Voting has opened up for the mid-summer classic and votes are already rolling in. Most positions seem to have the deserving players headed to the all-star game. However, catcher is a huge question mark for the American League. Currently, Gary Sanchez is the leader for the spot. This has been a disappointing season in the Yankee catcher’s young career. He is coming off of two consecutive years where he showed a great upside for potential from a power and contact standpoint. Despite Aaron Judge’s phenomenal year last year, many still felt as though Gary Sanchez was the best hitter in the Yankees lineup. At this point in the season, Gary’s numbers have been disappointing, batting .192, with 13 home runs, 39 RBI’s and 61 strikeouts. It fair to say Sanchez has struggled at the plate. Defense has never been a strong area for Sanchez, his offense is where he held his value in the team.
After releasing that Sanchez was the leader for the American league, some people were outraged that a player with such underachieving numbers has the potential to start in the all-star game. This occurrence made fans realize, the position of catcher in the American League is not very competitive. The main competitors for Sanchez are Wilson Ramos (.286/8/33) and Salvador Perez (.226/11/32). From an offensive perspective, Wilson Ramos is the most deserving. He leads the other two in batting average, and on-base percentage by a large margin. All other categories of statistics are relatively close, but Ramos’ ability to be consistent and produce a batting average nearly .100 points higher then Sanchez’s is something to consider. On the defensive end Salvador Perez crushes his two opponents, he has yet to commit a single error this year. Gary has committed four, while Wilson has committed two. The most interesting part about the statistics for all catchers, Gary hasn’t shown all-star caliber numbers in any field.
This brings up the age-old conversation that the all-star game is a popularity contest. Some players in the league feel as though they aren’t given a fair shot due to lack of media coverage. This could be a perfect example of that, why is a catcher who is having his worst season ever, the leader in All-star votes for his position? Does playing for the New York Yankees have anything to do with it? Would he still be an All-Star if he played in an area with less media coverage? Players like Salvador Perez and Wilson Ramos do make a great case for this, they play in less densely populated areas, yet produce better numbers, shouldn’t they have a better shot than Gary?
The post Does Gary Sanchez Deserve to be an All-Star? appeared first on isportsweb.