Nothing against Edwin Encarnacion, but it's almost impossible to pick a Red Sox rep if you insist on avoiding David Ortiz at DH. Having to stick Jon Lester in makes it almost ridiculous.

Not Jim Johnson?

It is quite unsatisfying to me to see All-star berths selected by who had the best first 3 months of the current season rather than simply which guys are the best.

I agree with Hoot. You see guys completely fall apart in the 2nd half of the season, yet down the road or when they come up for a new contract, all you hear about is their "all-star" year(s). I realize the All-Star game is played in the middle of the season, and that makes it worthwhile to watch, unlike the Pro-bowl, but the NFL has it right with honoring the players after all is said and done. Silver Slugger awards don't hold the same weight

I'd rather see a hitting/pitching skills contest with a HR derby and skip the AS game all together instead of giving guys props for half a seasons work. Also hate the fans voting and the every team gets a player rule, but ratings are important to the sport I guess.

So Jim Leyland today thinks that making pre-season predictions is foolish?

Back in April, he accused those of making pessimistic White Sox predictions as wrong: http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/sox-drawer/post/Who-likes-the-White-Sox-Jim-Leyland-does?blockID=689928&feedID=10338

He's not been very consistent on that score.

As is always the case, picking just 34 players requires omitting some excellent performers (or if you are of another mind, requiring 34 players and each team represented means some mediocre players get selected). I think your picks make sense just as substituting for some of your choices can be reasonable as well.

In my view, for example, if you need a Boston player on the roster, I would pick David Price over Lester and find a place for Ortiz either as DH or on the bench. Price is out pitching Lester in most categories-and is close in the others-according to both BB-Ref and Fangraphs. Meanwhile, Ortiz is having another remarkable season.

Grr..."Reply" not working. To Tythelip: Both Moustakas and Lawrie have been more valuable than Beltre this year; how about we give the honor to the guys who are, you know, deserving.

It's Chase Headley. Unless he got married/got fused together in a mad scientist's experiment with teammate Nick Hundley.

Simply cannot leave David Ortiz off the team entirely. Don't know who should be off, but he should be on. And if its a matter of choosing only one Red Sox player… see the comment above by judyblum

I like the "every-team-must-be-represented" rule and will never understand why so many people are against it.

Just think back to seasons when you knew your club was doomed before it even started. Sometimes all I HAD to look forward to in those lost summers was that maybe my team's token rep in the All-Star Game might get in there and have a chance to be the hero for the whole league.

If that results in the occasional undeserving selection, I'm fine with that trade-off. Fans of lousy squads ought to have something to cheer about as well, otherwise they might not even tune in to the ASG. After all, who is really hurt: Yet another good player on the Yankees or some other highly-publicized team who'll likely be getting televised the whole month of October anyway? Wow, what a tragedy.

Nice to see Clippard and Stammen get some love.