Rotohelp's Complete 2003 AL All-Star roster is listed at the bottom of the article. I plan to spend today's column discussing our AL selections and tomorrow discussing our NL choices. The starting lineup represents the players for whom we voted in the balloting.

Our votes and selections were based on a number of criteria, but primarily we focused on selecting the players who are performing best this season. While we haven't made excuses for players with injuries, we did not discount anyone simply because they might decline the honor and need to be replaced. We feel that those deserving of an All-Star berth should be named to the team, even if they are in a full body cast or on crutches like Jason Kendall in 1999. They can easily be replaced after their accomplishments have been recognized. Players with an asterisks on the below roster are those that we feel might choose not to play the game.

We also believe that every team deserves representation. Managers should also make certain to get everyone in the game except maybe one or two pitchers (at least one starter needs to be available should the game go deep into extra innings), even at the potential expense of losing this exhibition. This game is for all the fans, and watching for your home team player to get in the game and make his fans proud is a part of the contest. How else will kids convince their parents to let them stay up to watch Lee Smith pitch through the 12th inning?

As Tim briefly discussed in today's Fantasy Rx, we select players by first using objective criteria like park-neutral statistics, and then narrow the list with traditional quantitative statistics before insuring all teams are represented. We relied upon the stats Baseball Prospectus to select most of our roster.

MLB added another level of voting to last year's game, allowing fans to select the 30th player from a list of five for each league provided by the All-Star Managers after the rest of the players have been named. In response to last year's tie, MLB expanded rosters to 32 this season, so the 32nd man will now be determined in this manner. We've included our five player list below.

Our roster also reflects the new position distribution that will be present in the official All-Star rosters as an offshoot of the changes made in the selection process.

Now to discuss our choices: Starting at first base we have Carlos Delgado. He's the best first baseman in the majors, considerably ahead of Jason Giambi. Mike Sweeney again tags along as the best representative of the Royals.

While Alfonso Soriano's season has been solid, Bret Boone evidently didn't realize 2001 was his career year. His outstanding performance is once again guiding the Mariners' very successful season.

Nomar Garciaparra has dethroned Alex Rodriguez as the best shortstop in the game this year, though ARod certainly isn't performing poorly. The two rank far ahead of their fellow shortstops.

Corey Koskie nudges out Hank Blalock for the starting position at third, where Bill Mueller deserved consideration but didn't quite make the cut. However, we did place Mueller on our ballot for the 32nd man.

We again voted for Jorge Posada to start at catcher for the AL, though choosing his back-up was somewhat difficult this year. Even though he hasn't quite held a starting job to himself, we ultimately settled upon Greg Myers, whose performance this season has been outstanding. We did not have room for Jason Varitek on the roster, but he also would have been a solid choice.

Milton Bradley, Melvin Mora, and Manny Ramirez received our votes to start in the outfield for the AL. As Mora has been one of the most productive players in the league this year, we felt he was worthy of the minor inconvenience of a write-in vote. Eric Byrnes challenged for a place in our top three, so we added him as a back-up, while Dmitri Young and Aubrey Huff were brought along as the best representatives of their teams. Four of the five players we placed on the 32nd man vote list were outfielders we felt deserved recognition, including Garret Anderson, Kevin Millar, Ichiro Suzuki, and Vernon Wells.

Rotohelp's 2003 American League All-Stars

Starting Lineup:
1B - Carlos Delgado, TOR
2B - Bret Boone, SEA
SS - Nomar Garciaparra, BOS
3B - Corey Koskie, MIN
C - Jorge Posada, NYY
OF - Milton Bradley, CLE
OF - Melvin Mora, BAL
OF - Manny Ramirez, BOS
DH - Frank Thomas, CHW

Bench:
Jason Giambi, 1B, NYY
Mike Sweeney, 1B, KC
Alfonso Soriano, 2B, NYY
Alex Rodriguez, SS, TEX
Hank Blalock, 3B, TEX
Greg Myers, C, ANA
Eric Byrnes, OF, OAK
Dmitri Young, OF, DET
Aubrey Huff, OF, TB
Edgar Martinez, DH, SEA

Candidates for 32nd Roster Spot Vote:
Garret Anderson, OF, ANA
Kevin Millar, OF, BOS
Bill Mueller, CR, BOS
Ichiro Suzuki, OF, SEA
Vernon Wells, OF, TOR

Pitchers:
Esteban Loaiza, CHW
Mark Mulder, OAK
Mike Mussina, NYY
Barry Zito, OAK
Roger Clemens, NYY
Pedro Martinez, BOS
Jaime Moyer, SEA
Tim Hudson, OAK
Brendan Donnelly, ANA
Shigetoshi Hasegawa, SEA
Keith Foulke, OAK
Mariano Rivera, NYY

Alternate Pitchers:
Roy Halladay, TOR
David Wells, NYY
Gil Meche, SEA