San Francisco Giants: Why Melky Cabrera Should Be a 2012 NL All-Star Starter

After the first balloting updates for the 2012 MLB All-Star rosters were released on June 5, San Francisco Giants fans were upset when they found that Melky Cabrera wasn't one of the top three vote-getters of the National League outfielders.

In fact, four other outfielders finished ahead of Cabrera in terms of total votes—Matt Kemp (1,952,910), Carlos Beltran (1,212,030), Ryan Braun (1,112,971) and Andre Ethier (827,262) all had more votes than Cabrera, who had 714,642 at the time.

When you see household names like Kemp and Braun, it's hard to formulate an argument stating that Cabrera should be starting over those two players. They have developed a reputation over time that will automatically get them into All-Star games, regardless of the type of season they're having.

That said, Cabrera does deserve to be named a starter in the 2012 All-Star game, and the competition for that last starting spot will likely come down to Beltran, Ethier and Cabrera.

But first of all, here's a breakdown of how each of these candidate's statistics match up with one another.

Stats as of June 5

Name	BA	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	SB	R	K	BB	WAR	A	UZR
Matt Kemp	.355	.444	.719	12	28	2	30	30	21	2.3	1	-1.0
Carlos Beltran	.275	.369	.550	15	42	6	32	45	26	1.9	0	-0.9
Ryan Braun	.307	.390	.598	14	36	11	34	41	22	2.8	3	0.7
Andre Ethier	.309	.371	.536	9	46	1	29	50	18	2.5	1	3.9
Melky Cabrera	.365	.406	.535	4	27	9	41	31	17	2.4	6	-2.3

As you can see from this chart, Kemp, Cabrera and Beltran lead in three categories, while Braun and Ethier only lead in two.

When looking at these stats, the difference in power numbers between the four leading vote-getters and Cabrera is hard to look past. Kemp, Beltran and Braun all have at least three times as many home runs as Cabrera—who also has the least amount of RBI (although Cabrera now has 28 RBI after June 6).

But there are a few things Cabrera has accomplished this year that none of these players can say.

First of all, Cabrera leads the entire NL in hits, batting average and triples. In fact, his 84 hits is 13 more than Jose Altuve, who is second in the NL in terms of hits.

Also, Cabrera has done a magnificent job at putting the ball in play this year. His contact percentage of 90.1 is the 13th highest rate in the majors, higher than any one of his competitors for the NL All-Star roster. This is directly related to Cabrera minimizing his strikeout totals this year, as his 12.4 strikeout percentage is also lower than any of his competitors.

Another thing voters need to take into consideration is that Cabrera has only missed one game this season. His 249 at-bats this year is the second most in the majors, so he hasn't missed much time due to injury or fatigue this season. He's been playing all nine-plus innings of practically every game this year, which makes his recent stretch of excellence even more impressive.

The last reason why Cabrera should be named a starter in the 2012 All-Star game is the success of the Giants. The Giants (32-25) currently sit in second place in the NL West, while the St. Louis Cardinals (29-28) and Milwaukee Brewers (25-31) are in third and fourth place in the NL Central, respectively.

But what should separate Cabrera from the rest of the pack is that he was the catalyst during the Giants' recent run to move within striking distance of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

The Giants hovered around .500 in the middle of May, while the Dodgers were running away with the division. But since May 12, the Giants have gone 17-8 and eventually trailed the Dodgers by only three games at one point during that run. And, during that stretch Cabrera has batted .423 (44-for-104) with 17 RBI and 23 runs scored.

Cabrera has also been flawless in left field by making plays like this throw against the Milwaukee Brewers. He has instincts, arm strength and the ability to take the proper routes to the ball when playing in the outfield. These tools will put him into serious contention for the Gold Glove Award at the end of the year.

In the video above, Mike Krukow stated, "If there's a better player in the game right now, I want to see him." All homerism aside, Krukow was right; Cabrera was the best player on the planet for a long stretch of time.

And after his incredible month of May, when he batted .429 and tied the Giants' franchise record for hits in a month with 51, he still hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. He's still batting over .300 in the month of June.

Making a case for an outfielder to start in the All-Star game for his respective league is a difficult thing to do. First of all, there are always a ton of outfielders putting up big numbers every year, so there will always be at least five to six players gunning for the top three spots. 

This year is no different, as Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Gonzalez and Giancarlo Stanton are all having fantastic seasons as well.

However, there is no denying how good Cabrera has been this year. It would be a crime to keep the player with the highest batting average in the majors out of the starting lineup in the 2012 All-Star game.

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