Andrew McCutchen earns cover of MLB 13

Finally we have a ballot result that baseball fans, writers, experts and all of mankind can get behind.

Well, I hope that‘s the case anyway.

After a five-day voting period set up to allow fans to select the cover athlete for the MLB 13: The Show video game —which is scheduled for a March 5 release — it has been announced that Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen emerged victorious, beating out other superstars such as Matt Kemp, Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey to earn the coveted spot.

We’re also happy to report this means the hashtag wars connected to this contest that have consumed social media over the past week are also finished, meaning it should be safe to return to Twitter this weekend. Unless you don’t like football. In that case you should wait until Monday, as you would normally do.

Anyway, the results of the contest were actually quite surprising. McCutchen, who was by most accounts considered the underdog of the seven candidates selected, ended up pulling away from the pack with 108,147 total votes. That gave him a comfortable margin of victory over second place finisher CC Sabathia (89,054).

Yes, a Pirate beat out a Yankee in a popularity contest. He also overcame phenom Bryce Harper and his creative campaign that we told you about Thursday. But I guess that just speaks to the respect and admiration McCutchen has rightfully gained not only in Pittsburgh, but around the baseball world after putting together back-to-back all star seasons and finishing second in the NL batting race in 2012.

It also doesn’t hurt that his skill set and style of play make him one of the most entertaining athletes to watch in any sport, that he’s one of the best all-around guys in the game as we learned when he talked to David Brown back in August, or that his glare can be both intimidating and convincing.

If you'd like you can check out the complete results by clicking here. If you do you’ll notice that Ryan Braun finished a dead and distant last on the ballot with 13,153 votes. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to why that might have happened. Buster Posey also didn't fare nearly as well as I expected, but that probably just means I put too much thought into it.

Congrats to Cutch, though. And if your first move as an owner of MLB 13 is not to acquire him for your favorite team, you're doing it wrong.

Looking for more baseball chatter?
Follow @bigleaguestew, @Townie813 and check out the BLS Facebook Page