Everyone loves the backup. Nowhere is this more apparent than in football, of course, when the backup quarterback becomes the one people would rather see when the starter is having a bad game. In hockey, if the starting goalie is struggling, particularly late in a season, the backup goalie becomes popular because that guy, if he gets hot, can carry a team a very long way on a playoff run.
In baseball, backups don’t really get the same type of love. Sure, if the backup is a gritty guy who comes in and “does all the little things right”, certain subsets of the fanbase would rather that guy get more playing time to help the team win.