MLB has announced the rosters for the All-Star game.  That’s nice.  Here is the more important fantasy All-Star rosters.

The All-Star rosters are set and now the hand wringing begins over why everyone’s favorite candidate got left off the team.  Between fan balloting, having to pick a player from every team and managers stocking reserves with their favorites, it’s no wonder we have this every year.

But let’s take a second to move over to everyone’s favorite topic - fantasy baseball.  Who have been the All-Stars in fantasy this season?  Using RotoTimes’ Player Rater and figuring dollar values based on an average 12-team league, here are the rosters for both leagues:

American League

C - Joe Mauer

1B - Justin Morneau

2B - Ian Kinsler

3B - Alex Rodriguez

SS - Michael Young

OF - Josh Hamilton

OF - Grady Sizemore

OF - Ichiro Suzuki

DH - Carl Crawford

Reserves

C - AJ Pierzynski

1B - Kevin Youkilis

2B - Brian Roberts

3B - Evan Longoria

SS - Orlando Cabrera

OF - Jacoby Ellsbury

OF - BJ Upton

OF - Milton Bradley

OF - Magglio Ordonez

Starters

Cliff Lee

Roy Halladay

Ervin Santana

Justin Duchscherer

Joe Saunders

Gavin Floyd

Josh Beckett

Relievers

Mariano Rivera

Francisco Rodriguez

Jonathan Papelbon

Joakim Soria

Joe Nathan

This squad works amazingly well.  I made the decision to go for 18 batters and 12 pitchers.  Among the batters I went for a reserve at each position and among the pitchers I went to a 7-5 starter-reliever split.  I left off George Sherrill to get Beckett as the seventh starter.  And to get a Tiger representative, Jermaine Dye was bumped for Magglio Ordonez.

Here’s the National League roster:

C - Russell Martin

1B - Lance Berkman

2B - Chase Utley

3B - Chipper Jones

SS - Hanley Ramirez

OF - Matt Holliday

OF - Ryan Braun

OF - Corey Hart

DH - Jose Reyes

Reserves

C - Brian McCann

1B - Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez

2B - Brandon Phillips, Dan Uggla

3B - David Wright

SS - Miguel Tejada

OF - Carlos Lee

OF - Nate McLouth

Starters

Edinson Volquez

Tim Lincecum

Cole Hamels

Brandon Webb

Dan Haren

Ben Sheets

Ryan Dempster

Relievers

Kerry Wood

Jose Valverde

Jon Rauch

Brad Lidge

Francisco Cordero

The same roster assumptions for the AL team work here except I went with only two backup outfielders.  I could not leave off Dan Uggla, the ninth-best hitter in the league, for a third outfielder.  The only reach was the Padres, with Adrian Gonzalez bumping the third outfielder, which would have been Carlos Beltran.

There’s a lot of similarity between the teams, but I think I’ll take the fantasy roster in both leagues.  The AL has the fans voting in Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez, neither of which made the fantasy team.  The fans voted Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome which drags down the NL starters.  And why on earth was Billy Wagner chosen as the Mets’ representative?

OK, I tried, I really did, to not write a whiny column about why my favorite candidate didn’t make the team.  But can anybody explain why Jose Reyes was passed over for Miguel Tejada?  The Astros had a representative already with Berkman and bypassing Reyes (fourth overall fantasy hitter) meant Billy Wagner (21^st-best fantasy pitcher) had the be the Mets’ representative.

Here’s the comparison between Reyes and Tejada:

Tejada has been better in the field this year than Reyes, a statement I’d never imagine making at any point in their careers.  But is that difference enough to make up for the huge offensive edge that Reyes enjoys?

Reyes got off to a poor start in April, but has been on fire since the first month of the season.  Meanwhile, Tejada’s numbers are being inflated by the Juice Box.  Here are his home/road splits this season:

Home - .312/.346/.486

Road - .250/.301/.389

So, in neutral road parks Tejada has posted a robust .690 OPS this season.

And to top it all off, Tejada was one of the players named in the Mitchell Report.  On one hand we have Jose Reyes, one of the up-and-coming stars of the game enjoying a superior offensive season and on the other we have Miguel Tejada, an older player in a smaller market with the stench of steroid allegations.

Which one is the better choice again?