Thairo Estrada is the best second baseman in the NL right now so go vote for him!

Yesterday, Major League Baseball opened up the first round of MLB All-Star Voting and I feel it’s very important that you, a fan of the San Francisco Giants, go out and vote for San Francisco Giants — specifically, second baseman Thairo Estrada, and for one simple reason:

He is, objectively and without reservation, the best second baseman in the National League.

His IL stint is going to hurt him here a little bit, but as of yesterday, the start of voting, he was still the best second baseman in the National League with 2.0 fWAR, trailing Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers by half a win for best in Baseball at the position. Those 2 wins above replacement level also registers as 17th-best in all of MLB, tied with Juan Soto, Yordan Alvarez, and Xander Bogaerts.

There’s going to be a really big push by Cubs fans to get their guy Nico Hoerner in there and through May he has been intriguing competition with Estrada.

Estrada — 206 PA | 6 HR | 17 RBI | 13 SB | .301/.345/.466 (123 wRC+*) | +3.9 Def | +3 OAA
Hoerner — 213 PA | 4 HR | 26 RBI | 12 SB | .285/.336/.395 (102 wRC+) | +4.3 Def | +4 OAA

Thairo’s defense slumps whenever he’s not at second base — he’s actually at +5 OAA at that position, but -2 at SS which brings down his overall total — but he’s clearly the better hitter.

Don’t let Thairo down! Go vote NOW!

MLB says of the whole process:

The 2023 Scotts MLB All-Star Ballot launched on Wednesday, opening Phase 1 of this year’s All-Star voting. During Phase 1, fans around the world can choose their starters until noon ET on Thursday, June 22. You can vote as many as five times per every 24-hour period exclusively at MLB.com, on all 30 MLB club sites and on the MLB app.

And from the ballot itself:

Your Phase 1 votes have more impact than ever!

The player with the most votes per league will automatically win the starting spot at their position.

Voting DetailsVote up to 5x a day every 24 hours. Ends June 22, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Vote early and often, and don’t just vote for Thairo Estrada; though, if you only have the time to think about one vote, do it for him. Otherwise, consider this: the Giants have two other legit “clearly the best guy at the position” cases for the rest of the ballot, which I realize might not matter to most of you who will just vote all Giants, but in the instance where some of you (like me) think the Giants can’t possibly compete at other positions, I offer:

LaMonte Wade Jr.

No, he’s not having a better season than Freddie Freeman (2.9 fWAR), but he’s in the top 5 of National League first baseman. Last week, I wrote that he’s having an historic run as the Giants’ leadoff hitter, and his .410 OBP is second in the NL behind Freeman. But he’s versatile enough to be on the roster because he can play left field and Freddie Freeman is a Dodger. Vote your conscience.

J.D. Davis

My favorite thing from the offseason was reminding people that J.D. Davis had the best Hard Hit rate in the National League in 2022. This season, it’s just 7th-best, but it’s 2nd-best amongst NL third baseman behind the Cubs’ Patrick Wisdom. There is no comparison between these two players, however. J.D. Davis’ 1.6 fWAR crushes Wisdom’s 0.9 and Davis’ +4 Outs Above Average (+2.4 Defensive Runs) stands above as well.

His only real competition is Washington’s Jaimer Candelario, who has been better with the glove, but doesn’t compare on offense. Davis’ 133 wRC+ is the best by a third baseman in the National League, ahead of Max Muncy’s 129. Muncy’s 17 home runs will overshadow his .209/.338/.520 line, but Davis (.282/.366/.483) is the better overall player; and, again, it should be really easy to vote against a Dodger here.

So the Giants have at least a few genuine All-Stars who should have no problem moving past Phase I. It’s going to come down to you, me, and everyone you know to make it happen. Time to make the rest of Baseball pay attention to the Giants’ roster.

*-a quick note about wRC+ from Fangraphs:

While wOBA is a huge step forward from stats like batting average and slugging percentage, it doesn’t credit hitters who play in difficult parks or deduct points for hitters who play in smaller ones. wRC+ brings all the virtues of wOBA plus two added benefits; park and league adjustments. A .400 wOBA at Coors is much less impressive than one at Petco, for example. Additionally, wOBA tracks with overall league offense, so you can’t use it to compare players of different eras very effectively. A .400 wOBA in 2000 is much less impressive than one in 2014, but a 140 wRC+ in 2000 means essentially the same thing in 2014.