The FanSided 2012 AL All-Star Team

The fan-selected starting lineups will take the field in Kansas City tonight for the 2012 MLB All-Star Game, but we at FanSided MLB weren’t content to let the nationwide vote stand unchallenged. So we held a mock All-Star vote of our own.

Thirty-three writers from around the network offered their picks for the best players in each league between June 28 and July 2 (the dates coincided with the end of the fan voting). Here are the results from the American League (NL results here).

Paul Konerko has a commanding mandate at first base, easily beating fan pick Prince Fielder.

Hard to argue with Robinson Cano at second base. As long as we’re here, though, how ridiculous is it that Jason Kipnis didn’t get picked for a bench spot?

I don’t agree with all the picks we made, but Derek Jeter at shortstop? I don’t get that at all. It seems to me that a vote for him over Elvis Andrus or Asdrubal Cabrera is a vote for his career or his pinstripes.

Quite a bit of diversity of opinion here. I thought this was one of the hardest choices in the AL, and that’s borne out by the fact that Miguel Cabrera wins with barely a third of the vote and no one else cracks 25 percent.

Another less-than-commanding lead as Joe Mauer wins without a majority. Interesting that fan pick Mike Napoli failed to get even 10 percent of the vote. And thrilled as I am to see Carlos Santana up there, I can’t help but wonder—why?

David Ortiz cleans up here, just as he did with the fans. I’m surprised to see so little love for Edwin Encarnacion, though—I had a hard time deciding between the two of them.

Talk about a mandate. Josh Hamilton gets the highest vote total in the league. Between him and Jose Bautista our outfield almost matches the fans’, but with Mike Trout coming in instead of Curtis Granderson.

Here’s a breakdown of how our lineup compares to the fans’:

I’ll cop to my ballot: Paul Konerko, Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera, Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, David Ortiz, Josh Hamilton, Austin Jackson, Mike Trout.

How do you think we did? I’d love to hear others’ explanations for their votes.