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The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will take place on July 12 at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI. One of the most interesting aspects of the All-Star Game is that players are voted in by the fans. Fans placed their votes via ballots at the ball park or online at the Major League Baseball official website. I like this system, even though it usually means that some very deserving players are left out. For example, lots of players get voted in on reputation alone, even if they are having terrible seasons. Also, not many fans follow all the teams in both leagues, so they may be completely unaware when a relatively unknown player posts some big numbers in the first half of the year. But this year, I am happy to say that I agree with almost every one of the fans' choices.

In the infield, the fans wisely recognized the monster season that the Orioles' Brian Roberts is having, and they voted him in on the first ballot. Over in the National League, Jeff Kent of the Dodgers gets the nod. It is a testament to the caliber of player that Kent is when you consider how much the Astros have been struggling this year without him. Apparently, it wasn't Clemens and Pettite that carried the team to the postseason last year.

Over at third base, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees led the balloting in the American League, while the Philadelphia Phillies' Scott Rolen will represent from the National League. This is one of those situations when reputation was more important to fans than performance, considering that Rolen missed 33 games due to a shoulder injury. A-Rod is having a good season despite the team's woes. He is batting .324 with 20 home runs and 66 RBI so far, and is playing his fairly well on defense, though his 10 errors put him on pace to match the highest season total in his career.

Did you expect to see anyone other than Miguel Tejada take the field for the American League at shortstop? He and teammate Brian Roberts give the Orioles the strongest middle infield, both defensively and offensively, in all of baseball. The National League will have an all-L.A. middle infield as Cesar Izturis joins his double play partner Jeff Kent on the All-Star roster. I don't watch the Dodgers enough to know how good of a selection this is by the fans, but maybe the fact that I haven't heard more about Izturis says enough.

Albert Pujols of the Cardinals and Mark Teixeira of the Rangers will play first base for their respective leagues. Pujols is having a good year, but I think he's getting in on reputation here, since Derrek Lee of my hometown Chicago Cubs is having a great year.

The outfielders for the American League will be Ichiro (no doubt helped by Internet voting from Japan), Manny Ramirez, and Vlad Guerrero. Jim Edmonds, Carlos Beltran, and Bobby Abreu will represent the National League. I can't really argue with any of those picks, though I would have liked to see my fantasy team leader Miguel Cabrera get some respect in the real world!

Overall, these were great choices by the fans and I am happy to say I was a part of it.