Complaining About This Year's All-Star Selections

It's an American pasttime, so it seems appropriate to do it on the Fourth of July. Herewith my complaints about this year's NL and AL All-Star selections.

I have to admit - this year's selections really aren't that bad compared to some doozies in previous years. But I still have more than nits to pick.

The most glaring omission - maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I haven't heard a whisper - is where the heck is Greg Maddux on the NL team? Yes, it's nice to reward John Burkett for his remarkable comeback, but how can you leave off Maddux, who is having another great year and is one of the all-time greats.

The only really great everyday player in either league so far this year not chosen was Cliff Floyd; I don't think this one is too hard to figure out, with Mets manager Bobby Valentine and Floyd having exchanged rather nasty words about Floyd's possible selection recently.

I know that Joe Torre thinks relievers are a lot more valuable than I do, but does he really need to make 5 of his 10 pitching selections from bullpens?

On the other hand, Bobby Valentine took only two relievers, but he barely seems to have looked at anything besides the saves column (ok, at least he didn't pick Robb Nen) in picking Billy Wagner and, even worse, Jeff Shaw. At least Torre recognizes that middle relievers can be just as valuable if not more so than closers.

Why on earth was Greg Vaughn picked over Fred McGriff as the Devil Rays' token representative? McGriff has had a much better season, with a 924 OPS compared to Vaughn's 840 OPS.

Magglio Ordonez is a reasonable pick as the White Sox' lone representative, but I would've rather seen Mark Buerhle get some recognition for his outstanding season so far.

Freddy Garcia made the AL team only because of the great support he's had from his bullpen and offense. The Mariners' whole rotation has actually been pretty average; they've dominanted because of an extraordinary offense and a great bullpen.There are a load of better picks that could have been made from AL starters, such as Buerhle or Brad Radke.

Roger Clemens also got in on his run support, which has been by far the best in the majors, at more than 7 runs a game. Clemens' teammate Mike Mussina has actually pitched better than Clemens this year, but he hasn't had the support. On the other hand, Clemens is one of the all-time greats and Torre probably had to select an 11-1 Roger unless he wanted to encourage Roger to go home (and probably pout) like he threatened.

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