ALL STARS
The Brewers have three National League All-Stars right now. BEN SHEETS, DAN KOLB, and LYLE OVERBAY each deserve to make the squad. Will MLB be comfortable with three Milwaukee Brewers in the All-Star Game? We will have to see, but lets look at their numbers and break down each players case for the All Star Game.

BEN SHEETS
You may remember that Sheets was an All-Star in his rookie season of 2001. Not to take anything away from Sheets, but that was more of a result of the Brewers needing their one All-Star more than him actually having an All-Star season.

The numbers...
7-5, 2.58 ERA
108.1 IP, 82 H, 113 K, 17 BB

Gray ink...
2nd in the NL in Ks
2nd in the NL in WHIP
3rd in the NL in OPP BA
4th in the NL in ERA
8th in the NL in IP

What will hurt him...
Playing in Milwaukee
Not a great win-loss record

What will help him...
His 18 K performance against Atlanta
His ERA and peripherals are outstanding


DAN KOLB
Dan Kolb took over as closer for the Milwaukee Brewers after Mike DeJean imploded during the first half of 2003 as the Brew Crew's stopper. Kolb was picked up off of the scrap heap by GM Doug Melvin and has been a great find, going along with Scott Podsednik and Doug Davis as some diamonds in the rough that the Brewers' GM has brought in.

The numbers...
0-0, 23 saves, 0.90 ERA (!!!)
30 IP, 21 H, 4 BB, 9 K

Gray ink...
3rd in the NL in Saves

What will hurt him...
Playing in Milwaukee
Not considered an over-powering closer (2.7 K/9)

What will help him...
His microscopic ERA
More saves than guys like Eric Gagne, who has 19


LYLE OVERBAY
Lyle Overbay was considered to be a stop-gap between Richie Sexson and top prospect Prince Fielder. All Overbay needed was a chance. He put up monster numbers in the minor leagues, but fell out of favor in Arizona and was desperately in need of a change of scenery. He will never hit 30+ homeruns, but has gap power and will be a lot like a Mark Grace type firstbaseman, which is a compliment, not a criticism.

The numbers...
.331 AVG, .396 OBP, .541 SLG, (.937 OPS)
9 HR, 56 RBI, 30 2B

Gray ink...
1st in the NL in 2B
5th in the NL in RBI
7th in the NL in AVG

What will hurt him...
Playing in Milwaukee (seeing a pattern here?)
Nobody cares about doubles
Lots of talent at 1B (Pujols, Thome, Bagwell)
Teams that need 1 All-Star have a good 1B (C. Wilson, Brad Wilkerson)

What will help him...
High average
On pace to give MLB doubles record a challenge


CONCLUSION
I would say Sheets is a lock, Kolb has about a 75% chance and Overbay is the one who is most likely to get overlooked (if any of them do). Since the Brewers are playing a lot better baseball I think it will help all three of these players' chances. Imagine if the Crew was 15 games below .500 right now, then people would be apprehensive about giving them three All-Stars. Remember when Milwaukee had Sexson and Hernandez as All-Stars in 2002, people were critical of such a bad team having two All-Stars. I'd like to hear everybody else's opinion on the All-Star credentials of these players, hopefully we will see Sheets, Overbay and Kolb in the All-Star Game in Houston fighting for the National League's right to homefield advantage in the World Series (which is another story all together).