The Pecan Park Eagle

Jose Altuve is also a pretty nifty little fielder too.

In a truly fair and balanced world, Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros would be the runaway choice to start at second base for the National League in the 2012 All Star Game. The game’s smallest player at 5’5″ just happens to carry the biggest offensive production among all second basemen in the NL, forged big by his .317 batting average through games of June 17th.

Altuve is the only NL second baseman with any substantial playing time hitting over .300 this year – and his nearest competitor, Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds, is twenty point back of Altuve with a BA of .287. If I’m not mistaken, Altuve also leads all second basemen with the most multiple hit games – and he also ranks high among RBI leaders at his position.

He’s also an adroit fielder who positions well and handles the tough plays with all the moxie of a seasoned veteran.

Unfortunately, the only thing that could keep Jose Altuve from starting, the fan vote, most certainly will. I’ve been against the fan vote from the start for all the obvious reasons. Fans pick players on the basis of name recognition, partisanship, and popularity. It also caters to fans of the large market teams. How could we play an All Star Game without a boatload of Yankees? Obviously that will not be a problem. The Yankees have  some great players, but they also have more fans – and more votes. If MLB and the networks think that fan voting makes for better TV viewing numbers, and they obviously do, then we are likely to keep seeing the same soup warmed over every year until either the end of time, or the death of the All Star Game, whichever comes first.

As a kid, I liked it much better when the players and managers voted for the All Star teams of each league and were simply barred from voting for anyone from their own teams. If you wanted to see Hank Aaron in left, Willie Mays in center, and Roberto Clemente in right for the NL, the player vote was the best way to get there – as long as these players were having years that affirmed they deserved it. The players were told to only pay attention to what players were doing during the current year – and not to vote on the basis of past season greatness. Players may not have followed this advice perfectly, but it seemed to me they were much closer to the truth each year than the fans ever are.

Unless he gets hurt, Jose Altuve will make the NL All Star team as the representative of the Houston Astros. It’s just too bad he can’t go there too as the starting second baseman. – Nobody else in the NL has done it better in 2012.