My All-Star Team: National League Hitters

Yesterday we tackled the American League All-Star Hitters. Today we move on to the batters from the Senior Circuit that are worthy of making the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim. While there were a couple of tough selections on the American League side, with more teams in the National League, it's going to be even harder. Since there is no DH, I'll be taking two extra hitters to fill out my 21-man position-player roster. And away we go (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Geovany Soto, Miguel Olivo and Brian McCann. While in the American League we have Jorge Posada, Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez (not to mention John Buck and Mike Napoli), in the National League, the pickings look a little different. But these three are definitely worthy (although all but maybe McCann will be beaten out by Yadier Molina it seems). Olivo has revived his career in Colorado and is hitting .301/.365/.523 with 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB and a .380 wOBA. Olivo's OPS is first among NL Catchers and his wOBA is second to Soto. Speaking of Soto, he has enjoyed a very nice bounce-back year in Chicago. While the rest of his team is underperforming, he's been quite good. His .408 OBP is tops (by far) among NL catchers and actually leads all Major League catchers. Meanwhile, McCann benefits from needing a third catcher here, though his .377 OBP, 8 HR, 30 RBI and .357 wOBA for the first-place Braves is nothing to sneeze at. McCann ranks ahead of Soto on WAR (2.0 to 1.6) mostly due to defensive adjustments, but Olivo's fielding puts him in the lead in that category (2.6). "Counting" Stats: Soto .268 avg, 8 HR, 18 RBI; Olivo .301 avg, 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB; McCann .258, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 3 SB. Honorable Mentions: George Kottaras (.822 OPS and .364 wOBA both third among NL catchers) and Nick Hundley (.822 OPS and .347 wOBA for first-place Padres). Picture from the Denver Post.

First Base: Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, Aubrey Huff, and Albert Pujols. The first place I'll take an extra hitter is at first where there's a ton of legit players. "Gonzo" leads the National League 1st basemen in WAR with 3.3 which is certainly a combination of his bat (.313/.411/.559 with 15 HR, 47 RBI, and a .407 wOBA) and his glove (league-leading at 1st) for the surprise first-place Pads. Votto leads all NL 1B in wOBA with .415 mark in a breakout year for him where he's matched offensive numbers with Gonzalez (15 HR and 47 RBI as well). Huff has been the biggest surprise of this group, in my opinion since I thought it was an awful move for the Giants to sign him. Huff's .311/.401/.549 line is excellent but his .411 wOBA puts him second to Votto among NL 1B, and his extremely low 11.5% strikeout percentage to go along with solid power numbers and at least average defensive  should earn him a trip to Anaheim. And Sir Albert isn't having his best year but still leads the NL 1B in RBI and is tied for the lead in HR and has 6 SB to go along with that. He will be voted in as the starter at 1st as the NL's leading vote getter and even in a "down year" for Pujols, you know he will be there among NL MVP candidates at the end of the year. Counting Stats: Gonzalez .313 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Votto .310 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI, 7 SB; Huff .311 avg, 12 HR, 37 RBI, 3 SB; Pujols .302 avg, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 6 SB. Honorable Mentions: Adam Dunn (17 HR leads NL 1B), Troy Glaus (.860 OPS as offensive prowess for Braves), Prince Fielder (numbers slightly down but still a force with a .378 wOBA), and Ryan Howard (coming on late with a .294 avg, 14 HR, and 52 RBI). Picture from Bleacher Report

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Pujols Unanimous But Some More Curious Votes

Albert Pujols was unanimous as the 2009 National League MVP which means no writer pulled a Keizo Konishi and voted someone else less deserving for the award. There were, however, quite a few head scratchers:

• Chase Utley, despite being the second best player in the National League (I mean his WAR was 7.6, which was higher than Derek Jeter or Hanley Ramirez), finished 8th. Amazingly, not one writer could put Utley 2nd place on a ballot and yet they had plenty of room for Andre Ethier (two 2nd place votes) and Derrek Lee (1 2nd place votes...but no others above 5th). Utley wasn't even listed on every ballot and 3 writers thought he was 9th best and one thought he was the 10th best. His teammate, Ryan Howard, finished 133 points higher than him. I just don't get the disrespect for Utley.

• Someone jackass voted Yunel Escobar 5th(!?!?). That was his only ballot.

• Some joker voted Jeremy Affedlt 10th. Could you take this voting any less seriously? Affeldt had a great season...but he wasn't even the best reliever on his team.

• Miguel Tejada was voted 7th yet Ryan Zimmerman only got one vote and that was for 10th place. I understand Zimmerman played on a losing team...but so did Tejada!

• Huston Street also finished ahead of Ryan Zimmerman making him the only closer on this list. 
  

• Andre Ethier sure was helped by his walkoffs. I think that Matt Kemp is the better Dodger OF. And I'm really not sold on Ethier as the 6th best player in the National League.

• Chase Utley (shaking my head)
  

Any other gripes?  Let us know below in the comments (picture from UPI)