Vote Chipper Into 2012 MLB All Star Game

The newest National League All Star voting numbers were released on Tuesday (June 12) and Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, who recently returned to the Braves lineup, is currently fourth in the all star voting among National League third basemen.

Jones has 1,054,586 votes thus far. The good news for Chipper and Braves fans is that the voting for N.L. third basemen is among the closest positions in the balloting. The current N.L. leader at third base in the voting is New York Mets third bagger David Wright with 1,358,992 votes. Second in the balloting is San Francisco Giants hot corner resident Pablo Sandoval with 1,103,650 votes and coming in third is St. Louis Cardinals David Freese with 1,095,206.

Braves second baseman Dan Uggla is the only Braves currently leading his respective position in the balloting. Uggla has a fairly solid lead over Cincinnati Reds all star Brandon Phillips.

Now, I’ve never been a fan in my life of fans getting to vote for the Major League Baseball All Star Game starting lineups, because they often get things wrong. Fans tend to vote for the most popular players or their favorite players over the players who are most deserving of being all stars.

That previous paragraph means that every single thing I’m about to say makes me a hypocrite this season. I think that in his final season in baseball Chipper Jones, a seven-time All Star, should be named to the National League All Star team as its starting third baseman. We’ve seen this type of thing happen in the past. Baseball hall of famer and Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. was famously voted into the American League All Star starting lineup in his finals season back in 2001. As a legendary player and a great ambassador for the game of baseball, Chipper Jones truly deserves that same treatment. 

Mets' 3B David Wright is current vote getter

I know that Mets superstar David Wright is having the best season of any third baseman in the National League, and arguably MLB as a whole, with a .354 batting average, eight home runs, 34 RBI and 40 runs scored and has been the MVP for a surprising Mets team thus far this season. His performance and stats this year prove he is an all star and in my opinion should definitely be the game’s starting third baseman had this been any other year. I think he should surely be named to this year’s squad as a reserve. Even though he’d know in his head that he was the better third baseman this season I doubt Wright would mind all that much if Jones was elected to start the midsummer classic over him. 

Vote Chipper Jones into the 2012 MLB All Star Game!

The truth of the matter is that despite Jones not having all star worthy numbers two and a half months into the season that doesn’t mean he hasn’t played like an all star this season. Jones has been an all star caliber player in his playing time, which has been dramatically shortened by multiple injuries. When in the lineup Jones has been the Braves best hitter this season hitting .306 with five homers and 24 RBI. Jones has played 26 fewer games this season than Wright and only has three fewer home runs and 10 fewer RBI. Had Chipper have been completely healthy his numbers right now could possibly be superior to Wright’s.

Let’s work together to try to give Chipper Jones the honor that he truly deserves by being the National League starting third baseman in this year’s All Star Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (the only stadium by the way in which Chipper has never played a game in his career) by voting him in. You can click HERE to vote for Chipper up to 25 times. I know I’ll be using all 25 of my votes on Chipper. Sorry, David Wright, you really do deserve it, but sometimes even I’ve got to play favorites.