This was the choice of one man, Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who did something remarkable: delivered baseball its worst All-Star ever on his own volition.

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Like Manuel said, [Strasburg will] make plenty of All-Star teams going forward, and so will …

4. Mat Latos, but that isn’t the point. Manuel chose two middle relievers, Rhodes and Meek, because of their gaudy statistics in limited innings, and yet he left Latos off the roster when he’s been nearly as dominant throwing more than three times the innings of Rhodes?

In 176 at-bats, left-handers are hitting .188 with a .223 on-base percentage and .273 slugging percentage against Latos. Rhodes, a left-handed specialist, is at .182/.174/.250 in 44 at-bats against lefties.

Against right-handers, Latos is .199/.277/.328, while Meek is .185/.230/.283. Meek’s numbers are even better against lefties, and he has thrown 47 innings this innings, so his inclusion isn’t as egregious as Rhodes’. And numbers say Meek isn’t close to the best middle reliever in the NL: not as good as San Diego’s Luke Gregerson or Mike Adams, Colorado’s Matt Belisle(notes) and Chicago’s Sean Marshall.