Picking the ‘perfect’ AL All-Star ballot

First, I voted for Mike Trout. Slam dunk, right? Then, it was Jose Altuve. Another easy one. Wait, what?

Actually, it wasn’t easy at all.

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Another American League second baseman, Robinson Cano, is off to a monster start in Seattle. He has three more home runs than Altuve (12) and is leading the Major Leagues with 33 RBIs.

Cano is doing this for a first-place team, and in every corner of the Mariners’ clubhouse, they talk about his leadership and influence. He defines what an All-Star should be — both in the way he’s playing this season and in his 12-year body of work — and he absolutely, positively has to be in uniform on July 12 in San Diego.

Since I can only vote for one starter, Altuve still gets my vote. His batting average is 20 points higher than Cano’s and his OPS sits at an otherworldly 1.045. But these are two great players, two players who are helping define this era of Major League Baseball.

This debate — Cano vs. Altuve — speaks loudly about the difficulty I had in filling out an AL All-Star ballot in 2016. For instance, there’s third base:

• Adrian Beltre, future Hall of Famer • Josh Donaldson, reigning AL MVP Award winner • Manny Machado, Baltimore superstar

Gulp. Here’s the other thing about All-Star ballots. There are no right answers. For some of us, an All-Star selection is a reward for players having the best half-seasons.

Others factor in star power. That is, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones and Cal Ripken belonged in the All-Star Game even in seasons when their statistics might have argued otherwise.

They’d come to mean that much to the game. They belonged. So it’s with a cluttered mind and a tip of the hat to the tidal wave of talent that has entered the game in recent years, that I mark my first 2016 AL ballot. This is the squad that will try to give the AL home-field advantage in the World Series for the fourth straight season.

Catcher: Salvador Perez, Royals Others have better offensive numbers, particularly Stephen Vogt and Brian McCann. Jarrod Saltalamacchia has had a tremendous first half in Detroit. Meanwhile, Perez’s .234 batting average won’t blow anyone away. But Perez is an easy choice for the totality of his game. His defense is the gold standard among Major League catchers. Perez is so good that his pitchers trust him in ways that allow them to get into a tempo and to pitch with confidence. His leadership is off the charts.

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