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David Ortiz Named To American League All-Star Team As Starting DH

By Ben Buchanan
Getty Images

David Ortiz has been named as the starting DH for the 2012 American League All-Star team.

It is the eighth time Ortiz, who beat out Michael Young by a fair margin in the DH race, has made his way onto the All-Star team, and it is certainly a deserving appearance. While fan voting can provide some truly unworthy All-Star starters (for the thousandth time, I'm looking at you, Jeter), Ortiz' .414 wOBA is second only to Josh Hamilton in the American League.

While being a true DH is something of a negative in these days of roster flexibility and versatility, when a player makes an art out of it the way David Ortiz has throughout most of his career, it deserves recognition. After a few down years, Ortiz is not only back now, but better than ever. With a career-low strikeout rate, Ortiz has been punishing the ball all season long. His homers are as remarkable in volume (21) as in ferocity, and with 24 doubles added in (putting him second behind Ian Kinsler in the American League), he's truly been a monster at the plate.

The rest of the starting lineups are:

Lineup

AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE
C - Mike Napoli, TEX C - Buster Posey, SF
1B - Prince Fielder, DET 1B - Joey Votto, CIN
2B - Robinson Cano, NYY 2B - Dan Uggla, ATL
3B - Adrian Beltre, TEX 3B - Pablo Sandoval, SF
SS - Derek Jeter, NYY SS - Rafael Furcal, STL
OF - Josh Hamilton, TEX OF - Melky Cabrera, SF
OF - Curtis Granderson, NYY OF - Carlos Beltran, STL
OF - Jose Bautista, TOR OF - Matt Kemp, LAD
DH - David Ortiz, BOS

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