No All-Star apperance for Joe Nathan?

The Joe v. 1.0 is having perhaps his best season yet for the Twins... hard
to top his 2006 season but his 1.30 ERA is better than the 1.58 he put up
that year and he's on pace for 44 saves, which would be easily better than
the 36 he had that year (and would tie his career high).

Knowing all this, I figured he, along with Mauer and Morneau, was a shoo-in
for the ASG... but it's gonna be really tough for Nathan to get in because
of a few factors:

- Mariano's having a fantastic year -- 22/22 saves, 0.96 ERA, 0.62 WHIP and
the game is being played in NY
- Francona is the AL mgr and he'll likely want to bring Papelbon -- 24/28
saves, 2.00 ERA, 0.86 WHIP
- The Royals have to have a player make the team and Joakim Soria is their
best (only?)candidate with 22/23 saves, 1.25 ERA, and 0.75 WHIP
- Same problem with the Orioles, they have to have a player make the team
and George Sherrill may be their best candidate at 27/32 saves (leads league
in saves)... Brian Roberts making the team could bail him out, but it looks
like Pedroia will be voted on the team and Ian Kinsler is having a much
better season, so Francona would have to 2 second basemen in reserve for
that to happen

All of this is adding up to a year when he could get squeezed out by a lot
of other people having great years... Mariano and Soria have better
results -- can't fault that -- and Papelbon's no slouch either.

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