Max Kepler has been voted as a player that MLB pitchers would least want to face in Game 7 of the World Series

In what might be the most bizarre poll from the The Athletic’s anonymous MLB play poll, one pitcher has officially cast their vote for Max Kepler as the hitter they’d least want to face in Game 7 of the World Series.

You can forget about Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Bryce Harper, and Aaron Judge. The most impressive part of the polling is Max Kepler is one of the most clutch, and most feared players in all of Major League Baseball…according to one pitcher that voted for him.

Max Kepler is one of the most feared hitters in Major League Baseball

Who voted for Max Kepler??? pic.twitter.com/Hsb9636YLH

— Phillies Tailgate (@PhilsTailgate) June 12, 2025

Obviously, there’s a million questions on why Max Kepler was given a vote.

• There’s a pitcher somewhere in the league who actually believes this.
• Max Kepler somehow voted for himself.
• One of Max Kepler’s friends voted for him to be nice.
• Someone is just trolling a stupid anonymous poll from The Athletic.

I would like to think it’s the latter. Plus, I hate anonymous polls.

There are some interesting numbers which could have contributed to the vote. Max Kepler owns Trevor Bauer but we can’t reference that because he got hosed by a bunch of bullshit allegations and hasn’t been in the league for years at this point.

From there, you have guys like Dylan Cease, Mike Clevinger, and Lucas Giolito. Max Kepler took each of those fools yard three times. He’s also hitting .353 against Eduardo Rodríguez. It’s very well possible that one of these guys was having nightmares about Kepler when they were called upon to cast their vote.

I absolutely hate anonymous polls

I think if you participate in an anonymous poll, you’re a loser. Sorry, but unless you want to stand on business, maybe just shut the fuck up and stay out of the polls.

Not to mention, this is all orchestrated by The Athletic, who’s owned by the New York Times and last time I checked, the NYT are the biggest group of fraudsters in the Western Hemisphere so can anything reported actually be taken as a matter of fact?

Probably not.

If the NYT and The Athletic want to poll players? Go right ahead but make them sign their names. That would be electric and I could only imagine the responses we would get.

Anyways, to be fair, Max Kepler has had stretches where he looks like a legit middle-of-the-order threat and as of late, he’s quietly coming off a solid series against the Cubs.

As a whole, Kepler hasn’t answered the Phillies desperate call for outfield production. He’s slashing .210 with a .676 OPS this year which obviously is not the stat line that screams “feared October assassin.”

Let’s hope Kepler finds out and embraces the role. Give us the Game 7 boogeyman we never saw coming.

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