All-star ballots are starting to go out, which makes it a great time to look at the hottest players at each position through the first five weeks of the season.  Not that all-star voting has anything to do with who is actually playing the best, but that’s another story.

Catcher:  Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins:

Close one here between Mauer and Yadier Molina, given that through today they have the exact same batting average at .343, and both have two homeruns.  What separates the two here is the on-base percentage, as Mauer has 21 walks already to Molina’s seven, which gives Mauer an incredible .430 on-base percentage so far.

First Base:  Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles:

Player of the Month in the American League for April, Davis has burst onto the scene this year, sharing the AL lead in homeruns with 11, and bringing in 37 RBI so far.  Paul Goldschmidt from Arizona is having a similar season in the National League, and James Loney is having a career year so far in Tampa Bay after a disappointing end to his tenure with the Dodgers and short stint with the Red Sox.

Second Base:  Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers:

Kinsler is having a great start of the year with a .320 average and seven homeruns already.  More importantly, he’s making it easy to forget about Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli by pacing the strong offense in Texas.  Robinson Cano, Dustin Pedroia, and surprisingly Jose Altuve are close in this category.

Third Base:  Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers:

Cabrera is picking up right where he left off in his 2012 MVP season, leading the league in batting average and RBI, and hitting nine homeruns already.  Cabrera looks like a near lock to repeat as MVP and lead the Tigers to another deep postseason run.  Two young third basemen out of the AL East Evan Longoria and Manny Machado are Cabrera’s closest competitors for this category.

Shortstop:  Jean Segura, Milwaukee Brewers:

Real close one here between two NL shortstops in Segura and Troy Tulowitzki.  Segura has a much better batting average at .368 over Tulowitzki’s .311, but they are getting on-base about the same amount.  Segura is the bigger surprise here in his first full season with the Brewers after being sent over from the Angels as the key part of the Zack Greinke trade last season.

Left Field:  Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals:

Could have gone with a ton of guys for this position, including Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, Ryan Braun or Carlos Gonzalez, but Harper leads the left fielders in on-base percentage at .400 and has ten homeruns already.  If he can keep himself healthy while playing as aggressive as he does, he could have a decent shot at MVP by the end of the season.

Center Field:  Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers:

Gomez is finally living up to his potential as he was the key prospect in the trade to get Johan Santana to the Mets in 2008.  Gomez is hitting .367 and has an on-base percentage above .400, adding six homeruns and 19 total extra-base hits so far.  Shin-Soo Choo was close in this category, getting on base at a .451 percentage so far.

Right Field:  Torii Hunter, Detroit Tigers:

So far, the Angels look like they have made a poor decision in failing to re-sign Hunter for what probably would have cost them about $20 million who leads all qualifying right fielders in hitting so far this season, so they could sign Josh Hamilton to a $125 million deal, who currently is last in baseball in hitting among all qualifying right fielders.  I expect these two players’ numbers to get closer together by the end of the season, but that isn’t going to make up for the difference in $100 million these two players would have cost the Angels.

Starting Pitcher:  Matt Harvey, New York Mets:

Harvey is easily the best pitcher in baseball so far this year.  His starts have become the must-see games to watch each week.  He leads all qualifying starting pitchers in ERA and WHIP at 1.44 and 0.73.  That means in a nine-inning game, Harvey will allow about six players to reach base and give up one or two runs.

Relief Pitcher:  Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees:

He’s back, and he’s leading the league in saves.  After spending most of 2012 rehabbing his knee, Rivera is in his victory lap season, but he sure doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.  Rivera has 15 saves in the Yankees 24 wins, so it looks like he won’t be taking it easy in his final season.  Many other closers have also had some great seasons so far this year including Jason Grilli, Jim Johnson, and Tom Wilhelmsen.