It would be quite fitting for this miserably disappointing Mets season, don’t you think, if their lone All-Star Game representative was David Wright, their most miserably disappointing player.
Wright is currently leading the fan vote for National League starting third baseman despite having a career-worst .694 OPS. Other candidates, such as Colorado’s Nolan Arenado and San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval, seem to be more deserving.
Now, I never cast judgment on fan All-Star voting. It’s your vote, and you do as you please. I think it will be quite nice for a diminished Derek Jeter to start at shortstop for the American League in his final season, for instance.
In this case, though, I’m curious to see how Wright’s fan-ballot situation impacts the Mets’ more deserving candidates: Daniel Murphy and Jon Niese.
Murphy’s case is straightforward: He has been one of the best second basemen in the NL. His 1.4 bWAR ranks him third behind Philadelphia’s Chase Utley (2.1) and the Dodgers’ Dee Gordon (1.5).
The Niese argument is a little trickier, thanks to an old-school impediment: Can a guy with a 3-4 record get an All-Star appearance? Win-loss records are wholly irrelevant, in my opinion; if you’ve followed the Mets this season, you know Niese would have a far superior record with a good offensive team.
Niese’s 2.67 ERA places him 10th in the NL, and his 130 ERA+ ranks right outside the top 10. Same with his 91 innings pitched. He deserves to be in the conversation, for sure.
All-Star Game rosters are tricky, because of all the boxes you need to check. There’s the fan ballot, then the players’ ballot, and then the manager (St. Louis’ Mike Matheny, in this instance) gets to pick a few guys. All with the understanding that every team must have at least one representative.
Which is why I wouldn’t be at all surprised, were Wright to hold off the competition, he’s the one Mets player in Minneapolis for the Midsummer Classic. That would be good for him, but too bad for Murphy and Niese.