Monday, July 02, 2012

Giants' Obesity Blocked Rational ASG Contenders

Oyster Pubes' candidacy aside, it's nice to see San Francisco getting called out for blocking more sensible and worthy All-Star Game starters. As Buster Olney puts it, voting Pablo Sandwichoval and Melky Cabrera in are two unpardonable sins (link insider only):

The NL lineup is far sillier than the AL one, primarily because of the voting push in San Francisco that put three Giants in the starting nine, none of whom belongs there. Buster Posey is a fine choice as an alternate behind Yadier Molina or Carlos Ruiz. Pablo Sandoval over David Wright, a longtime star having an MVP-caliber bounceback season now that he's healthy again, is atrocious. And I'm not remotely a fan of putting a BABIP-fluke hitter such as Melky Cabrera in the game on that basis, let alone having him start over an established star such as Andrew McCutchen; Cabrera's roster spot should have gone to Michael Bourn or, preferably, re-emergent Jason Heyward, who appeared in the All-Star Game as a rookie in 2010. Rafael Furcal is the other poor choice among NL starters, a shadow of the player he used to be, hitting .280 AVG/.346 OBP/.377 SLG with fringy defense, chosen over Jed Lowrie, hitting .261/.347/.486 with average defense or now-injured Troy Tulowitzki.

At this stage, we can only hope for the best. Like Sandoval pulling one of his common baserunning gaffes (see below), while Cabrera pulls something else.

9 comments:

Paul said...

Via ESPN baseball tweet: Why should Jonathan Broxton be an All-Star? Tweet us a campaign slogan for Jonathan Broxton.

Alex said...

#brox2KC4BBQ

Steve Sax said...

Just got in my Broxton tweet.

Dusty Baker said...

Or Kershaw before Capuano...

Paul said...

Vote Broxton: or he will eat you.

Paul said...

Vote Broxton: because there can't be that many Phillies on the NL team.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Vote Broxton: It's like voting for two normal-sized players.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Dodgers call up Luis Cruz, option Shawn Tolleson, move Ted Lilly to 60-day DL.

Steve Sax said...

I can watch that Kung Fat Panda gif all day