A plea to all of baseball to get our favorite Snowman to the All-Star Game.
Over a month ago, I had written a piece on Daniel Schneemann and his new found slugging success. Towards the end of the article I had talked about how the league had started to adjust to the LHH Utility player and cautioned that there was a strong chance his success would plateau.
Yet here I am, 42 days later, begging every member of this fanbase to vote for Daniel Schneemann into the All-Star game.
So far this season (as of the article’s submission on Thursday) Schneemann has maintained a 120 wRC+ and a nice 1.4 fWAR. For the Guardians, he is sitting in 3rd in WAR, behind José Ramírez and Steven Kwan. Amongst qualified hitters, he’d rank even with Bobby Witt Jr. in terms of wRC+. He is tied with Tampa Bay’s Brandon Lowe in fWAR for second baseman, but only 0.2 fWAR behind the only other second baseman on the ballot in Gleyber Torres. Yet Schneemann, as of June 16th is sitting in 9th place with 107,245 votes. When that same list has Jose Altuve in 3rd place, its legitimacy must be called into question.
Daniel Schneemann deserves to be an All-Star. More so than Jose Altuve. More so than Andrés Giménez. More so than even Jazz Chisolm Jr.
His recent heroic three run home run was the difference between a loss and a victory. Schneemann continues to be the unlikely center of many of these conversations and has become a key piece to the team’s success this season. Schneemann currently has a 0.80 Clutch according to Fangraphs. For perspective, José (who is hitting .364 with RISP) has a 0.02 Clutch. How many other second basemen are platoon bats that continue to successfully hit and contribute in high leverage situations? How many other second basemen come in off the bench in late innings as a defensive sub and continue, time and again, to turn gold glove caliber plays? Daniel Schneemann isn’t a starter for the Cleveland Guardians (though, I would argue he should be), yet his highlights paint a picture of a hitter that regularly gets xBH in high leverage situations and can reliably save his pitchers an earned run.
I’ll say it again: Daniel Schneemann deserves to be an All-Star.