A week ago I took a look that the American and National League All-Star ballots, posting my picks for the 17 starting slots. This past Sunday the 62 players selected by the fans (17 starting position players), players (33 hitters and pitchers), and team managers Terry Francona and Tony LaRussa (12 hitters and pitchers) were announced. Today the winners of the Final Man fan vote were revealed to complete the rosters.

With the rosters set, I thought it would be fun to go back and try to assemble the 32-man rosters the "old" way (prior to the inclusion of the player and final man votes) as a way to figure out exactly whose invitation got sent to the wrong address. My only limitations here are the fan vote, the requirement that every team be represented, and the 32-man roster size.

American League

Starters (per fan vote):

C - Jason Varitek
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Brian Roberts
3B - Alex Rodriguez
SS - Miguel Tejada
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Johnny Damon
OF - Vladimir Guerrero
DH - David Ortiz

With the exception of Damon (whom many of you supported over my choice of "center fielder" Hideki Matsui), and Ramirez (who was almost a toss-up with my choice of Gary Sheffield) that line-up matches my ballot exactly. Those two and the players not on my ballot who I thought had the best cases can be added first:

OF - Gary Sheffield
OF - Hideki Matsui
OF - Torii Hunter
DH - Travis Hafner
C - Jorge Posada

(you'll note that only one of these four will be in Detroit next Tuesday)

Next we'll make sure we have a representative from each team:

Blue Jays: SP - Roy Halladay
Devil Rays: 3B/2B - Jorge Cantu
White Sox: SP - Mark Buehrle
Tigers: SP - Jeremy Bonderman
Royals: 1B - Mike Sweeney
Athletics: SS - Bobby Crosby
Mariners: RP - Eddie Guardado

(only three of those seven made the actual AL roster)

That gives us two men at 1B, SS, C, DH, and each outfield position, three starters and one reliever as well as Cantu, who has split his time between second and third. To round things out let's add the best remaining player at either second or third:

3B - Melvin Mora

We now have a 22-man roster with just four pitchers, so let's add six more pitchers to get us up to an even ten. Here are the top six AL pitchers not already on our roster according to VORP:

Kenny Rogers
Jarrod Washburn
John Garland
Freddy Garcia
Bartolo Colon
Johan Santana

Of course that gives us nine starters, which is a few too many. We need to get a few relievers on there to keep Guardado company. The top AL relievers according to VORP are:

Mike Timlin
Justin Duchscherer
Jesse Crain
Pete Walker

These four are all set-up men because set-up men tend to pitch more innings (and often more crucial innings) than their more glorified bullpen mates, the closers. You see, Jeff Nelson was right.

Looking at our list of six starters, I'm going to dump Jarrod Washburn for his 1.41 WHIP, 1.02 HR/9 and 1.77 K/BB. I'm also going to dump Johan Santana, who's last among the six in VORP and has the highest ERA (3.98) and HR/9 (1.09) of the bunch. To placate Twins fans I'll then add Crain along with Timlin and Duchscherer, the latter of which allows me to dump Bobby Crosby and his injury-shortened first half in favor of Derek Jeter, who has indeed been the second best short stop in the AL this year.

That leaves us with three open spots for the most obvious ommissions. For me that's Richie Sexson, who by all rights should be the back-up 1B in front of Mike Sweeney, Mariano Rivera, who is having an absolutely monster season as the Yankee closer, and Alfonso Soriano, who should be backing up second in front of Cantu.

So there you have it, my final 31-man AL All-Star Roster:

1B - Mark Teixeira, Richie Sexson, Mike Sweeney
2B - Brian Roberts, Alfonso Soriano, Jorge Cantu
SS - Miguel Tejada, Derek Jeter
3B - Alex Rodriguez, Melvin Mora
C - Jason Varitek, Jorge Posada
OF - Vlad Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matusi, Torii Hunter
DH - David Ortiz, Travis Hafner

SP - Roy Halladay, Mark Buehrle, Kenny Rogers, John Garland, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Jeremy Bonderman
RP - Mariano Rivera, Eddie Guardado, Mike Timlin, Justin Duchscherer, Jesse Crain

As for how the actual roster differs from mine:

Ivan Rodriguez was chosen over Jorge Posada
Paul Konerko was chosen over Richie Sexson
Ichiro Suzuki was chosen over Jorge Cantu
Michael Young was chosen over Derek Jeter
Shea Hillenbrand was chosen over Travis Hafner
Garret Anderson was chosen over Hideki Matsui
Scott Podsednik was chosen over Torii Hunter
Johan Santana was chosen over Freddy Garcia
B.J. Ryan was chosen over Eddie Guardado
Joe Nathan was chosen over Jesse Crain
Danys Baez was chosen over Mike Timlin
Bob Wickman was chosen over Jeremy Bonderman

Wickman, Baez and Suzuki were chosen by Francona because the fans and players failed to chose an Indian, a Devil Ray or a Mariner. The Devil Ray I can understand (and one could make an argument for Baez over Cantu, though I'd much rather see Cantu, a young infielder with potential, over Baez, a middle-aged reliever of little distinction), but the fact that no one, not even the players, has noticed that Travis Hafner has been very nearly David Ortiz's equal over the past two seasons is an oversite that needs to be rectified and soon.

As for the Mariners, I put two M's on my team without having to stoop to Ichiro, who is in the middle of his worst major league season. To his credit, Francona also chose Colon and Duchscherer. Podsednik won the Final Man vote over Jeter and Matsui (who might have split the Yankee vote, though Jeter nearly won) and Torii Hunter.