Paul Goldschmidt deserves to start the All Star Game over Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, and now he might get the chance to. Dbacks Nation has done a great job so far of voting for Goldy and the hard work is finally paying off. Goldschmidt has surpassed Gonzalez for the lead at 1B in the National League All Star balloting which was released Sunday. He now has 1,291,052 total vote to Gonzalez’s 1,049,222.
Despite Gonzalez having a bigger market than Goldschmidt, Paul is finally getting the national recognition he deserves. Goldy defiantly has his manager’s vote. Kirk Gibson talked to MLB.com about his star first basemen: “He’s probably got a bigger market than Paul is drawing from,” Gibson said at that time. “I feel the same way that you do about Goldy and the belief that he can start the All-Star Game. I think he’s an elite first baseman in the National League. Hopefully he’ll get to be designated as a starter. If he doesn’t, true to Goldy’s form, he’ll be ready to help his team any way he can.”
Gibson went on to say, “He’s consistent through thick and thin,” Gibson said. “He’s great in his preparation and his decompression. When he gets in a game, he’s really good at adjustments. He talks a lot and talks to his teammates a lot. When he goes up for an at-bat, regardless of what he does in his previous at-bat, he’s got a game plan and he’ll stick with it. He doesn’t get too excited when things go good; matter of fact, he makes sure that he doesn’t. When things go bad, he doesn’t get down too much. He’s just a very steady, consistent personality and attitude about it. He just believes that if he continues to be that way, that things will work out for us.”
Goldschmidt is putting up another MVP type season and the numbers are quickly starting to mirror his 2013 season. Despite his team struggling, he is the leader and the go to guy on offense. He currently is third in the N.L in HR’s with 15 and second in RBI’s with 51 with a batting average of .309. He leads the league in games with 71, hits with 86, and doubles with 27. Without Goldy, the Dbacks might be 20 games under .500 instead of hanging around. That is why he is the definition of an MVP.
If Goldschmidt were to start the All Star Game, he would become the first Dbacks player to start the game since Luis Gonzalez did back in 2001. I cant think of a player more deserving than Goldy to start.