Dr. Giganto

Pudge's offensive numbers aren't anywhere close to Posada's or Martinez's...

Both of them have more runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI, and walks than Pudge. They both have higher batting averages, on-base percentages, and slugging percentages.

Pudge is obviously the best defender of the 3 of them, but:

a) all available defensive statistics, especially for catchers, are shaky, at best

b) I'm of the belief that offensive contributions are more "valuable" to a team than defensive contributions (i.e., a guy who's an absolute masher but has no glove is better to have than a guy who's a wizard with the glove but no bat). To explain why, consider this, Jorge Posada has had 80 base-runners try to steal against him. However, he has 301 plate appearances this season. So, even if you add in plays in the field (pop-ups, bunts, etc), Posada probably has twice as many opportunities to do something positive with his bat than with his glove.

c) Pudge isn't even having THAT great of a year throwing runners out. He's only thrown out 19% of runners this year, which is not all that good. Actually, it's pretty bad. Posada is also bad, at 17%, and Martinez actually blows away Pudge, having thrown out 27% of potential base-stealers. If I had to pick a third AL catcher, I would pick Pudge, but it would be at the expense of somebody else that I feel is more deserving (or, has to be on the team because each team needs to be represented)

As for Russell Martin, he's thrown out 32% of attempted base-stealers, which is fantastic. I dont know if you're trying to say Martin doesnt deserve to be an all-star, but he's a slam dunk this year. In fact, I had a great deal of trouble trying to pick out a back-up for the NL.

And, going back to Pudge, I picked 5 Tigers, more than any other team. And, I gave an honorable mention to two more (Bonderman and Granderson). I think I treated the Tigers very well in my selections.