James Wood Did Not Get Named An All Star Starter I BMitch & Finlay

Mark Zuckerman explains how James Wood didn't make the all star game despite having statistics that warrant it.

Transcript

00:00Why didn't James Wood get named to the All-Star starters?

00:06Well, how much time you got?

00:09Plenty.

00:1157 minutes.

00:13I think it boils down to two factors,

00:15and it's not necessarily unique to James Wood or the current situation.

00:19But historically, Nats players have not received the same kind of voting

00:24that teams from other larger markets maybe get,

00:28and that's perhaps a reflection of the fan base here in some way

00:32or the team maybe not doing a better job of trying to market the players

00:38to get more people to vote for them.

00:41So I think that's part of the equation.

00:43And then the second part of it is obviously the team itself not being as good

00:47and having not been good for a while

00:48and really not having a big national profile at the moment

00:51probably has a lot of people around the country.

00:57Maybe they've heard of James Wood, but don't quite appreciate

01:00or realize just how good he's been.

01:01I mean, based on the stats, yeah, he probably should be a starter.

01:04But when you look at the guys who are getting voted in,

01:07they're coming from big markets and, more importantly,

01:10teams that are pretty successful.

01:12And I think that's what stands out more than anything.

01:14I mean, even in their history, even when the Nats have been very good,

01:17they've had a handful of players voted in.

01:19But generally, the All-Stars they've had have been selected as backups

01:23because they earned it on merit, not necessarily because of populism.