Posted by Gavin McCormick on Friday, July 3, 2009 at 6:30 am

There are at least a couple of ways to pick an All-Star ballot. Some people like to see the stars, and will put A-Rod in their lineup even if he’s missed half the season, or Chipper even if his year-to-date statistics are nosed out by a couple of lesser luminaries.

I go by performance. Who’s put up the numbers in the first half? Here’s my 2009 non-pitcher ballot, with explanations where I felt they were needed. I put two players at each position, plus some extras to get the roster up to 20. (Thirteen pitchers will also be selected by each squad.)

Only the Cubs have no representatives on my National League squad. Cleveland, Kansas City, and Oakland get the sombrero in the American League.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Catcher

Brian McCann, Atlanta

Yadier Molina, St. Louis (13 steals against, 11 caught)

Chris Ianetta, Colorado (.844 OPS is league’s second best)

First Base

Albert Pujols, St. Louis

Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego (Equivalent offensive numbers to Fielder, plays in Petco)

Prince Fielder, Milwaukee

Second Base

Chase Utley, Philadelphia

Freddy Sanchez, Pittsburgh (One error while leading league in total chances)

Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati

Third Base

David Wright, New York (Has had to carry team over last six weeks)

Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco (Has played in two-thirds as many games at 3B as Wright, with roughly same number of chances per game and one-third the errors [4-12])

Shortstop

Hanley Ramirez, Florida

Miguel Tejada, Houston

(Apologies to Troy Tulowitzki, third in shortstop OPS while making but 4 errors and leading league in total chances)

Left Field

Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia

Ryan Braun, Milwaukee

Adam Dunn, Washington

Center Field

Carlos Beltran, New York

Matt Kemp, Los Angeles (Ahead of Mike Cameron and Shane Victorino in OPS and EqA; I’d make Cameron my replacement for Beltran, edging Victorino on defense)

Right Field

Brad Hawpe, Colorado

Justin Upton, Arizona

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Catcher

Joe Mauer, Minnesota

Mike Napoli, Los Angeles

(Apologies to Miguel Olivo of Kansas City, 2nd in AL catchers in slugging)

First Base

Kevin Youkilis, Boston

Justin Morneau, Minnesota

Russell Branyan, Seattle (leads AL 1Bs in slugging, in a pitcher’s park, nosing out Teixeira and Cabrera)

Second Base

Aaron Hill, Toronto

Ian Kinsler, Texas (.664 OPS in road games)

(Apologies to Ben Zobrist, Tampa’s replacement for Akinori Iwamura, with an astonishing 1.051 OPS)

Third Base

Evan Longoria, Tampa

Brandon Inge, Detroit

Shortstop

Jason Bartlett, Tampa

Derek Jeter, New York

Marco Scutaro, Toronto (cooled off lately, but 2 Es while leading league in chances)

Left Field

Jason Bay, Boston

Juan Rivera, Los Angeles (ahead of Johnny Damon, who plays in a bandbox and is dreadful in the field)

Center Field

Torii Hunter, Los Angeles

Adam Jones, Baltimore

Right Field

Jermaine Dye, Chicago

Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle

Designated Hitter

Adam Lind, Toronto

Luke Scott, Baltimore