A couple of days ago I got this email from one of the 14 Cardinals mailing lists I’m involved with:
I got to be honest here… that paragraph about Dex wasn’t the most inspiring.
All in all, it’s a motley crew – at least as far as All-Star game consideration is concerned:
- Fowler: .230 batting average
- Molina: 0.4 WAR
- Wong: On DL
VOTE NOW!!! VOTE OFTEN!!!
But that lil’ guy over on the left in the pic above? Jedd Gyorko? Yeah, he’s actually worth considering casting a vote for.
Here are some highlights of his 2017 season thus far:
- .321 batting average (9th overall in NL)
- Only NL 3B w/ batting average above .300
- 2.4 WAR (tied for 1st among NL 3B)
- 3rd in NL among 3B for OPS
- 6 multiple hit games this season
More intangibly, he kind of feels like the only Cardinals hitter this year that has been, well, good.
Plus… he pays the bills at dinner!
https://twitter.com/AllStlCards/status/868572567514341379
Does Gyorko have a realistic shot of getting voted in?
No.
Kris Bryant will get the ‘name’ vote. Nolan Arenado will get the ‘cool’ vote. And Eugenio Suarez will get the ‘baseball geek’ vote.
The fact that the Cardinals have had a very middling season overall as a team? Also not inspiring much voting action from The Nation.
But if he keeps up this pace of play, he does have a legit shot at getting picked as an All-Star Game reserve (especially if he has a huge weekend in Chicago in front of ’17 NL ASG manager Joe Maddon).
Either way, Gyorko has turned out to be the best surprise of the Cardinals season.
From super-sub to team MVP…
Photo: NYT
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