And now the final tallies in the voting for the MGL All-Star team:
Brewer catcher Zacarias Martell got a late push from the Denver voters to overtake Lupe Ramirez as the AS starter at his position. The injured Bobby Erbakan finished third at first base. Rodrigo Rodriguez nearly caught up with Brooklyn's Greg Alwardt to be named the third base starter but fell a bit short. But Andrew Kennedy is not only going to his first All-Star game but was named as the left field starter. Josh Schaeffer has been slumping for the past few weeks and while he likely wouldn't have been named the right field starter anyway, as you will see below, this likely cost him his first All-Star appearance. Cheol-han Lee is the only Brewer who finished in the top five as a pitcher (but, as you will see below, he is not heading to the game.)
Not a surprise that Aaron McNally, the greatest WPK starting pitcher the past season and a half, was the top MGL vote getter.
And here is the squad:
The Brooklyn Aces get the most selections with 6. Your Denver Brewers tie with the Portland Wild Things (a bit of shocker) with 5 picks. The only teams with just a single player selected were Oklahoma City and Charlotte, though the Sting representative, Jose Gutierrez is completely deserving, and the Diamond Kings lone send, Danny Denison, did finish third in the voting at shortstop and is headed to his 3rd All-Star game.
Although the significance of this fact is entirely clear, the MGL is sending fewer veterans with a great many AS games under their belts and far more first-timers (14) to the game. The player with the most AS games to his name is Brooklyn center fielder Felix Lopez, a sure HOF'er who is going to his 9th mid-season classic. San Francisco Velocity center fielder Antonio Sosa, at age 39, is headed to his 7th, as is Phoenix slugging right fielder Ju-ao Ju. (Neither, if you are wondering, is a likely HOF'er.) After that are middle infielders Chris Tobin and David Alvarez, named for the 5th time. Two starting pitchers get their 4th nod- Jesse Hartong and Mike Stagner- as does Phoenix first baseman Devin Schwisow.
Among the first timers are Denver starting pitcher Sadahige Kawasaki (the lone pitcher we are sending), third baseman Rodrigo "RodRod" Rodriguez, and, as mentioned above, Andrew Kennedy. In spite of not finishing in the top three in the voting for center field, largely due to missing quite a bit of time with an injury early in the season, Joe McPhillips is named to his 2nd straight All-Star game, and it is also Zacarias Martell's 2nd, and 2nd straight, selection.