The fans have voted 36-year old lefty swinging outfielder Ichiro Suzuki into the starting lineup. It will be his 10th appearance in the mid-summer classic. Ichiro has played in 80 games this season for the Mariners and he is 108 of 327 (.330 avg, .807 OPS) with 32 runs scored, 3 homers, 24 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. His run production numbers look so poor because he’s getting absolutely no help in the lineup. 31-year old lefty starting pitcher Cliff Lee was selected for the pitching staff. Lee has started 12 games for the Mariners this season and he is 7-3 with a 2.45 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. He has only given up 83 hits in 95 2/3 innings this season for the Mariners. Lee has also whiffed 78 batters while only walking 5 so far this season which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Hopefully the Mariners will wait to trade Lee until after the all-star game so he can wear a Mariners’ uniform.

36-year old lefty swinging OF Ichiro Suzuki finished in 9th place for the MVP Award in the A.L. He played in 146 games for the Mariners last season and he was 225 for 639 (.352 avg, .851 OPS) with 88 runs scored, 11 homers, 46 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. He has now played 9 years for the Mariners in which he is 2,030 for 6,099 (.333 avg, .811 OPS) with 973 runs scored, 84 homers, 515 RBIs and 341 stolen bases. Ichiro is the second best leadoff hitter I have ever seen behind only Rickey Henderson and there is no reason to think he will slow down any time soon.

Don Wakamatsu finished in 4th place in the voting for the American League Manager of the Year Award. Wakamatsu led the Mariners to a 85-77 (52.5%) record in his first year as a major league manager in 2009. No one expected the Mariners to even approach .500 last season but Wakamatsu did a great job of coaching them up. The Mariners are going to likely improve the team over the winter so Wakamatsu will be expected to improve the record and there is no reason to think he can’t.

23-year old righty starting pitcher Felix Hernandez finished second in the Cy Young Award voting in the American League behind only Zack Greinke of the Royals. Hernandez pitched in 34 games (all starts) for the Mariners last season and he was 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. He only allowed 200 hits in 238 2/3 innings last season for the Mariners and he whiffed 217 batters showing how dominant his stuff was. This is only the beginning for King Felix who is just going to get better and that should be a scary thought for the rest of the American League. Hernandez has now pitched in 138 games (all starts) in his major league career and he is 58-41 with a 3.45 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. The best is yet to come for King Felix and the Mariners are very excited about it.

UPDATE: King Felix finished tied with Ian Kinsler for 26th in the voting for the MVP Award in the American League. The amazing thing about the MVP voting is that Hernandez finished behing Mariano Rivera, Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia who he all finished higher than in the Cy Young Voting for the American League…what a joke.