For the National League, Major League Baseball's All-Star Game has been a wreck since 1997. Over those past 11 years, the American League has gone 10-0-1 in the game that now determines home-field advantage in the World Series.
Over the next several days, I will compare all of the leading vote-getters at each position for both leagues and determine which league has the edge at that position.
Today's position: Second Base
National League: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
As long as John Lannan doesn't show up anytime this year—he's the Nationals' pitcher who broke Utley's hand last year, sidelining him for a month—it appears that Chutley will complete the tri-fecta for the Phillies by winning the team's third straight NL MVP Award.
Through 69 games, Utley is hitting a respectable .317 (tied for fourth in the NL) and leads the league in homers (22) and is second in RBI (61).
While it would take quite a bit of luck and some more catastrophic meltdowns by NL East foes (this time Chipper instead of the Mets), Utley is threatening to becoming the first triple crown winner in the NL since Joe Medwick (31, 154, .374) in 1937. (I know that's a stretch, but I had to throw it in there as a Phillies fan.)
American League: Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox
Coming off of a Rookie of the Year campaign in '07 in which he hit .317, Pedroia is struggling tremendously in '08.
Batting primarily at the top of the Sox order, he is hitting only .260 with four homers through 68 games. Boston gave him some slack during the first month of last season, and Pedroia eventually responded, but over two months into the season, Terry Francona has to do something to light a fire under his second baseman.
Despite his sophomore slump, Pedroia, like Varitek and Youkilis, has the advantage of being a Sox player and leads Ian Kinsler (.312, 17 SB) by some 300,000 votes.
Advantage: Utley and the National League
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