Justifying The Yankees High All Star Count

By now everybody knows that the first ASG voting standings were rolled out by MLB yesterday, and in what should be no surprise to anybody, the Yankees are well represented.  And by "well represented," I mean "the entire starting infield and 1/3 of the starting outfield"-WELL represented.  On the surface this appears to be a case of the Yankee big names capitalizing on their stature and getting the ballot boxes unfairly stuffed by their fans.  But when you really break it down, a case can be made for all but one of these guys being deserving of their spots at the top of the voting.

C- Russell Martin- 1st in wOBA (.369) and OPS (.810), both by hefty margins over the other AL 5 catchers with enough ABs to qualify.  Also 1st or 2nd in traditional stats like HR (9), RBI (26), XBH (15), and with 6 SB thrown in with good measure.  With Joe Mauer on the shelf and Martin leading all AL catchers in WAR (1.8), this is a pretty easy choice.

1B- Mark Teixeira- Tops amongst AL 1B in HR (16) certainly gives him street cred with the general voting public, but being 3rd in RBI (38), R (33), OPS (.902), wOBA (.389), and WAR (1.8) behind Adrian Gonzalez and Miggy Cabrera makes Teix's battle a bit of an uphill one.  But chicks dig the long ball, fans dig the long ball, and Teix is giving the people what they want right now. 

2B- Robinson Cano- A down year for Cano still has him head and shoulders above his main competition at second.  He leads AL 2B in Hits (59), HR (11), RBI (37), and is 2nd in R (31), SLG (.514) and wOBA (.364).  His OBP and WAR numbers don't stack up against other deserving candidates like Howie Kendrick, but Cano's status as the reigning best 2B in baseball and the fact that Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia are having down years too works to Robbie's advantage.

3B- Alex Rodriguez- I already touched on this yesterday, but it warrants repeating for the All Star discussion.  The Horse is the best 3B in the AL.  period.  2nd in Hits (56), 1st in R (32), 2nd in HR (9), 3rd in RBI (31), 2nd in OPS (.845), 2nd in wOBA (.373) and 1st in WAR (2.2).  And he's playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at the hot corner.  He may not be replicating '05 or '07 but he's still the best of the bunch.

OF- Curtis Granderson- This one is a no-brainer.  C-Grand has arguably been the best player in MLB not named Jose Bautista this season.  He's 2nd amongst all OF in R (44) and HR (17), 1st in RBI (41), 3rd in OPS (.960) 3rd in wOBA (.415), and 3rd in WAR (2.9).  Need I say more?

SS- Derek Jeter- This is where the proof train stops.  If Derek Jeter were named Ray Whitson (don't know where that came from) then he probably wouldn't even be on the ballot.  Statistically, the only SS he's been better than so far are Cliff Pennington and Alcides Escobar, 2 guys who I could definitely probably outhit.  But the ASG is a popularity contest, and Jeter's track record has certainly earned him the popularity he has, so if you're going to get mad at anything, get mad at the system.