Omar Infante? Really?

Hey everyone, sorry for the distinct lack of posts. I have had a lot going on in addition to my computer currently being out of commission, limiting how much time I have to update this. However, the advent of today's All-Star Game selection made me want to borrow a computer just so I could write about it.

For the most part, the All-Star Selections were announced today. For the most part, they are fairly typical. How ever, I definitely have a few problems with the selections.

The most obvious problem is the selection of Omar Infante to the All-Star team. While Infante sports a .311 batting average, he has also only played in 56 of the 81+ games that have passed so far, and not because of an injury. He also had a paltry .378 Slugging Percentage, and really offers nothing to the National League roster. He can play every position but center field and catcher, which is nice on a regular major league team, but not so much on an all-star team, where you have minimum two incredibly good guys at every position.

The other problem is simply that other guys in the National League deserved his spot more than he did. Joey Votto for instance, who is leading the League in On Base-Plus Slugging with a massive .988, while also batting over .300, is going to be left at home because of the Omar Infante selection. The only first baseman in the National League who even MIGHT be outplaying Votto is Albert Pujols, and even then it is not by much. It's clear that he didn't get selected by the vote because of a small fan base and little name recognition, but that's what the player selection of reserves is supposed to fix. Instead, Ryan Howard and Adrian Gonzalez were selected over Votto. While it's hard not to want to include Howard and Gonzalez because of their star power and their production, Votto has outplayed both of them. If a player's numbers at the time of the All-Star Break are not the criteria for selecting them, what is?