Right when you think you’ve seen everything in baseball: Justin Smoak, All-Star starter.
Not that Smoak isn’t having a good season. The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman entered Sunday hitting .300/.368/.592 with 22 home runs and 52 RBIs, leading American League first basemen in OPS and trailing only Logan Morrison in WAR.
Still, he has to be one of the least likely All-Star starters in recent memory. Even when the mostly forgettable Kosuke Fukudome of the Cubs started for the National League in 2008, it wasn’t a huge shock. It was his first season coming over from Japan, he had been a big star over there, and in the days before there were limitations on the number of times you could vote, his support in Japan presumably pushed him over the top.