So, Who's Your All-Star?

With the All-Star game right around the corner, and the A's looking like a one-representative team (and that's charitable), it's time to pick the player that will represent the A's for the All-Star game, the great meaningless tradition, even though "This time it counts!". But hey, it's still fun to be right, so who's your pick?

I imagine the A's offense will be thrown out upon first glance. I mean, really. Then the starting pitching will be examined. Trevor Cahill looked like a solid front-runner early in the season, starting the year 6-0, but in several shaky subsequent starts, he has only won a single game. During that time, he has also lost five, and really hasn't pitched all that well.

That leaves Gio Gonzalez. Although his record isn't much to look at (6-5), his ERA is significantly lower than Cahill's (2.59 to 3.24) and he has struck out sixteen more batters (that's probably all the analysis we're looking for in an All-Star selection, right?).

Assuming neither of our two starting pitching candidates are selected, we move on to the "pick a middle reliever because we need those in the game and we have to choose someone from this team" territory. I think it's safe to say that Fuentes' losses might disqualify him, but Balfour could have a shot with his 2.48 ERA. If Wednesday's game had ended differently for Ziegler, I'd say he would have been the dark horse; his ERA just went over 2.

Well, that's all I've got. Anyone I missed? Who's going to represent the A's in the game (and can he wear the gold jersey?).

The A's open the series in Philly tonight; don't worry, their pitching isn't that good, right? I fly out tonight after the game, so I'll be there live Saturday and Sunday.