When (Baseball) Animals Attack
Surprised Mets fans didnt elect their star 3B to start at 3B RT @MetsGM: Surprised Giants fans didn't elect a "ball dude" to start at 3B.
— Dave Flemming (@FlemmingDave) July 3, 2012
Next, my “analysis” ...
Sandy Alderson's annoyed about Pablo Sandoval getting the All-Star start ahead of David Wright, who's pretty obviously having the better season (even leaving aside Sandoval's long stint on the Disabled List). Here's the full Alderson:
ASG election of "Kung Fu Panda" shows the value of a cute nickname. Surprised Giants fans didn't elect a "ball dude" to start at 3B.
— Sandy Alderson (@MetsGM) July 3, 2012
For the record, it’s probably true that if the Mets hadn’t been such a dreadful mess in 2011, they probably would have drawn more fans this season and Wright would have beaten out Panda. It’s also probably true that the cute nickname did help.
But of course it's more than just the nickname. OMG, Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford both finished second in the balloting at their positions. Freddy Sanchez, who has played exactly zero innings this season, finished fourth. Aubrey Huff out-polled Giancarlo Stanton.
I really wish a couple of those guys would have won, just so we could observe the resulting shit-storm. As is, they came close enough that MLB really should do something to keep the balloting from turning into an absolute joke. Which it hasn’t yet, quite.
The good news is a) Kung Fu Panda is a really good player, b) David Wright could get just as many at-bats in the All-Star Game as Kung Fu Panda, and c) we have a whole year to help @MetsGM come up with a cute nickname for his third baseman.
