White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin was chosen as a reserve on the American League All-Star team, it was announced on Sunday.
First baseman Paul Konerko was not selected, but has a chance to make it by way of fan balloting.
Starting pitcher Philip Humber was not chosen for the All-Star Game, which will be played in Phoenix on July 12.
Quentin ranks among AL leaders in extra-base hits (third with 40), doubles (fourth with 23) and home runs (sixth with 17). It’s the second time Quentin has been named.
“It’s unexpected, honestly,” Quentin said before the Sox played the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sunday. “They told me, and I was shocked. I thank the players that showed me enough respect to vote for me. That means a lot to me. At the same time, to be honest, the guy carrying this team offensively all year was Paul Konerko. There are some mixed feelings there. There’s some hope that he gets added. I hope the powers that be can do that. He’s the man on this team.”
The Sox have already started the campaign to get Konerko, one of five AL players in fan voting that is now open and runs through Thursday at 3 p.m., to be selected for the fifth time in his career. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski wore a “Paul-Star” T-shirt during batting practice.
Konerko is batting .317 with 21 homers, 62 RBI and a .954 OPS. He ranks in the top five in the AL in those categories.
Konerko said he was not shocked or surprised that he wasn’t named Sunday.
“I’ve been around long enough to know how it goes,” he said. “This is a tough process because you have the fan vote, the player vote, every team is going to be represented. When you really start to look at it there are guys with some really good numbers out there that get left off, especially when it’s your own team it doesn’t make sense like a guy like Phil. But when you crunch it all down, you can see how tough it is to get everybody in who’s done well. I’ve been down that road before.”
