Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong are 2012 MLB All-Star Game snubs. Not epic snubs, per se, but by the definition of "getting to call anyone performing well a snub," we can call them both snubs. Unfortunately, it was Giants fans who snubbed them this year.
The snub from the fans was inadvertent and indirect, of course, but it still happened. So how did it happen? Well, it was a trickle-down effect from the insane voting job done by Giants fans who pushed Buster Posey to record-setting All-Star Game heights, who got Pablo Sandoval and Melky Cabrera into the starting lineup, and who very nearly got Brandon Crawford into the All-Star Game.
See, when fans voted Panda into the starting lineup, it meant that David Wright almost had to be a reserve selection. This effectively pushed Chase Headley out of All-Star consideration and meant that a different Padres player had to be picked. That player was Huston Street, a pitcher. Another pitcher, Wade Miley, was selected as the lone Diamondbacks player.
The rest of the pitchers are: Matt Cain (lock), R.A. Dickey (liggity lock), Gio Gonzalez (loooooock), Cole Hamels (lock-able), Clayton Kershaw (lock-ish), Lance Lynn (kind of lock-y) and Stephen Strasburg (LOCK).
So maybe you bump Lynn for for Bumgarner? That would be great, except Tony LaRussa is the manager of the National League All-Star team and Lynn is a Cardinal. Fat chance of that happening.
Perhaps even if Sandoval and Melky hadn't been named starters, LaRussa would've bypassed MadBum and Vogey. After all, Zach Greinke and Johnny Cueto are having great seasons too and considered some of the biggest snubs out of the whole event.
It's also entirely possible that one of the two Giants could backdoor a selection if injuries occur or someone drops out or whatever. But at the moment, it seems like the exuberance of Giants fans in voting for position players -- not to mention the bananas nature of National League pitching these days -- kept a pair of Giants pitchers out of All-Star consideration.
