Philadelphia Phillies: Why Shane Victorino Deserves to Be the Final All-Star

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Shane Victorino is hoping to be heading to Arizona next week.

However, if he is going to do that, he needs fan support.

He is one of five players who are vying for the title in one final vote.

Victorino should not worry though.

When matching the other candidates up with Victorino, it seems as if he should really have the upper hand.

His performance this season has been strong, and you will see how he deserves to defeat all the other candidates for the vote.

Shane Victorino versus Todd Helton

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Helton, the Colorado Rockies' first baseman, is looking as consistent as always except for a brief trip up last season.

He is batting .319 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs.

Victorino matched him in home runs but was narrowly defeated in average (.303) and RBIs (34).

Where Victorino will pull away from Helton is in runs scored (53 as opposed to 36) and stolen bases (13 to zero).

Another factor that could stand against Helton is that there are already two first basemen on the bench.

The National League doesn't need another first baseman on the roster, so in this matchup, Victorino gets the upper hand.

Shane Victorino versus Michael Morse

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Just like with Todd Helton, the fact that there are already two first basemen on the bench could stand against the Washington Nationals' first baseman.

However, Morse is more versatile than Helton, so I think that he has more value.

He is also having a career year. His batting average is at .299 and he has almost as many home runs, 15, this season as he has hit in the rest of his career (21 before this year).

Victorino will defeat him first and foremost because the Phillies have many more fans than the Nationals, so the popularity contest aspect will help here.

This is not to say that Victorino does not deserve to beat Morse. Again, he has more runs (53 against 35) and more stolen bases (13 against two). However, Victorino also has a higher on-base plus slugging percentage (.900 versus .887).

As far as sabermetrics go, Victorino blows him away with a Wins above Replacement value of 4.4 as opposed to Morse's value of 1.6 according to FanGraphs.

I think that Morse will be more competition than Helton, but I think that Victorino is more deserving of a spot.

Shane Victorino versus Andre Ethier

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Ethier is having a solid year for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the outfield.

He is batting .317 with seven home runs and 41 RBIs. He also has a very nice on-base percentage .385.

As it seems to be a trend by now, Victorino has scored more runs (53 to 41) and stolen more bases (13 against zero) than Ethier.

He also has more home runs (9 versus 7) and a higher on-base plus slugging percentage (.900 against .843) showing that Victorino has had better pop in his bat this season so far.

Just like with Morse, according to FanGraphs, Victorino's Wins above Replacement of 4.4 is almost double that of Ethier's of 2.4.

Victorino has the upper hand in this matchup as well in terms of both power and speed.

Shane Victorino versus Ian Kennedy

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It is much more difficult to compare a pitcher and a hitter because the raw numbers can't necessarily be stacked up and evaluated on a one-to-one ratio.

Kennedy, of the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, is showing the league how to win this year with a record of 8-3 and an ERA of 3.38.

He is striking out 7.58 batters per nine innings while walking 2.35 batters per nine innings. He seems to be under control this year and is pitching well.

Sabermetricians claim that Wins above Replacement is as good of a statistic as we have for measuring the overall value of any player.

Because of that and the fact that it is difficult to compare pitchers and hitters straight up, Victorino's value of 4.4 is much higher than Kennedy's 2.3, and Victorino deserves to beat Kennedy for that last spot.

Shane Victorino Deserves That Spot

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I definitely think that Shane Victorino deserves the spot based on his production as opposed to everyone else on the ballot, but as you all know, it is a popular vote.

No one can quite be sure what will happen until the final vote is counted.