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When you're the Padres and you haven't had much offense to speak of in a decade, you can rest assured that your All-Star representative will likely be a pitcher. This year it's Huston Street, just because. Sure he was on the DL about half of the season, but that just kept his stats looking pretty, in the same way his tight pants are flattering to his figure.
Note his measly 20 innings pitched:
SBNation thinks this is a weird pick:
Weirdest selection: Huston, Street, Padres. Street has pitched well (1.35 ERA) but has pitched only 20 innings. Third baseman Chase Headley would have been the Padres' obvious rep, but Sandoval getting voted in as a starter meant Wright had to get the nod as the backup third baseman.
San Francisco fans are weird, but when you think about it Street's well qualified to be our teams representative. He's handsome like us. He's cordial and will speak well of the All-Star experience to the local media. Like so:
"Overwhelming," said the 28-year-old. "Your first is ... shoot, pure excitement. It's like being a little kid, 10 years old, and making your very first All-Star team. To do it in the big leagues is the ultimate honor. It meant a lot."
At one point, Street began to speak haltingly, his eyes growing moist. One by one, meanwhile, teammate stepped in to congratulate him with hugs or banging knuckles.
That bit where he teared up was a nice touch.
He's certainly not going to do anything to embarrass the team or the city. It's not like he's going to run out of the bullpen and slide into the pitching mound like some sort of lunatic. In fact he'll do more representing than actual playing. If all goes according to plan he'll face one batter in the 6th inning before TBS comes back from commercial break and no one will ever know the fine work he accomplished.
Now let's look at the rest of the teams. The NL team is made up primarily of Giants and Cardinals. The AL is made up of Rangers and Yankees. The pitchers and reserves are filled in with leftovers.
I really think the MLB needs to change the way they elect teams. Here was my idea:
You have every manager make an All Star Roster, but don't tell the fans which roster belongs to each manager. Just have the fans vote for which one they want to see. Then the manager that made the winning roster gets to be the All Star Manager.