It isn't often that a 6'10, 260 pound pitcher gets overlooked. Fortunately, more than 4.5 million fans disagreed with St. Louis Manager Tony LaRussa's minor mistake, as their "last chance" votes made San Diego Padres right hander Chris Young a first time All-Star. Young will join teammates Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman as the Padres representatives in San Francisco for the 78th Major League All-Star Game.
Despite leading all National League starters with a 2.00 ERA and helping keep San Diego atop the NL West, LaRussa decided to keep Young off the intial NL All-Star roster. Young also sported the lowest opponent's batting average in the NL (.197 BAA) and he is also in the NL's top 10 in strikeouts (currently 6th with 99 Ks in 103.2 IP).
According to Major League Baseball, Young received more than 4.5 million of the approximately 23 million votes submitted. Thanks to some stellar numbers and an all-out push by his teammates, the Padres organization and the entire city of San Diego, C.Y. earned enough support to be voted onto the NL roster.
Those great first half stats and tons of local support allowed Young to beat out four other high profile players. Chris was chosen over big names like reigning NL Cy Young winner Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt and Pittsburgh Pirates up-and-comer Tom Gorzelanny (who benefits nationally by pitching on the East Coast). Zambrano was so shocked that C.Y. was left off the NL roster, that even he lobbied for fans to vote Young in. Zambrano must have forgotten about the punches Young threw at Chicago teammate Derek Lee a few weeks back. Seems like the fans didn't. If anything, maybe the high profile fight in Chicago made the 6'10" Chris Young a little less anonymous nationally; possibly helping C.Y. sneak into the All-Star Game through the back door.
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