MLB National League All-Star Picks

With voting very near complete at the time I write this article, I will assume that all the leading vote getters won their respective positions. At each position your NL starters will be:

C: Russell Martin (LAD)

1B: Prince Fielder (MIL)

2B: Chase Utley (PHI)

3B: David Wright (NYM)

SS: Jose Reyes (NYM)

OF: Carlos Beltran (NYM)

OF: Ken Griffey Jr. (CIN)

OF: Alfonso Sortiano (CHC)

Now, with the starters announced comes the tough part. I wanted to see how hard it would be for me to put together the remainder of the all-star substitutes like the NL manager has to do each year. Remember that the qualifications are that you must have one representative from each team (which is a ridiculous rule in my opinion, but that's for another article). Also, the coaches can break it up anyway they want, but you are supposed to have 26 bench spots. For the purposes of this article and the way the it shaped up, I chose to do 12 pitchers, 4 being relief pitchers and 14 position players, not counting the announcing of the starting pitcher.

So without further ado, here is my simulated list of players I would chose to be on the All-star team in the National League:

Starting Pitcher: Jake Peavy (SDG) - There was nothing hard about this pick. He has clearly been the most dominant pitcher in the national league all year, and perhaps all of baseball. Peavy is 9-2 with a 2.14 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 113 Ks in 105 innings pitched. Only Cole Hamels has more strike outs in the national league. Not only that, the Padres are atop the NL west. The nod definitely goes to Peavy.

Other Pitchers:

SP: Brad Penny (LAD) - The big guy has been absolute filthy all year. He's 10-1 with a 2.04 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP, and has given up 1 earned run or less in his last four starts. His numbers rival those of Peavy's and I guess it's fathomable he could receive the starting job, though I doubt it as he does not carve people up quite the way Peavy does.

SP: Chris Young (SDG) - Young is the other reason Padres starting pitching looks so good on paper. With an 8-3 record, 2.14 ERA and 1.09 WHIP Chris Young has been almost as good as his teammate. He's K'd a combined 20 hitters in his last two starts spanning 14 innings.