Quarter Pole All-Star Team

There's plenty of subjectivity in selecting or voting for All-Stars. Aside from productivity, choices occur (or don't) because of reputation, injury, and even bonuses. Let's do our homework and try to pick the legitimate All-Stars that will represent the AL. It only makes sense to select by team, although some teams (Kansas City) probably don't deserve a selectee. There is no DH this year. One player will be voted in by the fans.

AL West (4)
Texas-- Blalock (3B)
Anaheim-- Guerrero (OF)
Oakland-- Swisher (OF)
Seattle-- Ichiro (OF)

AL Central (7)
Chicago-- Thome (1B)
Detroit-- Shelton (1B), Ordonez (OF)
Cleveland-- Hafner (1B), Blake (OF)
Minnesota-- Mauer (C)
Kansas City-- Grudzielanek (2B)

AL East (9)
Boston-- Ramirez (OF), Lowell (3B)
New York-- Jeter (SS), Giambi (1B), Posada (C)
Toronto-- Rios (OF), Wells (OF)
Tampa Bay-- Gomes (OF)
Baltimore-- Tejada (SS)

Toughest inclusion: Grudzielanek...KC is just downright terrible. As it is, you probably have to ask a shortstop to play out of position at second base. Both Lopez of Seattle and Iguchi of the White Sox are much better players than Grudzielanek.
Toughest omissions: Glaus (Tor), Konerko (Chi), Ortiz (Bos), Rodriguez (NY)

Let's look at the numbers (OBA, SLG, OPS)
Glaus .363/.593/.958
Konerko .380/.587/.967
Ortiz .360/.560/.920 (clutch player, leads league in RBI, currently .316/.476/.792 in May)
A-Rod .395/.544/.939 vs Lowell 3.75/.580/.955)
Youkilis .437/.494/.921
Chavez .373/.561/.934

Pitching:
Papelbon
Schilling
Buehrle
Mussina
Halladay
Kazmir
Contreras
Verlander
F. Rodriguez
T. Jones
B.J. Ryan
S. Shields
Santana

Toughest omissions: need some relievers.
Beckett
Robertson
Zito
Rogers
Rodney
Santana

A lot can happen between now and the All-Star break, but this is how I'd try to look at it if I had a role in selecting (and couldn't be labelled a homer). I know that I won't make any friends on the Sox with these picks, but I think they're fairly objective.