The good news is that every MLB team will have a representative in the All-Star Game. The bad news is that several deserving players will get snubbed.
On Wednesday afternoon, Major League Baseball gave us our first look at the leading vote-getters in the American League. Obviously, not everyone is going to agree with the results, and not everyone agrees with the process in general. However, as it stands, here is a look at how the voting looks.
Close races highlight the first American League balloting update for the 2017 @AllStarGame. Vote now at https://t.co/qd5OOxn7ED pic.twitter.com/caEZwC3uxh
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) May 31, 2017
What Stands Out:
Mike Trout leads the AL in votes and will not be playing in the game due to a wrist injury. The Angels slugger has been placed on the 10-day DL and his estimated return is not for at least six-to-eight weeks. The All Star Game will take place on July 17, in Miami.
New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge has received the second-highest vote total. The city you play in will always have an impact on your vote totals. Clearly the fans in New York are showing there support, as they should. Many people will argue that this is one of the biggest problems with the voting system.
Where a player plays his home games should not determine his all-star status. Think about all the players that were snubbed in 2015 when Kansas City Royals fans stuffed the ballot. For a long time we were looking at the possibility of Omar Infante starting at second base.
Which brings us to Corey Dickerson. It’s no secret that the Tampa Bay Rays have struggled historically in terms of attendance. Unfortunately, the players have little control over that. Even when the team went to the World Series in 2008, they still ranked 27th in overall attendance. The club averaged 22,370 tickets sold. That number is much greater than the 14,719 on average this year.
The correlation is that if fans aren’t filling the seats, fans aren’t voting. Clearly that is the case.
Look at the top Designated Hitters in the AL (according to votes), and where they rank in key categories…
| Player | Hits | Runs | HR | RBI | BA | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson Cruz (457,050 votes) | 4th | 7th | 1st | 1st | 3rd | 2nd |
| Edwin Encarnacion (282,837 votes) | 9th | 6th | 4th | 11th | 15th | 10th |
| Matt Holliday (276,855 votes) | 10th | 10th | 3rd | 3rd | 9th | 4th |
| Corey Dickerson (216,350 votes) | 1st | 1st | 1st | 7th | 1st | 1st |
Is Power Your Thing?
If you are a fan of home runs and power, great that’s what most people want to see from the DH-spot. And if that leads you to vote for Nelson Cruz – he is well deserving.
Beyond Cruz, can you honestly look at “the numbers” and make a case for someone other than the Rays designated hitter?
The six categories above are the main categories that most fans would use to evaluate a DH – Dickerson leads all but one of them.
Matt Holliday and Edwin Encarnacion are the more house-hold names but neither one of them is more deserving than Corey Dickerson.
And regardless of where you live, I don’t think you can argue that.
What Does it Mean?
Since every team will have a representative in Miami, Dickerson is about as sure-a-thing as can be at this point to make the three-hour trip south. I don’t see him getting snubbed.
However, it just seems the way the voting is structured simply doesn’t allow for the most-deserving players to receive their due. When “all-star appearances” is a criteria used for salary arbitration and free agency contracts, not to mention hall-of-fame consideration – shouldn’t we make sure that the system used to decide such things is a bit more comprehensive than geographic location?
