St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina is tagged out at homeplate by Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy as he tries to steal home in the eighth inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 5, 2012. St. Louis won the game 3-0.      UPI/Bill Greenblatt

St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina is tagged out at homeplate by Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy as he tries to steal home in the eighth inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 5, 2012. St. Louis won the game 3-0. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

This is the time of year when Major League teams start campaigning for their players to get more All-Star votes out of their fans.  It usually comes from the smaller market teams who have a player putting together a career year.

We’ve seen the Royals try to make this push, especially for Alex Gordon, who has put together a couple of solid seasons.  However, we know it’s tough to unseat perennial All-Stars, like Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.

We know about Yadi’s defensive skills and his offensive numbers are consistent and he’s one of the best two strike hitters.  However, the Milwaukee Brewers are circulating a video pushing for fans to vote for their catcher Jonathan Lucroy.  The Brewers organization is taking an interesting twist (and having fun…don’t get too worked up) by producing a mock political commercial, saying it’s time for change.  They go as far as to proclaim Lucroy the “best catcher in the National League.”

It’s laughable, right?  I know the Brewers are in first place and all, but Lucroy over Yadi?  I was ready to rip Milwaukee until I looked at the numbers.

In all of the key offensive numbers that I looked at, such as batting average, home runs, RBIs, on base percentage and slugging percentage, the comparisons are pretty equal.  Even defensively, Lucroy is slightly better than the MLB average for gunning down base runners.