Cincinnati Reds: If Scooter Gennett doesn’t start the ASG, its a travesty

Cincinnati Reds’ second baseman, Scooter Gennett, is currently third in All-Star voting. If Gennett is not voted to be the starter for the All-Star Game, it’s a travesty.

Scooter Gennett, the Cincinnati Reds second baseman, is putting up MVP-type numbers thus far this season, and that’s not an exaggeration. Unfortunately, the All-Star Game fan voting is not reflective of Gennett’s amazing start to the season.

Scooter is currently No. 3 on the NL All-Star ballot, which determines the starters for July 17th game in Nationals Park. He trails Ozzie Albies for the Atlanta Braves and Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs.

For Albies, a second-year player from Curacao, to be leading the ballot for second basemen, shows you how slanted the fan voting is. Yes, Albies is having a very good season, as are the Braves, but not enough to justify Albies getting the starting spot at second base over Gennett.

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Albies is only hitting .251 on the season. In fact, Gennett, in 44 fewer at bats. has 11 more hits than Albies. Albies is second in the National League in home runs with 16, that’s 3 less than NL-leading Bryce Harper. Gennett has been no slouch, going deep 12 times himself.

So, while Albies is having a stellar year, and one that’s deserving of recognition, it’s not even close to the season that Gennett’s putting together. Scooter has more RBIs, a higher on-base percentage, and a higher slugging percentage.

So now that it’s been clearly illustrated why Scooter Gennett deserves to start over Ozzie Albies, let’s turn our attention to Javier Baez. Baez is No. 2 in the fan voting, which as of Monday had Baez sitting at  767,417 votes.

Baez is a tremendous talent. He’s versatile enough that Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon can pepper Baez all over the infield. However, second base is his primary position, as he’s played there in 81% of the Cubs’ games his season.

The idea of Baez being the All-Star starter at second base over Scooter Gennett is laughable. You only need to look at the slash line to figure this one out. Baez – .255/.293/.514, Gennett – .336/.373/.537.

A lot of people will point to Gennett’s lack of defensive ability. Well, I got news for you, so far this year, Scooter rates as a better defender than Baez. Gennett has a fielding average of .978. Baez, the Cubs leading vote getter so far, has 6 errors as well and a fielding percentage of .969. Albies has 6 errors as well.

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Gennett trails Baez by fewer than 25,000 and Albies by about 170,000. Come on Reds Nation. Do you part to get Scooter a shot at the starting lineup during the All-Star Game.