Annnnd ... here's my vote. No cheating; actually vote before you tell us who you voted for.

AL
1B Delgado
2B Soriano
SS Young
3B Blalock
C Rodriguez
OF Beltran, Guerrero, Matsui

NL
1B Overbay
2B Vidro
SS Wilson
3B Rolen
C Piazza
OF Bonds, Finley, Griffey

I admit, my primary reason for voting for Piazza is to see the potential fireworks of a Clemens-Piazza battery. The AL looks stronger. The Rangers offense ... I may have hometown bias, but think all three of those infield choices are the right ones. Biggest surprises: tie, Jack Wilson and Lyle Overbay.

How many of my choices will actually be elected? Three in the AL -- Soriano, Pudge and Vlad seem good bets. In the NL, also three -- Piazza, Rolen and Bonds. Maybe Griffey.

I tried not to be a homer, I REALLY did but I couldnt help it. Sparky, V-Dub, Frank and O-Dog found there way onto my ballot.

I'll go serve my self imposed time-out now.

AL
Delgado
Soriano
Young
A-Rod
Pudge
Beltran
Manny
V-Dub

NL
Pujols
Kent
J. Wilson
Lowell
Piazza
Bonds
Burrell
Podsednik

Here's who I think should start

AL
C Posada
1B Giambi
2B Soriano
SS Young
3B Mora
OF Ramirez, Beltran, Guerrero

NL
C Piazza
1B Overbay
2B Kent
SS Wilson
3B Rolen
OF Bonds, Berkman, Abreu

I had trouble working out how to vote for an AL first baseman. My first baseman rankings went: Overbay, Thome, Casey, Pujols, Helton, Bagwell. Those are the only first baseman who I think deserve to go to the all-star game. Unfortunately, they're all in the NL. I rolled up my sleeves, and narrowed the AL choice down to Giambi, Konerko, and (ack!) Tino Martinez. Faced with this choice, I spent several moments staring at Delgado's stats, and tried to convince myself that it was 2003 this year. When that didn't work, I looked at the 2004 line, and tried crossing my eyes for a bit, to see if that would make his slugging percentage jump 200 points or so. When I started getting dizzy I gave up, and (shudder) voted for Giambi....

AL

Vlad
Mags
Manny
Pudge
Chavez
Young
O-Dog
Giambi

NL - To which I've paid absolutely no attention so far this season, save a few wistful glances at the HR totals...

Bonds
Finley
Alou
Piazza*
Rolen
Wilson**
Kent
Pujols

*This is an outrage...
**I really wanted to vote Greene based on one inning of defense alone...

AL

C Posada
1B Palmeiro
2B Hudson
3B Blalock
SS Young
OF Guerrero
OF Beltran
OF Ramirez

NL

C LoDuca
1B Casey
2B Kent
3B Beltre
SS J. Wilson
OF Alou
OF M. Cabrera
OF Podsednik

AL:
1B Giambi
2B Hudson
3B Mora
SS Young
C Pudge
OF Vlad
OF Cat
OF V-Dub

NL:
Almost all Montreal players in a silent protest against Selig and everyone else who has treated the Expos so terribly. The only non-Expo is some outfielder from the Bay Area.

All those 'VOTE NOW's overwhelmed me. I complied and now I feel guilty for voting so early.

Rob, what a great idea to vote for Expos as a protest against Selig's commissionership. Maybe we can let the good folks at primer and prospectus in on the idea.

Well, I stole it from Baseball Weekly. In the contraction year, Paul White wanted everyone to vote for the Twins and Expos players. So don't credit it to me. :)

But yes, vote Montreal.

And vote for The Hentgen..somehow.

And vote for The Hentgen..somehow.

I like your style! Thank you MLB for being foolish enough to leave an option for write in votes... MUH HA HA HA HA.

Vote Hentgen takes a whole new meaning.

Here's my latest ballot:

AL
C Martinez (CLE)
1B Thomas (CWS)
2B Soriano (TEX)
3B Mora (BAL)
SS Rodriguez (NYY)
OF Ramirez (BOS), Guerrero (ANA), Beltran (KC)

NL
C Piazza (NYM)
1B Thome (PHI)
2B Giles (ATL)
3B Rolen (STL)
SS Renteria (STL)
OF Bonds (SF), Berkman (HOU), Dunn (CIN)

Damn rules against voting for pitchers....

AL
C Pudge (what do you mean, Posada?)
1B Big Hurt
2B Soriano
SS Young
3B Mora
OF Vladdy, Manny, Jose Guillen
NL
C Piazza
1B Casey
2B Kent
SS J. Wilson
3B Lowell
OF Bonds, Abreu, Berkman

First Base: S. Hatteberg, OAK
Second Base: A. Soriano, TEX
Third Base: H. Blalock, TEX
Shortstop: M. Young, TEX
Catcher: J. Lopez, BAL
Outfielder: C. Beltran, KC
Outfielder: M. Ramirez, BOS
Outfielder: J. Guillen, ANA

First Base: L. Overbay, MIL
Second Base: J. Kent, HOU
Third Base: A. Beltre, LA
Shortstop: J. Wilson, PIT
Catcher: M. Piazza, NYM
Outfielder: C. Biggio, HOU
Outfielder: C. Wilson, PIT
Outfielder: B. Bonds, SF

These wouldn't necessarily be my picks, but here are the league leaders, by position, in Runs Created / 27 Outs (qualified):

AL
C: J. Posada
1B: T. Martinez
2B: J. Uribe
3B: M. Mora
SS: M. Young
LF: M. Ramirez
CF: L. Ford
RF: V. Guerrero

NL
C: M. Piazza
1B: S. Casey
2B: T. Walker
3B: M. Lowell
SS: J. Wilson
LF: B. Bonds
CF: J. Burnitz
RF: B. Abreu

Well, I've already cast 15 or so of my 25 votes (I frequently head over and cast a ballot whenever the urge strikes). I'll do another one later and post it here. My ballots change quite a lot.

VOTE HINSKE!!!!

But really... who was that guy who was voted to the game as a sort of joke by one city's fans? I think it was a Cincinatti player? Anyhow, this undeserving All-Star won the MVP.

Ah... maybe it was Terry Steinbach. But he's no slouch.

David Ortiz isn't on the ballot.

KT, in 1957 the Reds' fans elected all eight Reds starters to the starting lineup, including George Crowe, Gus Bell, and Wally Post. Post, Crowe and Bell were removed as starters by the NL president to make room for Musial, Mays, and Aaron.

Incidentally, Crowe (who was removed at first for Musial) ended the year with more home runs than Stan The Man, 31-29. (Musial was still the better hitter, but Crowe was no slouch that year...)

David Ortiz isn't on the ballot.

Yeah, this is sort of a minor outrage, and not a full-blown one because Ortiz shuffles between DH and first, giving him no true home.

I wrote him in at 1st Base.

AL

C Posada
1b Ortiz
2b Soriano
3b Blalock
SS Young
OF Ramirez
OF Beltran
OF Guillen

Musial was still the better hitter, but Crowe was no slouch that year ...

True to a point, but Musial's OPS+ that year was 172 while Crowe's was 110. But the point of this (non-Wally) post is this ... in looking at Crowe's stats, he appears to have come out of nowhere at the age of 31 to enjoy a Luke Easter-type career. What an interesting story; this synopsis is from BaseballLibrary.com; note the irony of the Musial reference at the end.

This Negro Leaguer played pro basketball as a center and forward for Dayton of the NBL before joining the Boston Braves. The 6'2" 210-lb lefthanded batter supplied ten of Cincinnati's league record-tying 221 homers in 1956. As the Reds' regular first baseman, Crowe hit 31 HR in 1957, and was an All-Star in 1958. But Crowe was traded to St. Louis, where Stan Musial was manning first in 1959; Crowe, instead, led the NL with 17 pinch hits.

A 6'2" center in pro basketball. My my, how times have changed.

What will be interesting over the next ten years is whether, as Japanese players are released from their contracts and come to MLB at 29-33, whether many of them will end up as "most-similar" players to the former Negro League players of the 1950s.

AL
1b- Doug Mientkiewicz
2b- Alfonzo Soriano
3b- Alex Rodriguez
ss- Micheal Young
ca- Ivan Rodriguez
of- Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Rameriez, Carlos Beltran

NL
1b- Jim Thome
2b- Mark Loretta
3b- Scott Rolen
ss- Jack Wilson
ca- Mike Piazza
of- Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Bobby Abreu

AL
Posada
Giambi
Uribe
Young
Mora
Ramirez
Guerrero
Nix

Uribe and Nix were write-ins

NL
Piazza
Thome
Kent
J.Wilson
Lowell
Bonds
Berkman
C.Wilson

OK, this is just an observation. And I fully expect flames, so don't hold back. I am not trying to reignite the old "White Jays" controversy, and this certainly didn't occur to me when I posted the original "Box the Vote" call. But on quick scan, I find this very, very interesting.

In the American League so far, 27 different players have received votes. Of those, 19 are non-white (Delgado, Soriano, I. Rodriguez, Beltran, Guerrero, Matsui, A Rodriguez, M. Ramirez, Posada, Mora, Ordonez, O. Hudson, R. Palmeiro, V. Martinez, F. Thomas, J. Guillen, J. Lopez, D. Ortiz, Uribe) while eight are white (Young, Blalock, Giambi, Chavez, Catalanotto, Hatteberg, Mientkiewicz, Nix) -- with, frankly, four of the eight having virtually no chance of actually making the All-Star team. Please ignore Eric Chavez' last name; he made it clear on This Week in Baseball a while back that he is Latino in name only.

Meanwhile, over the National League, in a nice bit of symmetry, so far 27 players have received votes. Of those, 19 are white (Overbay, J. Wilson, Rolen, Finley, Piazza, Kent, Lowell, Burrell, Podsednik, Berkman, Abreu, LoDuca, Casey, Giles, Dunn, Biggio, C. Wilson, Thome) while eight are not (Vidro, Bonds, Griffey, Pujols, Alou, Beltre, Cabrera, Renteria).

I wasn't positive there was a defineable pattern until I counted. And though I didn't do the math, I think it's a good bet that "total votes" would widen the gap over "at least one vote received" in this regard.

Has the league that brought us Jackie Robinson really fallen that far behind the league that brought us Pumpsie Green?

Mick, it's certainly interesting. But I don't think that there's any "ahead" or "behind" anymore, just ballplayers. Maybe I'm wrong.

First Base: J. Giambi, NYY
First Base: A. Pujols, STL
Second Base: O. Hudson, TOR
Second Base: M. Giles, ATL
Third Base: A. Rodriguez, NYY
Third Base: S. Rolen, STL
Shortstop: M. Young, TEX
Shortstop: J. Wilson, PIT
Catcher: I. Rodriguez, DET
Catcher: M. Piazza, NYM
Outfielder: C. Beltran, KC
Outfielder: B. Abreu, PHI
Outfielder: V. Guerrero, ANA
Outfielder: L. Berkman, HOU
Outfielder: M. Ramirez, BOS
Outfielder: B. Bonds, SF

Why no love for Pujols, people?

No write-in love for Mark Bellhorn?? Leads all 2B in RBI...

http://i-am-grum.blogspot.com
AL:
C: Posada
1B: Thomas
2B: Soriano
3B: Rodriguez
SS: Young
OF: Ramirez, Guerrero, Beltran

NL:
C: Piazza
1B: Casey
2B: Kent
3B: Rolen
SS: Greene
OF: Bonds, Berkman, Dunn

(but Mondesi did cross my mind...)