Here are Hot Stove Philly’s MLB All Star selections:

AL

1B:     Miguel Cabrera, DET (19HR/60RBI/.326AVG)

2B:     Robinson Cano, NYY (14/50/.362)

3B:     Evan Longoria, TB (12/52/.298)

SS:      Derek Jeter, NYY (8/39/.279)

C:        Victor Martinez, BOS (9/37/.297)

OF:     Josh Hamilton, TEX (17/53/.339)

OF:     Carl Crawford, TB (7/38/.307/26SB)

OF:     Alex Rios, CWS (13/38/.313/20)

DH:     Vladimir Guerrero, TEX (15/58/.324)

SP:      Colby Lewis, TEX (7-4, 3.07 ERA, 90K)

NL

1B:     Adrian Gonzalez, SD (16/58/.315)

2B:     Martin Prado, ATL (7/31/.336/21(2B))

3B:     Scott Rolen, CIN (15/46/.303)

SS:     Hanley Ramirez, FLA (11/.43/.292)

C:       Miguel Olivo, COL (10/32/.300)

OF:    Ryan Braun, MIL (10/47/.306

OF:    Chris Young, ARI (12/49/.273)

OF:     Corey Hart, MIL (18/54/.272)

SP:     Ubaldo Jimenez, COL (13-1, 1.60, 95)

Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts died Thursday morning at the age of 83, according to the Philadelphia Phillies. His cause of death was not immediately known.

Roberts spent 15 years with the Phillies, including as a member of the famed 1950 Whiz Kids. He also spent time with the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, compiling a 286-245 record with a 3.41 ERA for his career.

He pitched in a time when endurance was the norm. Over the course of 609 career starts, Roberts threw over 300 innings in six straight seasons. He acrued a total of 305 complete games, including a stretch of 28 in a row.

During the 1950 season, Roberts, a 20-game winner, started three of the Phillies’ final five games, including their Pennant clinching victory over the Brooklyen Dodgers. It was the Phillies’ first Pennant in 35 years and the first time a Phillies pitcher had won 20 games in a season since Grover Cleveland Alexander did it in 1917.

Roberts would win 20 games every season from 1950 to 1955, and led the NL in wins from 1952 to 1955. He won a career-high 28 games in 1952.

He retired in 1967 and would go on to be the coach of the University of South Florida baseball team from 19777-85.

In a surprising move, the Philadelphia Phillies announced Monday that they have signed first baseman Ryan Howard to a five-year extension worth $125 million. The deal reportedly contains a club option for a sixth year, which would increase the contract’s worth to $138 million.

The five-year extension will pay Howard $20 million in each of the 2012 and 2013 seasons and $25 million per year from 2014-16. The club option is worth $23 million with a $10 million buyout. The deal also reportedly contains a limited no-trade clause.

Howard is currently making $19 million a season after he agreed to a contract renegtotiation in 2008. That deal was worth $54 million over the final three years of his contract. At the time, the expectation was that those would be the final three years Howard would be a member of the Phillies.

Here are some amazing statistics, courtesy of David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News.

In his major league career, Howard has won the National League Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in successive seasons (2005-06), is a two-time NL All-Star (2006, 2009), won a Silver Slugger Award (2006) and was named MVP of the National League Championship Series last year. In his MVP season of 2006, Howard set a Phillies single-season record with 58 home runs and is the all-time franchise leader in postseason RBI (27).

Since becoming an everyday player on July 1, 2005, Howard leads all major league players in home runs (222) and RBI (650). Last season, Howard became just the fourth player in major league history to have four straight 40 home run/130 RBI seasons, joining Hall of Famer Babe Ruth (7), Ken Griffey Jr. (4) and Sammy Sosa (4), and the fastest player ever to 200 home runs (658 games), besting Ralph Kiner’s previous record by 48 games.

Through 18 games, Howard is batting .275 with three home runs and 16 RBI.

So former MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins could miss up to four weeks on the disabled list. Who cares?

“Jimmy is a tremendous player, but that’s part of what you go through,” said manager Charlie Manuel. “You’ve got to make the best out of it you possibly can.”

In their first official game without Rollins, who is having the best start of his career, the Phillies walloped the visiting Washington Nationals in a purely offensive game by a score of 14-7. The score at the end of the third inning was 7-7, over an hour and a half after the game started.

Rollins’ replacement at the leadoff spot, centerfielder Shane Victorino, went 4-for-5 with a homerun, five RBIs and three runs scored. The five RBIs were a career high for Victorino, and in one night he raised his batting average from .161 to .250.

Second baseman Chase Utley went 2-for-4 with two homeruns, four RBIs and a walk. Ryan Howard added two RBIs of his own.

The Phillies, who are playing like the modern version of the Bid Red Machine, scored in five of the eight innings in which they played. At 7-1, the Phillies are off to their best start since the 1993 team that went to the World Series. Coming into Wednesday night’s game against the Nationals, the Phillies were already leading the majors in most offensive categories, including batting average, an area where they typically struggle.

On top of it all, Roy Halladay, the much ballyhooed offseason acquisition, has so far lived up to all the hype, and then some. Through two starts, Halladay has allowed just one earned run in 16 innings while striking out 17 batters. His ERA is an incredible 0.56 and he was named the National League Player of the Week during the first week of the season.

The Phillies wrap up their series against the Nationals on Thursday during an afternoon game at Citizen’s Bank Park. The Phillies will receive their National League Champions rings in a pregame ceremony.

According to a report by Philadelphia Daily News reporter David Murphy, Philadelphia Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel announced on a Sirius XM satellite radio show Wednesday morning that shortstop Jimmy Rollins suffered what Manuel is calling “between a Grade 2 and 1″ calf injury that will sideline him for the forseeable future. That was confirmed in a press release Wednesday afternoon by general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr.

Rollins underwent an MRI on Tuesday after suffering the injury during pregame warmups before the Phillies’ home opener on Monday. Amaro announced that they were placing Rollins on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 13.

“We believe it to be a mild to moderate strain and we’re hopeful it will be a two-to-four week recovery,” said Amaro. “As in all of our injuries, precautions will be taken so that Jimmy is 100% when he returns to the field.”

The news comes as a blow to the Phillies, who, along with their shortstop, are off to one of the best starts in their history. The Phillies, notoriously bad in April, lead the majors in almost every offensive category, are the only team in the majors with only one loss and their new ace pitcher, Roy Halladay, was named the National League Player of the Week for the first week of the season.

Rollins, who has often been criticized as being a poor leadoff hitter, is having the best start of his 11 year career. In 23 at bats so far this season, Rollins has nine hits, including three doubles and a triple, a batting average of .391 and a .516 on base percentage, both well above his career average. Rollins already has seven walks, but has only struck out twice. The former MVP had only 44 walks all of last season.

Juan Castro will start at shortstop while Rollins is on the disabled list and likely bat eighth in the lineup. Centerfielder Shane Victorino, who had been batting sixth, will lead off.

Infielder Wilson Valdez has been called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was scratched from Monday’s home opener after he suffered what appeared to be a calf strain during warmups. He was replaced by Juan Castro at short.

According to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, Rollins suffered was is being called a “a Grade 2 strain of his right calf muscle – an injury that usually requires a trip to the disabled list – while completing a final few wind sprints before the first pitch.”

Rollins was not available for comment after the Phillies’ 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals, but according to those who saw him the leave the stadium, he was not moving well.

“Personally, from my experience, it’s not fun,” said centerfielder Shane Victorino said. “It’s a frustrating thing, especially for a guy who runs, who needs his legs, who needs his speed. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as mine.”

Rollins could be placed on the disabled list and miss up to 2-4 weeks. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Tuesday.

If Rollins did have to miss time, it would be a particularly tough blow to the Phillies, as he is having one of the best starts of his career. Through 23 at bats, Rollins is batting .391 with one homerun and three RBIs. The difference is his batting average, on base percentage (.516) and seven walks, all of which would be career highs. That being said, the Phillies believe they are well prepared.

“We’ve been doing this for about 4 years now,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “Let me tell you something – just because somebody goes down, we’re going to continue right on playing. We’ve got guys who like to play, and we’ve got some guys sitting on our bench who can get the job done.”

Castro, who was told that he was starting just minutes before gametime on Monday, had just one hit, but it was a key RBI double during the Phillies’ five run fifth inning. He is a career .230 hitter. If Rollins does miss any time, Victorino will likely bat leadoff with Castro batting seventh or eighth.

STEVEN M. FALK / Staff photographer

Jimmy Rollins was fine in pregame ceremonies.

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“Personally, from my experience, it’s not fun,” Victorino said. “It’s a frustrating thing, especially for a guy who runs, who needs his legs, who needs his speed. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as mine.”

Phillies’ shortstop Jimmy Rollins has once again stirred the pot of controversy, this time by questioning his own front office.

While on Dan Patrick’s Radio Show, Rollins reignited the debate of why the Phillies couldn’t keep Cliff Lee when they traded for Roy Halladay.

“I have no idea. I’m sure we could afford him. We turned nearly 4 million people through the turnstiles last year. I don’t know. You should have (Phillies GM) Ruben (Amaro) on here… When the trade happened, I actually got a text from Jayson Werth and he was like, ‘What are we doing?’ And I was like, ‘Didn’t we get Halladay?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, but we traded Lee.’ And my mouth dropped like, ‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’

“I really don’t know. I thought we had enough to keep him. I thought we could have done enough to keep him. I guess that’s just a move the Yankees do… That’s just the truth. The Yankees would have been like, ‘Hey, we got a chance to keep both of them. We’ll pay them both for a year or two and we got a chance to win a championship.’”

(The transcript is from Sports Radio Interviews. You can find the audio here.)

While I would certainly have loved for the Phillies to have both Lee and Halladay at the top of their rotation, I don’t fault Amaro for making the move. I understand his desire to not entirely deplete the team’s farm system. And I also understand the counter argument that their window is now and they need to put the best team on the field possible to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.

Regardless of how you feel about the Lee move, it’s disingenuous for Rollins to gripe that the Phillies haven’t done enough to put a World Series caliber team on the field. Yes, they traded Lee, but they also acquired the best pitcher in baseball. They’re paying Ryan Howard $18 million a year. They have the best second baseman in baseball and one of the best outfields in baseball. Their new third baseman is a Gold Glove fielder and one of the better contact hitters in the game. Not to mention that they tolerate Rollins being the worst leadoff hitter in baseball history (I may be exaggerating there, but not by much).

This is just another example of Rollins sticking his foot in his mouth. In 2008, he called out the Philadelphia fans as being too fairweather and harsh. He apologized a couple days later after the fans erupted in outrage.

Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk over at NBCsports.com made a good point in his column Thursday that,

Of course, it’s not like Rollins has any special insight as to whether trading him was the right move. Veterans will always, always, always prefer to keep their fellow veterans on a team over making trades that will help replenish the system with prospects.

Nevertheless, I think it’s inappropriate and disingenuous for Rollins to call out Amaro like that. I’m not saying he has to tow the company line all the time, but his complaints are unwarranted.

He’s right, the Phillies aren’t the Yankees. They don’t own their own network and don’t play in the biggest media market in the world. But they have the fourth highest payroll in baseball.

And that ain’t nothin to sneeze at.

The results are in.

In one of the most hotly contested, uh, contests in Philly history, the winner of the Phillies’ Signature Hot Dog competition has been announced.

The winning dog is the South Philly Hot Dog, which is an all-beef wiener topped with spicy roasted red peppers, sharp provolone and broccoli rabe.

Fans voted for their top dog at phillies.com and at Citizen’s Bank Park during the two exhibition games leading up to the start of the season. Voting ended on Sunday.

The runner up was the Summer Hot Dog, an all-beef dog, topped with cucumbers, pickled onion salsa and rancho pepper sauce on a pretzel roll. The Olde Philadelphia Dog, which is topped with Amish pepper hash, dill pickle and yellow mustard on a poppy seed roll, came in third.

The South Philly Hot Dog will be served all around Citizen’s Bank Park for $5.75 starting on April 12, the Phillies home opener.

The Phillies claimed right hander Nelson Figueroa off of waivers Wednesday. He is expected to join the big league club.

Figueroa spent the Spring with the New York Mets, but failed to make the 25-man roster after allowing seven runs in one inning against the Florida Marlins on March 26. He made 16 appearances (10 starts) for the Mets in 2009, going 3-8 with a 4.09 ERA.

The Phillies are in need of pitching depth with Joe Blanton, J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge on the disabled list. Figueroa is 13-28 with a 4.54 ERA over his seven year career, including one with the Phillies in 2001.

It was one year ago today that Harry Kalas, The Voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, collapsed in the broadcasting booth of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., and died at the age of 73. Kalas will be forever be remembered for his majestic voice and historic calls, as well as a man who never forgot how lucky he was. Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a stirring article in today’s paper of Kalas’ final moments.

There will no doubt be many tributes and remembrances written about HK today, so rather than doing the same, I have posted a couple stories I wrote last year.

We miss you Harry.

Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame voice of the Phillies, dead at age 73