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Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is doing everything he can to help carry the Fish's offense. He just mashed his 24th home run of the season and the ninth of this month as the team pulled off another win against the New York Yankees last night. He is hitting a prolific .265/.351/.616 (.405 wOBA) on the year and has more than three wins to his name. In fact, he is fourth in the National League in FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement, behind only Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt, and Todd Frazier.
And yet when you look at the voting for the National League All-Star Team, Stanton is fourth in the outfield voting.
Stanton -- with 2,922,350 votes -- sat in fourth place, as he was passed by San Francisco's Nori Aoki (2,995,899 votes) for the third starting outfield spot. The Marlins slugger entered Tuesday leading the Majors with 23 home runs and 59 RBIs. He was also batting .261. with 12 doubles.
Norichika Aoki, who is batting .323/.389/.395 and has about two wins to his name on the year, has gotten the San Francisco Giants' voting bloc fully behind him. Aoki now has taken a 70,000-vote lead over Stanton for the third spot in the outfield. The other two outfield positions are held by Harper and Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Stanton is a well-deserving candidate for the game, as he is probably playing better than anyone not named Harper or Mike Trout right now. He continues to build upon his first half home run marks, as he now has 24 and inches ever closer to Mike Lowell's franchise record. He now has 11 home runs in 16 games, which is patently absurd. He is on pace, combined with his best-guess projections, to hit 49 home runs by the end of this season if he plays through the year healthy. Heck, he is already halfway to the Marlins' single-season home run record set by Gary Sheffield in 1996.
The other clearly deserving Marlin on the All-Star ballot is Dee Gordon, who is retaining his current lead on the second base voting. Gordon owns 3,481,830 votes, which puts him 300,000 votes ahead of second place vote-getter Kolten Wong of the St. Louis Cardinals. Gordon is second in the National League in batting average behind Goldschmidt, but his last 30 days have been fairly ugly at the plate as he quietly slips back down to Earth. Gordon is hitting just .263/.281/.288 in the last 30 days, with 25 strikeouts and just two walks in 121 plate appearances.
Stanton should be the man to take the outfield for the National League All-Star team once the Midsummer Classic rolls around, and it is up to us Marlins fans to get him there. Cast your vote here; you can put in up to 35 ballots! Let's get Giancarlo and Dee to the All-Star Game in Cincinnati this year!