As I told the guys at South Florida Fan, Dan Uggla, no matter how amazing of a season he has, will never be the starting 2nd basemen of the All-Star game. The Marlins don’t have enough fans, plain and simple. End of story.
Through tonight’s games, the voting for NL 2nd basemen looked like this:
Chase Utley (Phi) – 537,788
Kaz Matsui (Col) – 182,827
Mark DeRosa (Chc) – 178,595
Dan Uggla (Fla) – 125,745
Luis Castillo (NYM) – 123,346
Now I’m sure that Uggla will get named to the roster by his fellow players and by the coaches, but he is definitely not the starter. Especially after Utley just hit his league leading 17th homerun tonight.
All-Star voting links can be found on all MLB sites including mlb.com, and phillies.com. Or you can use this link and click on the “vote now” box: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2008/
You can vote up to 25 times total. This includes online and at the ballpark. I think the main reason they are limiting this is the Asia factor. With the gross population of Asian countries being much larger than the US, players like Ichiro, and Yao Ming in the NBA get many more votes when voting is not limited for each person.
Here is what the ballot I just filled out looks like. Let me know what changes you would make to it.
AL:
1B: Kevin Youkilis, BOS (No Errors ever)
2B: Ian Kinsler, TEX (one of the many Rangers going nuts)
SS: Derek Jeter, NYY (in what used to be the best position…now there’s nobody)
3B: Miguel Cabrera, DET (formerly Chone Figgins pre-DL)
C: Joe Mauer I guess, MIN (again, nobody to pick from really…the AL sucks)
OF: Josh Hamilton, TEX; BJ Upton, TB; Carlos Quentin, CHW (had to write him in)
DH: Frank Thomas (just to spite the management in Toronto!)
NL:
1B: Lance Berkman, HOU
2B: Chase Utley, PHI
SS: Jimmy Rollins, PHI (I’m biased, but he is the MVP of the team. Tejada should get it, but I did vote for Rafael Furcal before his injury)
3B: Chipper Jones, ATL (If you disagree, you’re stupid. Not even Mets fans can not vote for him.)
C: Giovanni Soto, CHC (could go Martin, McCann, or B. Molina)
OF: Ryan Ludwick, STL; Nate McLouth, PIT; Matt Holliday, COL (even though he’s injured)
May 29th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Thanks for the post. We Florida fans know we’ll never have a Marlin start the all-star game unless it’s indisputably obvious. We just thought Uggla deserved it.
Do you have any interest in doing some kind of series dialogue throughout the weekend (between our blogs)? Could be fun. E-mail me at thesouthfloridafan@gmail.com if you’re interested.