Saturday, July 3, 2010

Gardner deserves to join mates on All-Star team


A few weeks ago, I wrote a post encouraging New York Yankees fans to vote Nick Swisher onto to American League All-Star team. I should have written one for Brett Gardner at the same time.

I obviously voted for both Swisher and Gardner when I was filling out my ballots. But while Swisher's candidacy has gotten a lot of attention, Gardner has quietly made a compelling case for an All-Star spot. Not counting his multi-hit, Grand Slam performance today, Gardner is hitting .311, with 23 ribbies, 49 runs scored and 24 stolen bases, a pretty strong argument to be considered one of the best players in the league this season.

"He's had such a tremendous year," Swisher said. "I couldn't be happier for him."

You would think Gardner could benefit from having his skipper Joe Girardi managing the team. But that may not be the case, with Girardi talking about all the tough decisions he will have to make.

"Gardy has had a great first half for us," Girardi said. "I definitely think he deserves consideration. It's great to be the All-Star manager, but there’s also a difficult part about it. You know you're going to disappoint some people and that's not what you really want to do."

Translation: Gardner will probably not get a spot on the team, as much as he deserves one. I hope I'm wrong. We'll know tomorrow.

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