So we’re going to do this again, huh? Kansas City fans Royals flooded the ballot boxes so much during last season’s All-Star voting that Major League Baseball changed the rules this year. Instead of voting 35 times per e-mail address, you are now only able to vote five times per day and 35 times per e-mail address. It turns out the people of Kansas City have quite a few e-mail addresses.
The first ballot update for the 2016 American League All-Stars was announced yesterday and just like last season, it features a lot of blue. Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, and Lorenzo Cain lead at their positions, and Omar Infante, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar are in second. Alex Gordon and Paolo Orlando are also within the top 8 in outfield voting. This is all despite the fact that Gordon is out with a broken wrist and Moustakas is out for the season with a torn ACL. Apparently, Royals fans don’t know very much about their own team or don’t care.
For those positions not currently held by Royalty, Jose Altuve leads at second, Manny Machado at third, Xander Boegarts at short, and David Ortiz at DH with Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo holding two of the spots in the outfield. These are some pretty solid selections from any standpoint and in fact, other than Trumbo, rank 1 through 5 in the AL in fWAR. Numbers six and seven, Robinson Cano and Josh Donaldson, are both third at their position behind the leader and a Royal.
Rather than focus on those who don’t deserve their votes, however, we should focus on who is deserving, but completely missing from the top five at any position. First, there is former NL shortstop and current AL left fielder Ian Desmond. It’s possible this change in league and position has lead to this dismissal as he has batted .298/.346/.480 with 37 runs scored, 30 RBI and stellar defense. Considering 15 outfielders are listed, this is a fairly big snub. At least there was room on the list for rookie Oriole Joey Rickard, who is batting all of .247/.307/.356.
Another defensive stalwart missing from the voting is Francisco Lindor, 9th in the AL in fWAR and currently hitting .311/.369/.420. While Bogaerts is a completely legitimate selection at shortstop, Escobar and Troy Tulowitzki have been among the worst performers at the position this year and J.J. Hardy is currently on the DL, having played just 22 games this year and at a low level at that.
Even Correa, who beat out Lindor for Rookie of the Year last year because the voters like homers, is not half the offensive player that Lindor has been this year and plays so poorly on defense he nearly cancels out his offensive production. The fact that Lindor has been excluded from the top five shows a clear lack of awareness from the average baseball fan.
Other than DH, where Ortiz rightfully is destroying all comers, and catcher, where Perez is doing the same, Hosmer at first has the biggest lead of any position. While he wouldn’t be a terrible choice, there are better options including Joe Mauer, who isn’t listed among the top five. Mauer is having a resurgent season of sorts and is currently batting .281/.389/.427. Even if he isn’t necessarily the best (and there isn’t a first baseman who stands out as an obvious pick), he definitely should be in the top five over Hanley Ramirez and Jose Abreu.
In the end, this starting spot will likely go to Miguel Cabrera, who leads all at the position in home runs and is second in RBI to Albert Pujols while batting .305, but it will take some people who have seen a baseball game played by a team other than the Royals voting for him.
In all, this ballot reveal wasn’t as offensive as the one last year, so it’s possible the new rules have had some effect. It’s also possible that another team has taken to the virtual voting booths with near the same fervor as the KC faithful. The second place Orioles currently have a top 5 vote gainer at each position except DH including top 3 finishers in all but two fielding positions. While Machado and Trumbo have earned their spots, Jonathan Schoop is as big of a joke for the All-Star game as Infante, and the pair are currently keeping Ian Kinsler and Jason Kipnis out of the top five.
In addition, there is the aforementioned Hardy at short and Rickard in the outfield. Chris Davis deserves his top 5 spot among first basemen as does Matt Wieters among the catchers, but how Adam Jones is considered among the top 15 outfielders ahead of the aforementioned Desmond as well as Adam Eaton, George Springer, and Kole Calhoun is beyond me.
We’ve talked about abuses in All-Star voting for years (or decades) and the fact remains that the only way for the individual fan to do anything about it is to vote for the best options available. While a few fan bases have accomplished much with their straight ticket selections, if fans of the other 28 teams simply vote for the best candidates, we will still get an All-Star game featuring the best baseball has to offer.
