There’s little better about baseball than All-Star voting. I say this not in spite of the fact that every fan grouses about it, but because of it. The very fact that almost everyone has some gripe about the balloting process and an attendant scheme to make it better suit their preferences is the best sign that it doesn’t need to be changed.

Want to fill out a hundred ballots featuring the Mets’ starting lineup? No problem. Want to fill out one composed of the players who have had the best careers? Go ahead. Fans can write in Andy Phillips’s name, vote along lines of ethnic solidarity, or pick players at random, and do it as many times as they wish – and the selections are always pretty much right.

Personally, I fill out one ballot per year, tilt toward voting for star players rather than those having the best seasons, and am quite comfortable voting for esteemed veterans long after they’ve become irrelevant. I voted for Tony Gwynn even after he’d become a pinch-hitter and would vote for Barry Larkin if he were still playing.

I generally vote for an outfielder at each position rather than three outfielders, except when I forget. I pass players over if I don’t like the cut of their jib, and when presented with a tough choice I go with high-average hitters, base-stealers, and good defenders over sluggers, because I’d rather watch them play.

With more than a third of the season behind us and with those personal biases in mind, here is how I filled out the National League side of the ballot. Tomorrow, the American League.

C Mike Piazza
New York Mets
253/.317/.423

This vote isn’t entirely based on Piazza’s historical stature. As brokendown as the Mets’ catcher is, there’s only one receiver who’s been clearly better with the bat this season, Ramon Hernandez. The Padres’ backstop is by default the best among a weak field of NL catchers, and he just isn’t the caliber of player I’d like to see take Piazza’s All-Star spot. Hernandez is a fine defensive player and a solid hitter, but Piazza is one of the best catchers of all-time, and he’ll deserve to be recognized for it until he retires.

1B Albert Pujols
St. Louis Cardinals
.333 A VG/.418 OBA/.590 SLG

Chicago’s Derrek Lee is having a monster year. He’s making a serious run at the Triple Crown, providing his usual stellar defense, and has had driven in more runs that brought the Cubs from behind than I can count. He has single-handedly carried the offense for a team that, due to injury, has no business contending and yet finds itself atop the wild-card standings.

Still, this was an easy pick. Pujols is hitting .333, which happens to be his career average, and is on pace for 40 doubles, 40 home runs, 80 walks, and 120 runs – the same numbers he puts up every single year. His otherworldly consistency at an MVP level calls Hank Aaron to mind. He’s hit .324/.418/.619 in 105 postseason at bats and crushed the archrival Cubs’ chances at the division last summer with a performance reminiscent of Chipper Jones’s outburst against the Mets in 1999.

What’s more, Pujols devotes considerable time and money to kids with Down Syndrome. With no apologies to Barry Bonds, Pujols is the best player in the league and its best representative, and he deserves to start no matter what anyone else is doing.

2B Jeff Kent
Los Angeles Dodgers
.288/.371/.534

This was probably the easiest choice in the league. At a time when there are very few good second basemen, Kent is consistently excellent at the plate and underrated in the field. It’s been a long time since he was on a bad team, and there’s a reason for that – starting off the season with a player of this quality in the middle infield is an enormous advantage. The all-time leader in home runs as a second baseman, Kent is making a serious case for the Hall of Fame despite not having been a particularly good player until he was 30. Add in his entertaining surliness and weird affectedness – with his ranch, cop moustache, and drawl, you’d think the UC Berkeley grad grew up in Texas rather than southern California – and you have a clear choice.

3B David Wright
New York Mets
.307/.399/.529

This was probably the toughest call. The incumbent is the Cardinals’ Scott Rolen, a truly great player who has run into some health problems. That usually wouldn’t deter me from punching the chad next to his name, but Wright is special. He’s been the best third baseman in the league this year, and could remain so for a decade. Whether or not he starts, Wright should make the first of what will be many All-Star games. SS

Cesar Izturis
Los Angeles Dodgers
.321/.366/.396

In 997 at-bats at ages 22 and 23, Izturis hit .243/.269/.310, a line that would embarrass Rey Ordonez. Since then, he’s turned himself into arguably the best shortstop in the league, a deserving Gold Glover who has learned how to help his team at the plate by getting on base. Arguments could be made for Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins and Atlanta’s Rafael Furcal, among others, but Izturis is a great defender at a defensive position and earns serious style points for following the Ozzie

Smith career path.

RF Bobby Abreu
Philadelphia Phillies
.332/.453/.591

It’s pretty comical that last year was the first time Abreu made an All-Star team. The man has been one of the 10 best players in the league for nearly a decade. Every year he hits .300 with 70 extra-base hits, 100 walks, and 30 steals, and there aren’t too many players who can say that.

Abreu, like Jim Edmonds, has long seemed like the kind of player who has a late prime, partly because fast, powerful hitters of his type tend to age gracefully as they slow down a bit and start to hit for more power. Sure enough, 2004 was arguably Abreu’s best year – until 2005. From May 8-18, he hit nine home runs and drove in 18 runs, a devastating hot streak to rival Tino Martinez’s, and one that finally made everyone realize what careful observers have known for years: Abreu is one of the best in the game.

CF Jim Edmonds
St. Louis Cardinals
.282/.405/.534

In March of 2000, the perpetually disappointing St. Louis Cardinals dealt for perpetually disappointing Angels outfielder Jim Edmonds, who was 29 years old and had a reputation as a lazy, fragile clubhouse cancer and a hot dog. Since then Edmonds has hit 191 home runs, drawn 496 walks, and won five Gold Gloves, and the Cardinals are the best team in the league. There isn’t a better centerfielder in the game.

LF Miguel Cabrera
Florida Marlins
347/ 393/ 579

Two years ago, Cabrera, then all of 20, was one of the key players in the Marlins’ stunning drive to a National League pennant and a World Series victory over the Yankees. He seemed more or less fully formed as a player, so that when he hit .294 with 33 home runs, 112 RBI, and 101 runs as a 21-year-old in one of the toughest hitter’s parks in the league, it surprised no one and was met with a fair amount of indifference.

Now 22, Cabrera is hitting .347 and driving his team into another pennant race. He is a worthy successor to Barry Bonds as the National League’s starting left fielder and, along with Pujols and Wright, one of the game’s brightest young positional stars.