The All-Underrated Team - American League

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Well, the MLB All-Star teams have been announced and looking at the fan voting, it's clear a lot of fans haven't been paying attention. So here's my 2010 MLB All-Underrated list. Mind you, these are not all guys who I think should necessarily be winning the voting, but guys who seemed to be totally overlooked.

Let's begin with the American League.

C - Mike Napoli. Napoli isn't the sexiest catcher out there, but he's got more homers than any other American League catcher and the highest OPS among those qualified for the batting title at that position, in front of Victor Martinez and Joe Mauer. Taylor Teagarden (currently in AAA after batting .037) and Gerald Laird (.190-2-13) are in the top-5, but Napoli isn't even considered.

1B - Paul Konerko. Konerko is currently outside of the top-5 in fan voting despite hitting 20 homers (tied for first in the AL) and 57 RBI (second). Mark Teixiera and his 13 homers, 51 RBI, .790 OPS and .230 batting average are in second place in fan voting, yet this guy's not even in the conversation? Oh, by the way, he's also a good fielder with a zone rating better than Justin Morneau and a range factor better than Teixiera (all three have one error this season).

2B - Mike Aviles. This was a tough one because the voters have this one pretty much spot on in my opinion. If anyone does deserve to be in the top-5 in voting, it should be Mike Aviles and that's simply because Ben Zobrist has been playing the outfield primarily this season. Since his return to Kansas City Aviles is batting .319 and is once again starting to look like the spark plug the Royals thought they found in 2008.

3B - Jose Bautista. He's batting just .229, but he STILL has a better OPS than leader Evan Longoria, Michael Young and Alex Rodriguez. With 21 homers, he's just two shy of tying the total of the guys sitting in second and third combined. He's not just up there hacking, either. His 50 walks are tops among AL third basemen as well.

SS - Marco Scutaro. Ok, this is where people start calling me a homer. But hey, the guy stepped into the shoes of one of the best leadoff hitters around these days in Jacoby Ellsbury and everyone shuddered, including me. But he's been impressive, batting .284 with the third-best OPS amongst AL shortstops as a catalyst for a Red Sox offense that is scoring more runs than anybody, despite a makeshift lineup.

OF - Alex Rios. Rios is on pace to steal close to 50 bases while hitting between 25 and 30 homers and you're telling me he's not deserving of being even one of the top-15? He's fourth among AL outfielders in OPS and has been one of the best fielding center fielders in the league.

DH - Jose Guillen. Vlad deserved to run away with the votes in this category, but the fact that Ken Griffey, Jr. got more votes than Guillen is just ridiculous. Sure, Guillen's a head case, but you can't deny that he's on pace to knock in 100 runs for one of the worst teams in the league.

National League coming soon...