Padres broadcaster tries to start pathetic beef with Dodgers with Max Muncy comment

Ever since the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres have taken over California's interstate baseball rivalry in some fans' eyes, LA has lived rent-free in Padres fans' heads.

Max Muncy can't even be an All-Star in peace. After a rough start to the season, Muncy's torrid streak at the plate earned him over 1.6 million votes to advance to the second round of All-Star fan voting. That earned him the potential to be the National League's starting third baseman, if Dodgers fans showed out like MLB knows they can.

But Padres color commentator Mark Grant can't abide that. He called on San Diego fans to vote for Manny Machado to be the NL's starter at the hot corner.

"Let's face it. Let's call it the way it is — Manny Machado is a better third baseman than Max Muncy, alright? Please. Please," he said during San Diego's June 29 game against the Reds.

Padres announcers try to spark beef with Dodgers over Manny Machado and Max Muncy's All-Star race

It's perfectly acceptable for local announcers to be homers and to advocate for their favorite players. But Grant's call to vote for Machado just came off as desperate. Machado is a better third baseman than Muncy, and he's paid like it. The fact that their race is so close is more of an indictment of Padres fans than anything else — if Machado's superiority is so unquestionable, then he should have had no problem winning the start.

Granted, there are more Dodgers fans than Padres fans, and LA fans are spread across the world. But Machado won the opening round of the fan vote by over 800,000 votes. Machado was the only Padre to advance to the second round of the fan vote, and fans around MLB were upset that so many Dodgers got through, but Machado had a firm hold on first place here, and the shade toward Muncy was unnecessary.

Machado has posted a better season overall than Muncy — he's slashing .293/.354/.477 compared to Muncy's .255/.379/.466 slash line — but the latter was the better player in the month of June. Muncy batted .330/.444/.691 with 10 homers and 35 RBI in those 30 games, which handily beats Machado's .258/.305/.467 slash line, seven homers and 22 RBI in the same amount of time. Machado has only gone colder as of late, while Muncy has kept up his streak all month.

Machado and Muncy were the two top vote-getters by far in the third base category. They could both very well make the team together, and they would both deserve it, so there's no need to start senseless beef over a game that doesn't matter.