"Who the hell is Pat Neshek?" asks America

I'm looking again at the Final Vote for the MLB All-Star Game and the AL options are as follows:

The AL nominees include Jeremy Bonderman of the Tigers, Kelvim Escobar of the Angels, Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays, Pat Neshek of the Twins and Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox.

According to the same post:

Managers Tony La Russa of the National League and Jim Leyland of the American League have gone with pitchers-only in presenting fans with their five nominees per league to decide the 32nd and final rosters spots for the 78th All-Star Game on July 10 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. A pitcher-only ballot only happened once before, when you chose Houston's Roy Oswalt from NL candidates in 2005.

So, in other words, Leyland opted for Neshek and Okajima over Joe Mauer, Joe Nathan and Kevin Youkilis to name a few. That makes little to no sense.

For the record, Neshek and Okajima are having solid seasons - Neshek's numbers are here and Okajima's can be found here - but I doubt Neshek or even Escobar stand a snowball's chance in hell on this one. Not even with Neshek's web savvy disposition, though I haven't checked MySpace for him yet.

On a side note, but because we're talking pitching and El Guapo is one of the funniest characters in recent memory, check out this story from Ump Bump. This plays out exactly like it would if I was drinking with friends in the same ballpark. Only, I never got B's in Spanish, so the second half of the story would have ended with a police officer leading me off the premises after telling El Guapo's mother, "I'm going to hit your son with a cat-flavored empenada."

Also, great play by his fantasy league buddies. Coordination is key in really busting someone's stones.

(Image from: Bat-Girl.com, boy do I miss her)