Congratulations to Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta being named 2015 National League starters for the MLB All-Star game later this month in Cincinnati.
Congratulations to Matt Holliday on being named a starting outfielder for the NL at the 2015 #ASG! pic.twitter.com/fOqJs6uRtX
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 5, 2015
Troy Tulowitzki is a bigger name. Andrelton Simmons gets a Web Gem every other night. But the fans installed Peralta as the NL starter.
You know what? It was the right choice.
Peralta has been one of the few offensive constants in the Cardinals line-up the 1st half of the season. He’s hitting right around .300 with 11 HR and 42 RBIs. More importantly, though, is the fact that he’s already eclipsed 300 ABs for a team that has been smacked around by injuries.
Posting a 2.5 WAR (so far) for the best team in the MLB matters. And his defense? Only 3 errors in 298 chances is 1 off the pace for the league lead at SS. His dWAR is 0.5. Peralta is having an outstanding ALL-AROUND season.
Congratulations to Jhonny Peralta on being named the starting shortstop for the NL at the 2015 #ASG! pic.twitter.com/S3TkxFs3Sk
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 5, 2015
I’m sure that we’ll hear some chatter about Perlata being a ‘cheater’ and referencing his 50 game suspension in 2013.
Maybe you know this, maybe you don’t – but Peralta’s suspension wasn’t for steroids, it was for weight loss supplements that contained a banned substance. Dude was feeling – like most of us do – that dropping a few lbs might be a good idea. And he’s consistently been thrown into the PED/cheater silo, which is a bit unfair.
Just know that rooting for Peralta to be successful doesn’t reflect negatively on you. He deserves this honor. You should be happy for him.
The fans got it right. I wish I could say the same thing about Matt Holliday.
+++++
Mr. Holliday has not participated in the past 22 games the Cardinals have played. That accounts for over 1/5th of the played season. I love Matty Holliday, but at a certain point, what amount of time is too much to miss before you don’t get the starting position in an All-Star Game?
There are no rules.
Fans do what they please and if they don’t like it, they can vote for someone else.
Correct.
But even though it benefits ‘my guy’, I think that the Cardinals two starters are the perfect ying and yang of fan voting for ASGs. Sometimes they are reasoned, smart and surprisingly thoughtful about who gets the honor of starting.
Sometimes they just see a name they know and bang that box.
In the Cardinals 2 All-Star Game starters you have both sides of the argument for letting the fans vote.
Photo: MLB
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