The St. Louis Cardinals didn't have their hopes up this high when they signed Lance Berkman—the starter among their three-man delegate to the 2011 MLB All-Star Game—because this just isn't the kind of performance you hope for. It's the kind of performance you might, if you're feeling especially greedy, wish for. At 35 years old, coming off the worst season of his career, Lance Berkman is having his best year ever.
It might not be his best all-around performance ever; once upon a time Berkman was mobile enough to play center field for an especially greedy Astros club, and that is definitely no longer the case. But Berkman enters the All-Star break on yet another hot streak, holding the National League home run lead with 23 and possessing an OPS+—186—he's never before even approached.
It's impossible to tell where Berkman's numbers will be at the end of the season, or where he'll be, coming off his one-year make-good contract, at the beginning of the next. But his selection to the All-Star game as the National League's starting left fielder after a season that looked like the beginning of a very abrupt end is one of the best stories of the baseball season to date.