So the All Star rosters have been announced, and both Ben Sheets and Dan Kolb were selected. Good for them. Lyle Overbay, on the other hand, was held out of both the All Star roster and the “last man” vote. Boo. Here is a list of each NL All Star sorted by Value Over Replacement Player. I have included all those players not selected as well to provide context. For the purposes of VORP, the outfielders are actually compared to their own position (Bonds is a LF, Podsednik a CF, etc.)

       Player                    Position/VORP
        ---------------------------------------
        Barry Bonds *             OF       68.3
        Todd Helton               1B       48.4
        Scott Rolen *             3B       45.3
        Bobby Abreu ^             OF       44.3
        Sean Casey                1B       44.0
        Jim Thome                 1B       43.5
        --- J.D. Drew             OF       41.4
        Albert Pujols *           1B       41.3
        Lance Berkman             OF       38.0
        --- Adrian Beltre         3B       37.9
        Mike Lowell               3B       37.7
        --- Lyle Overbay          1B       37.6
        --- Adam Dunn             OF       35.1
        Mike Piazza *             C        34.8
        Jack Wilson               SS       34.7
        Aramis Ramirez ^          3B       33.4
        Mark Loretta              2B       31.1
        --- Jim Edmonds           OF       30.0
        --- Craig Wilson          OF       29.3
        Miguel Cabrera            OF       28.7
        Steve Finley ^            OF       28.6
        --- Phil Nevin            1B       28.4
        --- Derrek Lee            1B       27.3
        --- Hee Sop Choi          1B       26.4
        Jeff Kent *               2B       24.6
        --- Craig Biggio          OF       24.4
        Johnny Estrada            C        24.2
        --- Brian Giles           OF       23.3
        --- Luis Gonzalez         OF       23.0
        --- Todd Walker           2B       22.4
        --- Vinny Castilla        3B       22.3
        Moises Alou               OF       21.7
        Ken Griffey, Jr. *        OF       21.0
        --- Pat Burrell           OF       20.8
        --- Danny Bautista        OF       20.2
        --- David Bell            3B       19.5
        --- Corey Patterson       OF       18.8
        Sammy Sosa *              OF       18.5
        --- Jeff Bagwell          1B       18.1
        --- Tony Womack           2B       18.0
        --- Jeremy Burnitz        OF       18.0
        --- Charles Johnson       C        17.8
        --- Marquis Grissom       OF       17.7
        --- Jose Vidro            2B       17.2
        --- Scott Podsednik       OF       17.2
        --- Todd Hollandsworth    OF       17.0
        --- Jimmy Rollins         SS       16.9
        --- Royce Clayton         SS       16.8
        --- Michael Barrett       C        16.7
        --- Andruw Jones          OF       16.5
        Jason Kendall ^           C        16.5
        --- Jason Bay             OF       15.8
        --- Paul Lo Duca          C        15.8
        --- Alex Cora             2B       15.6
        --- Khalil Greene         SS       15.6
        --- Ray Durham            2B       15.4
        --- Cezar Izturis         SS       15.3
        Edgar Renteria *          SS       15.2
        Barry Larkin              SS       14.5
        --- Kazuo Matsui          SS       14.3
        --- Luis Castillo         2B       14.1
        Juan Pierre ^             OF       13.7
        ---------------------------------------
        Key:  * Voted into starting lineup
              ^ Part of the "last man" vote
            --- Indicates a non-All Star
        ---------------------------------------

Keeping in mind that this does not account for defensive differences between players, it does demonstrate some interesting “snubs.” J.D. Drew is the clear winner in that category, as his 41.4 VORP combined with his very good defense makes him one of the top three outfielders in the league. Ironically, the second best outfielder is Bobby Abreu, another excellent defensive outfielder, but he is only on the “Last Man” vote and not the All Star roster itself. At third-base, Adrian Beltre and Mike Lowell have very similar numbers, so the distinctions between the two are six of one and half a dozen of another, but both are clearly superior to Aramis Ramirez.

Here is the “Almost All Star” team, comprised of the players with the highest VORP at each position that were not selected to the All Star roster or the “Last Man” vote.

       OF - JD Drew
        OF - Adam Dunn
        OF - Jim Edmonds
        SS - Jimmy Rollins
        3B - Adrian Beltre
        2B - Todd Walker
        1B - Lyle Overbay
        C  - Charles Johnson

On the other end of the spectrum are the All Stars or “Last Man” candidates with the most players at their position ahead of them in VORP. The head-and-shoulders winner is Juan Pierre, who is 24th among NL outfielders in VORP and 10th among centerfielders.