San Francisco Giants All-Star voting results: Crawford snubbed but Posey, Aoki close in first round of balloting

The results are in! Well, not the final results—just the first round of NL All-Star balloting for the 2015 season.

Predictably, the perennially underrated San Francisco Giants got some love, but not enough to put them into any starting roles in the Senior Circuit (for now):

The first NL #ASG Balloting Update is in: pic.twitter.com/YlOO3VFCb9
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) May 27, 2015

If you hate squinting:

No Giants leading in first batch of NL All-Star ballot results. Posey second behind Yadier. Aoki, Pagan 4-5 in OF. Crawford, Panik both 5th.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) May 27, 2015

The defending champs’ slow start might have a lot to do with that, but even so, breakout star Brandon Crawford was criminally low on the shortstop rankings. On the plus side, Buster Posey, Angel Pagan and Nori Aoki are within striking distance for their respective positions.

Let’s break down their candidacies further and pay our respects to a couple G-Men that might be on the fringe.

Crawford and Posey get the shaft

Brandon Crawford has been the best offensive shortstop in the league by almost every measure. He’s accounted for the most combined runs (R+RBI) with 56 and paces the field in almost every advanced stat, per FanGraphs: .381 wOBA, 148 wRC+, 10.9 Off and 2.1 WAR.

It’s not even close with those last two.

And yet, Crawdawg finds himself just cracking the top five in balloting, trailing popular but undeserving candidates like Troy Tulowitzki and Starlin Castro.

Though his FanGraphs defensive numbers (3.3 Def and 1.3 UZR) surprisingly place him outside of the top five amongst NL shortstops, I think we all know that Crawford has flashed gold-glove caliber defense as well. His defensive WAR on ESPN.com (second in NL at 0.9) supports that.

So do plays like this on a nightly basis:

Buster Posey only finished behind Yadier Molina in Round 1, but that’s enough to cry foul over.

I get that Molina carries a reputation as the best defensive backstop in the league, but Posey has actually had the best defensive WAR on the season, according to ESPN.com, and has yet to make an error all year. Offensively, it’s no contest, with Posey leading NL catchers in homeruns (seven), OPS (.831) and nearly doubling the WAR (2.0) of his closest counterparts.

Aoki and Pagan on the outside looking in

Though Angel Pagan and Nori Aoki are less deserving than Crawford, both outfielders find themselves in decent position to squeeze into one of the league’s outfield spots.

One big problem: The guys ahead of them—Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Holliday—are established superstars and/or have diehard fan bases. The latter means a lot when you consider that Aoki (at No. 4) trails Stanton (No. 3) by over 300,000 ballots already.

While neither is likely to be voted in, Aoki has the better odds statistically given his well-rounded offensive arsenal (.331/,467/.734 slash line, 21 R, 15 RBI, 11 SB) and Japanese following. If he keeps up this pace, he should be a shoo-in for one of the bench spots, with Pagan getting some consideration as well.

It doesn’t hurt that their skipper will have a say in it:

Not quite, but we get your point.

Panik and Pence on the fringe?

Joe Panik is easy to overlook given his quiet demeanor and relative inexperience, but the kid has turned it on after a slow start (.297/.366/.430 slash line, .297 BA, 21 R and 17 RBI). Unfortunately, there are more than a few talented second baseman sitting ahead of him in the standings that are unlikely to budge. Still, No. 5 is nothing to shake your head at.

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