The Yankees are sending six players to the All-Star game in Los Angeles. Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter will be the starting double play combo for the American League as they were voted in. Cano will be making his first appearance in the All-Star game which is kind of shocking based on his play to this point in his career. Cano has played in 80 games for the Yankees this season and he is 109 of 315 (.346 avg, .971 OPS) with 58 runs scored, 16 homers and 55 RBIs. If Cano has a strong second half he could make a run for the MVP Award in the A.L. Derek Jeter got this start basically on reputation. He will be making his 11th appearance in the mid-summer classic. Jeter has played in 78 games so far this season for the Yankees and he is 94 of 334 (.281 avg, .756 OPS) with 54 runs scored, 8 homers, 39 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. Alex Rodriguez will be making his 13th appearance in the All-Star game but he will be coming off the bench. A-Rod has played in 74 games for the Yankees so far this season and he is 78 of 281 (.278 avg, .842 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 12 homers and 61 RBIs. Starting pitchers Phil Hughes and C.C. Sabathia have made the All-Star pitching staff. Hughes will be making his first appearance while Sabathia will be in his 4th All-Star game. Hughes has started 14 games for the Yankees this season and he is 10-2 with a 3.58 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Sabathia started a tad slow this season but he’s on fire right now. The big lefty has started 17 games for the Yankees this season and he is 10-3 with a 3.33 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. Mariano “The Sandman” Rivera will be making his 11th appearance in the All-Star Game. He has pitched in 31 games this season and he is 2-1 with 18 saves, a 0.86 ERA and a 0.61 WHIP. The Yankees will be well represented in Anaheim.

UPDATE: (7/5/2010) - Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi has added Andy Pettitte to the American League All-Star team due to Clay Buchholz’ injury. Pettitte has started 16 games for the Yankees this year and he is 10-2 with a 2.82 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. He has only given up 90 hits in 105 1/3 innings this season. This will be his third All-Star appearance and he deserves this honor.

UPDATE II: (7/8/2010) - 29-year old switch hitting RF Nick Swisher has won the “Final Vote” and he will be on the All-Star Team. Swisher has played in 79 games so far this season and he is 89 of 299 (.298 avg, .895 OPS) with 52 runs scored, 14 homers and 48 RBIs.

27-year old lefty swinging 2B Robinson Cano finished in a tie with Zack Greinke of the Royals for 17th place in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. Cano played in 161 games for the Yankees last season and he was 204 for 637 (.320 avg, .871 OPS) with 103 runs scored, 25 homers, 85 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Cano has now played in 5 years with the Yankees and he has played in 734 games in which he is 875 for 2,855 (.306 avg, .818 OPS) with 406 runs scored, 87 homers, 394 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. Former Yankees’ Coach Don Mattingly predicted at one time that Cano will win a batting title. I agree with him about that but I don’t see him ever winning this award because he will likely always have someone on the Yanks that has a better year than him.

34-year old righty swinging 3B Alex Rodriguez finished in a tie with Chone Figgins of the Angels for 10th place in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. A-Rod missed the first month of the season but he still played in 124 games for the Yankees in which he was 127 for 444 (.286 avg, .933 OPS) with 78 runs scored, 30 homers, 100 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. A-Rod has now played in 2,166 games in his 16-year major league career and he is 2,531 for 8,304 (.305 avg, .965 OPS) with 1,683 runs scored, 583 homers, 1,706 RBIs and 297 stolen bases. Alex Rodriguez might have a hard time winning another MVP Award after admitting this season that he used performance enhancing drugs. The baseball writers don’t forget things like that.

35-year old righty swinging shortstop Derek Jeter finished 3rd in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. He played in 153 games for the Yankees last season and he was 212 for 634 (.334 avg, .871 OPS) with 107 runs scored, 18 homers, 66 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. Jeter has now played in 2,138 games in his 15 years in the Bronx and he is 2,747 for 8,659 (.317 avg, .847 OPS) with 1,574 runs scored, 224 homers, 1,068 RBIs and 305 stolen bases. The Captain has a few more good years in him so don’t be surprised if he can win one of these awards in the near future.

29-year old switch hitting 1B Mark Teixeira exploded on the scene for the Yankees last season as he finished 2nd in the voting for the American League MVP Award. He played in 156 games for the Yankees this year and he was 178 for 609 (.292 avg, .948 OPS) with 103 runs scored, 39 homers and 122 RBIs. In his 7 year major league career, Teixeira has now played in 1,060 games in which he is 1,167 for 4,023 (.290 avg, .923 OPS) with 669 runs scored, 242 homers and 798 RBIs. There is no reason to think that Teixeira won’t continue placing high in the voting for this award as he has an almost perfect spot in the Yankees’ batting order.