Paul Goldschmidt named to National League All-Star team, Jake Lamb in Final Vote

Last year, he made it in to the starting line-up, as the winner of the popular vote. This year, his slow start probably derailed much hope of that, almost out of the gate. But you'd be hard-pushed to say Goldie was hard done-by there, as Cubs first-baseman Anthony Rizzo is having an excellent year so far. He and Goldschmidt are tied in fWAR (both at 2.8), with Rizzo having the edge in bWAR (3.3 to 2.9). For Paul, it will be his fourth consecutive year as a representative of the Diamondbacks, having taken part every time since 2013. He now trails only Brandon Webb and Luis Gonzales in team history, each going five times to the midsummer classic.

Goldschmidt goes into tonight's game, coincidentally against this year's host Padres, batting .290 with 15 home-runs and 56 runs batted in. Those figures are lower than at the same point last season. 85 games in, he was batting an incandescent .345, with 20 home-runs and 69 RBI. But few would argue he's not still the best player on the team this year, and fully deserves the honor. However, he will be the sole Sedona Red man, as there was no room for any other Diamondbacks. The most obvious candidates would have included Zack Grienke, Jake Lamb and Jean Segura, but they were (more or less justly) over looked in the selection process.

Jake Lamb, however, is one of the five players who will be part of the Final Man vote in the National League, so still has a chance (not that the D-backs have a good history in such things!). He'll be going up against Brandon Belt, Ryan Braun, Starling Marte, and our old nemesis, Trevor Story.