Amidst MLB #ASGworthy buzz, hometown hosts ill represented

With only Wil Myers on the ballot for MLB’s 87th edition of the Midsummer Classic, Petco Park will be thin on Padres representing the NL squad.

MLB fans are conscious of the game’s Midsummer Classic by this point in the season. The temperature is starting to routinely sit in the 80s and 90s at ballparks throughout the country. The buzz of breakout players and disappointments and trade rumors and World Series odds is something ever present by now.

By accord, every MLB team has to have a representative at each All-Star Game. Last year’s hosts, the Cincinnati Reds, mustered a mere two players from the club to suit up at Great American Ballpark — 3B Todd Frazier and LHP Aroldis Chapman. Neither are with the Reds anymore.

The season before last, Minnesota Twins fans were also treated to the presence of only two hometown reps. Closer Glen Perkins earned his second of three nods for a roster spot, while a then 30-year-old Kurt Suzuki suited up at Target Field as the lone position player from the Twins. It was Suzuki’s first All-Star Game and heading into the affair, he was hitting .309/.365/.396 with two homers and 37 RBI.

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2013 saw Citi Field play host, represented by two Mets (David Wright and Matt Harvey). 2012 was the last time the host city had one player on the squad, when Billy Butler of the Royals was added as a reserve.

This year, 2016’s version of the Midsummer Classic looks again to have only one hometown Padre partaking in the festivities at Petco Park on July 12 — albeit, a seemingly deserving one at this point.

Wil Myers is doing a lot for the Padres this season. Despite the large majority of San Diego’s current roster of players either being hurt or sucking, Myers is beginning to cement himself as a legitimate everyday player in MLB.

Since being selected in the third round of the 2009 amateur draft by the Kansas City Royals, the batting glove-less outfielder has moved full-time to manning first base. Myers hadn’t entirely been a disappointment until 2016, though.

Back in 2013 with the Rays, he won American League Rookie of the Year honors hitting .293/.354/.478 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI in 88 games. 2014 and 2015 were mostly letdowns due to Myers’ poor health. The 88 games he appeared in as a rookie is to date a career high for him.