Filling out an AL All-Star team ballot

9:54 PM ET

Remember my rules for selecting an All-Star team: It’s the All-STAR Game, so I’m looking at guys who have played well in 2016 but also have a track record of success.

I want stars, not guys who have had six good weeks.

I’ll follow the general guidelines for selecting a team: 34 players, one rep for each team and a breakdown of 21 position players and 13 pitchers. In the American League, they also choose two DHs, which is kind of dumb considering many teams don’t employ a full-time DH, but at least there are decent candidates this year.

My team

C — Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals: An easy choice in an otherwise uninspiring group of backstops. He’s actually having his best season in years, with an OBP over .300 and a slugging percentage close to .500. Can we just select Perez and let him play the entire game?

1B — Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers: Still the best. After a slow start, he hit .333/.415/.618 in May. Don’t be surprised if he’s chasing another batting title come September. Kudos to Eric Hosmer for turning up his power game this year and putting together his best season at the plate.

2B — Jose Altuve, Houston Astros: It’s a loaded group of second basemen in the AL with four players already above 2.0 WAR (and Logan Forsythe would be there if he hadn’t been injured). Still, Altuve is the easy starter as he ranks third in the AL in WAR behind Manny Machado and Mike Trout. One big area of improvement: He has more walks than K’s (he’s already close to his 2015 walk total of 33), boosting his OBP over .400. Throw in his early power surge, 15 stolen bases and solid D, and he gets the nod over Robinson Cano and his big RBI total.

SS — Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles: He’ll move back to third base once J.J. Hardy returns, but as of now he has played more games at shortstop. Yes, it’s looking as if we have to put him alongside Trout and maybe Bryce Harper — and if he remains at shortstop, we might have to move him to the very top. With apologies to Xander Bogaerts, who is having a monster season for the Red Sox.

3B — Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays: I mean, I guess you can put Machado here and start Bogaerts at shortstop if you want, but it’s not as if Donaldson is Shea Hillenbrand. This is the reigning AL MVP we’re talking about and his 2.2 WAR is third among third basemen.

OF — Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels: He had one …

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