Music: {allcanada} Record votes sends Jays' Donaldson to ASG

Sunday, July 5, 2015

{allcanada} Record votes sends Jays' Donaldson to ASG

DETROIT – It seems two elements are needed to secure a starting spot in the All-Star Game these days and only one of them is controlled by the player.

The first, the controllable part, is elite play.

The second is voting support as elite as the output on the field.

Josh Donaldson accomplished the former and received the latter, garnering a record 14,090,188 votes and so for the second consecutive year he'll be the American League's starting third baseman when the game's best convene in Cincinnati later this month.

"It's a big honour to represent this team for how many good players that we have on this team," said Donaldson. "It's an honour to be taken in by the fans and it's really just something that hasn't been done before. Honestly I could never tell you I would ever expect this. I don't know, I'm kind of mind blown a little bit from it."

Donaldson has more than earned the job. In his first season with the Blue Jays after the blockbuster offseason deal which brought him over from Oakland, he's the junior circuit's leader among third basemen with an .879 on-base plus slugging percentage, 62 runs scored and 56 RBI and it's co-leader with 19 home runs.

Not bad for a 29-year-old late bloomer who's in only his third full season in the big leagues.

Admittedly, it's kind of strange for the Pensacola-born, Alabama-raised southerner to suddenly be the summer toast of the far north.

"It's incredible," said Donaldson. "One of my good friends lives in Milton and a couple of years ago when I was playing with the A's we were hanging out and he was like, 'Just think if you play for the Blue Jays.' I was like, 'I don't know if that will happen' but sure enough it ends up happening and you have an entire country behind you and it sure showed in this setting."

Donaldson becomes the fourth Blue Jays' infielder to earn a starting selection for an All-Star Game, following Roberto Alomar (four times – 1991-1994), John Olerud (1993) and Carlos Delgado (2003).

"Congrats to him, he deserves it for sure," said pitcher Marco Estrada. "He's one of the best third basemen in probably the entire MLB so congrats to him."

Playing to a wins above replacement (WAR) metric of 4.3 slightly more than halfway through the year, Donaldson is on pace to surpass last year's 7.3 and his 7.7 of 2013. He already was celebrated as a WAR darling. He seems to be getting better and his value to the Blue Jays isn't lost on his skipper.

"Oh, he's been huge," said manager John Gibbons. "First off, he's one of the top players in the game. You guys see that everyday. He's got a different kind of personality and a different mentality that I've said many times before we needed on this ballclub."

"Everything," said Estrada when asked what Donaldson means to the team. "He's been the hottest hitter we have, not only the way he hits but his defence has been really good. You guys have seen he's made a bunch of good plays out there."

Described as an energetic personality inside the clubhouse, Donaldson has fit in with his new teammates and seems comfortable laughing and joking or sharing information with anyone.

"He's got a lot of energy; he keeps the team going," said Estrada. "We have a few of those guys here that have a lot of energy. It's good; you want a live clubhouse. We're all really close, I think, and we got really good team chemistry and having guys like that keeping everybody going with good energy, it means the world to everybody. It gets everybody pumped up and I think that's why we put up so many runs."

For a team that's relied as heavily on the offence as the Blue Jays have to overcome suspect pitching – the Jays scored 10 runs in a game for the 15th time this season on Sunday – Donaldson's been a key addition hitting in front of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

"I don't know where we'd be without him," said Gibbons.