Folks, I'm hearing a lot of anti-Arraez sentiment in the wake of his selection to the All-Star Game, and I simply can't abide it. If you love baseball, you must also love Luis Arraez. Hitting a baseball remains the hardest thing to do in any sport, and he does it better than anyone in an era that's made it more difficult than ever. This marks his third consecutive All-Star selection, each with a different team, but switching teams and leagues and opponents hasn't seemed to bother him. During his first two All-Star campaigns –– 2022 with Minnesota and 2023 with Miami –– he won batting titles, the first to do so in different leagues in consecutive years. And this season with San Diego, he leads the league in hits with 118 of them in just 89 games. Since the beginning of 2022, Arraez is hitting .330 with 494 hits in 380 games. You People™ complain about his lack of power, yet he has more extra-base hits than strikeouts, even with the slowest bat speed in the league. He bats leadoff, yet also has more RBI than strikeouts. How many of your modern launch angle merchants can make either of those claims? Arraez and Teoscar Hernandez were both selected to be All-Stars this season, and they're two players I really enjoy watching, but they're two completely different hitters. Since the beginning of 2022, they've both played exactly 380 games and drawn exactly 100 walks. But the similarities end there: Arraez • 380 games, 100 walks • 494 hits, 100K • 0.97x as many K as XBH Hernandez • 380 games, 100 walks • 383 hits, 468 K • 3x as many K as XBH Hernandez is a threat to leave the yard, and he's absolutely mashed the baseball in every Dodgers game I've watched this year, but he's also a threat to strike out 200 times. Arraez, meanwhile, is an artist. He can put the bat on the ball seemingly at will, regardless of who's on the mound. He avoids the strikeout like it's his job and doesn't get nearly enough credit for the bat-handling skills he brings to the table. He causes havoc and chaos for pitchers despite not having impressive size, strength, or speed. He is remarkable. How can anyone begrudge Arraez his third straight All-Star selection? He's built like an everyman, yet makes even elite pitchers look foolish. He's truly a unicorn in today's game, a veritable magician whose act deserves to be seen by a national audience; the All-Star game is a nice opportunity to make that happen. True baseball fans are in awe of both Luis and Teoscar, but for different reasons. Balanced lineups have different kinds of players with different skill sets and we need to give them all credit where credit is due. For now, just enjoy Arraez. Enjoy watching the closest thing we've seen to Tony Gwynn ply his trade. He brings a craft and artistry to the game that has gotten lost in the spreadsheet-driven homogenization of lineups across the league. So many of you would rather see a lineup of nine Kyles Schwarber "because the spreadsheet says it's the optimal approach" that you've lost sight of some of what makes baseball the greatest game on earth.

Batting Stance Rushmore • Julio Franco • Jeff Bagwell • Mickey Tettleton • Tony Batista Honorable Mention: Counsell, Youkilis, Carew (h/t @jerseydevil_82)

By following up his recent entry into the 100 HR / 100 SB club with his 1000th hit and 500th run scored, Kevin Pillar has become just the 17th active player to reach all of those career milestones. The other 16 are some great players; congrats on joining some exclusive company!

There are only seven players in MLB history with at least ten 100-RBI seasons that are not in the Hall of Fame: 1. Not Yet Eligible 2. PEDs 3. Not Yet Eligible 4. PEDs 5. PEDs 6. PEDs 7. JOE CARTER