Lil Red Machine

Here are the likely candidates, as of this point:

2b Brandon Phillips: He is having a very nice season. Chase Utley has the starting spot on lockdown, as he is clearly the best second baseman in the NL, which is reflected in fan voting. As of June 17th, Phillips is batting .282 with 10 homers and 43 RBI’s. He’s had his ups and downs this season, but has been the leader of the offense in the absence of Joey Votto. What I like is that .351 OBP. Noone will ever mistake Phillips for being a selective hitter, but all of last season (141 games), he had 39 walks. In 57 this year, he has 23.

Competition for that spot include Orlando Hudson, who is batting .311 with 4 home runs and 31 RBI’s, and Skip Schumaker (.302/8/46). Assuming Utley holds on to his lead in the fan voting, I think Hudson probably gets it, because of the overall team success of the Dodgers (especially in the absence of Manny) as compared to the Reds. Phillips, however, deserves some consideration, and every team has to have somebody. He’s one of the most deserving candidates on this team

P Johnny Cueto: He is maturing into a fine starting pitcher this season. He has a 6-4 record, and currently holds a 2.17 ERA, which is tops in the national league. That cannot be ignored. Volquez has similar success last year, and got picked, so why not Cueto?

P Francisco Cordero: He has 15 saves this year, 3 behind the current leader. He has been lights out all year, posting an outstanding 1.93 ERA. Francisco Rodriguez and Johnathan Broxton have slightly more saves and play on better teams, but Cordero has the resume this season to show that he belongs with those guys in St. Louis.

Sadly, noone else on the team really deserves a spot on the all-star game roster. Hitting has been a pretty major weakness, and really, outside of Phillips, noone else in the lineup produces enough on a consistent basis. In the rotation, guys have either been hurt (Volquez), or have had fairly ordinary seasons (Harang, Arroyo).

Votto probably would’ve been a shoo-in for an at-large selection, had he not been placed on the DL. When he played, few, if any, first baseman, posted the statistics that he did.

I guess something else to keep in mind is even if someone on Cincinnati gets an unfair snub, there is always the chance that they get to participate anyway due to someone else having an injury or what not. However, someone WILL be going to St. Louis. I just posted whom I thought were the most worthy candidates.