Arturro Padavilla III/via Flickr.com

Despite a vigorous campaign from his team and second life in the form of the final fan voting portion of balloting, reigning National League MVP Kris Bryant will not represent the Chicago Cubs in the All-Star game on July 11.

Bryant finished second in fan voting to Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner who earned the final spot on the NL All-Star roster to make the team for the first time in his career. He received 20.8 million votes which is an All-Star game record.

“I can’t defend my guys based on other guys that made the team at this point,” Maddon said. “If you just look at the numbers plus our injuries, there’s no way for me to make a strong argument. “For as much as you want to promote your own guys, and I would and I do, it came down to, if you look at the numbers head-to-head, it was hard for me to make any argument.”

-Per Chicago Sun-Times writer Madeline Kenney

Bryant made the All-Star team in each of his first two seasons including earning a starting role at third base last season.

Bryant’s exclusion from the All-Star team wasn’t neglectful, rather the fan vote was representative of his sub-par start to the 2017 season.

Kris Bryant Is Still Good But….

Kris Bryant hasn’t exactly fallen from his MVP pedestal just yet, but he hasn’t reproduced the eye-popping statistics that earned him the award last season either .

Bryant’s walk rate is up, his strikeout rate is down, and his slash line (outside of his batting average) is reasonably similar to past seasons. His .391 batting average is 14th-best in MLB and he is tied for 4th in MLB in walks (56). The 16 home runs he’s slugged this year are slightly below the pace he set when he bombed 39 home runs last year, but his 17 doubles are nearly a rewind of the 19 doubles he had at this point in the season last year. He has also used all parts of the field more effectively this season (an offseason priority), slapping 25.4 percent of his batted balls to the opposite field compared to just 19.7 percent last season.

He hasn’t been spectacular like last season, but he has still been good. So, what is the problem?

Bryant’s career-low .299 batting average on balls in play triggered by his 30 percent hard contact rate (37.5 percent in 2015; 40.3 percent in 2016) and 18.3 percent line drive rate has done his batting average no favors. However, Bryant’s biggest issue offensively has been his inability to produce quality at-bats with runners on base.

Bryant has 33 RBIs this season which is tied for third on the team with Javier Baez and behind Anthony Rizzo (54) and Willson Contreras (40). If he continues at this pace, he will finish the season with around 66 RBIs which is a significant drop from the 102 RBIs he posted last season.

Furthermore, Bryant has seen significant regression defensively at his primary third base position. He has posted -2 defensive runs saved (DRS) which is 12th best out of 20 qualified third baseman this season ( he posted 4 DRS in 2016). He’s botched the routine (eight errors) and doesn’t seem to make as many highlight-reel plays as last season either (purely based off the unscientific eye test).

Whether you want to focus on the good or the bad or some combination of both, statistics are rarely useful in a vacuum. It’s more useful to compare Bryant to his competition. Scanning through the list of NL third baseman who made the All-Star team, it’s difficult to make an argument that Bryant has been better than these guys this season. Starter Nolan Arenado is tied for the MLB lead in defensive WAR (1.8) and has slashed .298/.349/.549 this season with 63 RBIs (tied for sixth best in MLB) and 27 doubles (second best in MLB). Arizona Diamondback’s third baseman Jake Lamb is the backup at third base on the All-Star roster. He has 65 RBIs, 18 home runs, and has better slashing numbers than Bryant outside of his batting average.

But what about Justin Turner whom Bryant lost the fan vote to? Has Turner also gotten the better of Bryant this season?

Big Red > KB This Season

One of the premier third baseman in the NL for a long time, Justin Turner has been as unlucky in All-Star voting as the Cubs were during the 108 years prior to the World Series title last season.

Turner will make his first All-Star appearance this season, and it’s well deserved as he leads all MLB players with at least 250 plate appearances in batting average (.384) and on-base percentage (.473). His 33 RBIs are dead even with Bryant and although he has only hit eight home runs, Turner’s .571 slugging percentage is much better than Bryant’s .505.

Also, unlike Bryant, Turner has been freakishly superb in clutch situations this season.

Furthermore, Turner has been better than Bryant defensively in both the defensive runs saved and ultimate zone rating categories.

It’s isn’t difficult to figure out why Turner won the fan vote over Bryant. He has outperformed the Cubs third baseman in many important statistical categories both offensively and defensively and his scary high batting average and on-base percentage numbers provide the eye-popping star power statistic that fans generally base their vote on.

The Dodgers have a huge, cross-country fan base like the Cubs and assuredly voted in hoards to get their guy his first All-Star appearance. However, unlike most All-Star voting, Turner didn’t just win a popularity contest. He’s been the better player this season and deserved to represent the NL at third base this season.

Bryant is still good at baseball. However, All-Stars aren’t good they are great and Bryant simply hasn’t been great yet this season.

Paul Steeno spent 11 years pretending he was good at running. After hanging up the track spikes and officially becoming an elite hobby jogger, he decided to do something that he was actually good at: like writing about the Cubs. He is also a perpetually frustrated Chicago Bulls fan. This one time he got super lucky and ran 3:52 in the 1500 meter run.