A couple of days ago I wrote about the early returns on the NL All-Star voting. Overall, I thought the results were good, with fans showing a good awareness of the current players in the MLB. This is important because I believe that the All-Star game should recognize the best players having the best years this season, not just the most popular guys. With that in mind, the AL results were much less encouraging.
Catcher: Its been a pretty slow year for AL catchers but I like Russell Martin and Alex Avila in the top 3. Even though their stats aren’t overwhelming, they’ve both had big positive impacts on their teams this year. The problem is, Joe Mauer is second in the catcher’s voting. Mauer has played 9 games this season and has spent most of the first half on the DL. He hit .235 in those 9 games with 0 HRs. By what measure do the nearly 600,000 people who voted for him think he’s an All-Star in 2011? The size of your contract should not factor into All-Star voting.
1B: No problem here. Just because I don’t neccessarily agree with the voting doesn’t mean it’s flawed. Both Adrian Gonzalez, who is batting .329, and Mark Teixeira, who has 16 HRs, have cases to start the AS game. Tex leads the voting right now.
2B: At first glance, the voting for 2B seems good too. There are no breakout performers at the position this year and the two best, Robinson Cano and Dustin Pedroia are leading. Thing is, Cano is hitting only .284, 23 points below his career AVG. I’m not sure how that equates to almost 1.2 million votes and a 500,000 vote lead over Pedroia, Despite the fact that Dustin hasn’t played up to his abilities so far.
3B: Alex Rodriguez leads the voting by almost 200,000 and is set to make his first start since 2008. This is just. He leads Adrain Beltre, the second place vote getter by 40 AVG points and has played a very good defensive third base. A-Rod was recently voted the most overrated player in baseball by 185 of his peers in a Sports Illustrated poll but he’ll start the AS game.
SS: All we’ve been hearing all year is that Derek Jeter has no range, can’t hit the ball in the air, is over payed and is grouchy. It was stop-the-presses-breaking news when he hit 2 HRs against Texas on May 8th, his only two of the season to go along with his .264 AVG. At the same time, Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting .306 with 10 HRs with 7 SBs and no caught stealings for the most surprisingly good team in baseball. Yet, Jeter leads the voting by about 250,000 votes. How? Would this be the case if his name were anything else but Derek Jeter? This vote is clearly about popularity and it’s not supposed to be like that. Give Asdrubal the start. He deserves it.
DH: Here’s another interesting one. Michael Young and David Ortiz are 1-2 in the voting. No problems there as they’ve both had impressive seasons so far and deserve it. Here’s where it gets tricky. Travis Hafner, who, before he got hurt, was having a resurgent year batting .345 with 5 HRs in 32 games, is trailing Jorge Posada for third place. Yep, Jorge Posada. The same Jorge Posada who is playing so badly that the Yankees considered cutting him a few weeks ago after he refused to hit lower in the lineup. Posada shouldn’t even be in the top 10 in voting yet he and his .169 batting average are third.
Outfield: Jose Bautista is the leading vote getter in the AL and 1st in the OF voting. If it wasn’t that way, we’d have to consider scrapping fan voting all together. Curtis Granderson is second and that’s how it should be too. Curtis has had a monster year and has been the most productive centerfielder in baseball this season. Josh Hamilton is third. That means he’d get a start if the voting ended today. Now, he is the reigning AL MVP but that should have no bearing whatsoever on this season’s AS voting. Hamilton broke his arm early in the season and as a result, has only played in 20 games so far. He does not deserve to be an All-Star. He’s played in less than half the number of games as the other outfielders and no matter what he’s done in those 20 games, it doesn’t qualify him for this honor. He wasn’t even that good. He’s hitting only .291 with only 1 HR. Give the starting job to someone who has earned it. Please.
For some reason the MLB gives each fan up to 25 votes. I implore you, use them! Fix the disaster that is the AL voting so far by casting your ballots for guys that deserve the honor, not just guys with name recognition.
-Max Frankel
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