichiro tied for second place at 15.2%. |
Vladimir Guerrero  |
Right Field | Vladimir Guerrero |
Just a noodge back of the three starters was another possibly homer-driven vote, as the Jays' own Alex Rios checked in with 14.4% of the votes cast. No other AL OF reached even 10%, and in fact only Carl Crawford received more than a token vote or two. |
|
Dan Haren |
Starting Pitcher |
Dan Haren |
It seemed likely that one of the top four vote-getters at Da Box -- Haren (32.1%), C.C. Sabathia (19.1%), Johan Santana (18.5%) and Josh Beckett (13.7%) -- would get the call, and indeed, Haren did. Kudos to Bauxites who didn't register "complaint votes" and ranked Roy Halladay, who shockingly is not even on the actual team, sixth at just over 5%. |
| Batter's Box Selection | Position | Actual Starter | COMMENT |
