Kemp and Kershaw are back-to-back All-Stars

For the second straight year, Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw will be representing the Dodgers in the Midsummer Classic.

The fans have spoken, and they made Kemp the third starting outfielder for the National League.  He was the leading vote-getter as little as a week ago, but you can thank the massive ballott-stuffing efforts from the Giants' fans for getting Melky Cabrera into another starting spot, to go along with the Cardinals' Carlos Beltran.

The flip side, however, is that Kemp won't play because of his hamstring issues.  There's plenty of choices for replacements, such as Ryan Braun and Andrew McCutchen.  My guess is Tony LaRussa will go with Braun.

Kershaw was chosen by LaRussa.  Despite only a 6-4 record, he still has fantastic numbers outside of that: 2.65 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 112 K's in 115 1/3 innings.  Plus the fact that he's the reigning Cy Young Award winner helps.

While it's known that not every player will get a chance to appear in the game, it's hard to imagine that Kershaw wouldn't get an inning.  Last year he did, and it was bang-bang-bang, inning over.  With the way he overpowers hitters, he'll get used.