Could I please get some of Matt Carpenter’s Magic Salsa? - A Hunt and Peck

Around two weeks ago Matt Carpenter was an All Star Game Final Vote candidate. I wrote about what made him a candidate worthy of our votes. My biggest argument was that he was trending upward and had still made an All Star case despite a pretty terrible start to the season. Craig Edwards of Fangraphs illustrated this point very well:

Matt Carpenter NL WAR ranks by month
April: 73rd (-0.1 WAR)
May: 8th (1.1)
June: 4th (1.5)
July: 1st (1.6)
Season: 2nd (4.1)— Craig Edwards (@craigjedwards) July 21, 2018

This was most of the feedback the post discussing his All Star candidacy received:

Those posts are from one week ago.