Posted by Dan Wade on Friday, April 23, 2010 at 3:40 pm

All-Star voting began this week.

That’s right, Cliff Lee has yet to throw a pitch for the Mariners, but you can vote him in if you’d like. Guys who went on the disabled list within the first few games are barely eligible to play, but hey, vote away.

Ignoring the ideological dispute about the whether the game is meant to allow the all-time greats (Ken Griffey Jr. et al.) to play together on team or if it’s to honor the first half success stories (Ben Zobrist last year), since officials seem to believe that we’re qualified to put together an All-Star team right now, I thought I’d do the public service of showing you who deserves to be in there now.

Each team was given a starting nine, a five-man rotation, and five relievers. Exact proportions would be chosen by the managers, so consider this a representative sample. Hitters and starting pitchers chosen via WARP-1, relievers via WXRL. All data current through the 4/22 games. This is relevant as if you read this on 4/25, everything could have changed. Every game matters at this point.

AL:

C: Joe Mauer, MIN
1B: Justin Morneau, MIN
2B: Robinson Cano, NYY
SS: Alex Gonzalez, TOR
3B: Alex Rodriguez, NYY

OF: Vernon Wells, TOR
OF: Nelson Cruz, TEX
OF: Carl Crawford, TB

DH: Jose Guillen, KC

SP: Joel Pineiro, ANA
SP: John Danks, CWS
SP: Doug Fister, SEA
SP: Matt Garza, TB
SP: Andy Pettite, NYY

RP: Fernando Rodney, ANA
RP: Jon Rauch, MIN
RP: Matt Guerrier, MIN
RP: Kevin Gregg, TOR
RP: David Aardsma, SEA

Actually, not a ton of shocks here. Morneau may not be the obvious choice for first base, but he’s off to a good start and it certainly isn’t going to be Teixeira with the way he started off this year. Vernon Wells is red hot, if he keeps up anything resembling this start, he’s likely to get the actual starting spot (well, not really, too many legacy outfielders for him to sneak past.)

Outfield is tough in the American Leaegue precisely because of those legacy guys. Ichiro is still doing his thing, and if that garners him an All-Star nod, so be it. Griffey might finally move to DH instead of outfield, which would free up a spot for someone like Cruz, who more than deserves it (as of right now). Torii Hunter isn’t putting up All-Star numbers yet, but even if he doesn’t improve, he’ll get a spot based on reputation.

Alex Gonzalez’s start is no small reason the Jays are off to a better start than most predicted they would be. As with his teammate, Wells, there’s no way he gets past Jeter for the starting spot, but he could be a reserve or one of the people in the dreaded final vote.

Starting pitching is so volatile that if we were to revisit these rankings in two weeks or so, which I plan to do, it is entirely possible that none of these pitchers would be on there. As it is, I suspect the only pitcher to fall off this list might be Doug Fister, but I’ve been consistently underrating him all year, so perhaps he won’t. The NL has a tighter pack as far as starters are concerned, but there are plenty of guys just behind these five, so don’t be surprised if Francisco Liriano sneaks up in there with another strong outing.

Perhaps the NL will have some bigger surprises:

NL:

C: Ivan Rodriguez, WAS
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SD
2B: Martin Prado, ATL
SS: Juan Uribe, SF
3B: Placido Polanco, PHI

OF: Ryan Braun, MIL
OF: Josh Willingham, WAS
OF: Manny Ramirez, LAD

DH: Rickie Weeks, MIL

SP: Ubaldo Jimenez, COL
SP: Roy Halladay, PHI
SP: Mike Pelfry, NYM
SP: Livan Hernandez, WAS
SP: Tim Lincecum, SF

RP: Ryan Franklin, STL
RP: Matt Lindstrom, HOU
RP: Tyler Clippard, WAS
RP: Leo Nunez, FLA
RP: Jonathan Broxton, LAD

First things first, I gave the NL’s DH spot to the first position player who was listed at a position that was already filled. Three of the NL’s top 12 WARP scores go to second baseman, so while it isn’t the deepest position on the field, it’s certainly top heavy. It ought to tell you how good Weeks and Prado have been that Utley, who is off to an entirely adequate start are ahead of him on the charts.

Loads of surprises here. Brian McCann loses out to the NL’s best position player so far in I-rod. There’s about 100 PED jokes to be made here, but honestly, I’m just shocked he’s off to this kind of start. If the Nats are to stay relevant this season, Rodriguez will need to continue his hot start to the year.

Albert Pujols misses the boat entirely, as does Hanley Ramirez, making the top two picks in most fantasy leagues something of a disappointment. Both were on here as recently as Tuesday, but a few bad game at this stage of the season and, well, they taint your sample when it’s this small.

You’ve got to love the NL rotation of with Pelfry and Hernandez in there. Halladay was a mortal lock to make the team before the season even started, his performance hasn’t hurt those chances at all, so he’ll remain in this list even if he falls off in his next few starts (unlikely, sorry fans of other teams in the NL East).

I keep expecting Livan to remember that his sole job is to pitch 8 innings a game irrespective of quality and regress, but, well, he hasn’t. His three starts are as good as anyone’s so far, Halladay included. The other shoe will drop, oh yes, it will, but if it doesn’t for a couple weeks, he could net himself a third All-Star appearance. Worth noting, his ERA+ is a pretty solid 598 so far.

All in all, this is sort of a cross section of which teams have played well so far this year. The Twins, atop the AL Central, have four players in there. The Yankees—even without the voting advantage—have three. The Red Sox and White Sox have a combined zero. Unsurprisingly, teams that are playing well have players that are among the best at their position.

At this point, if you’re filling out All-Star ballots for Scott Podsednick, Carlos Sivla, Hernandez, or any of the other amazing hot starts, that’s your prerogative, but be prepared for them to look very, very silly in another few weeks. If they’d have opened up voting a week ago, Carl Pavano would have been in the AL rotation, but now that seems downright foolish. I, for one, would much rather see an intensive vote done about a month from now when there’s actual performance to evaluate.