By now, you’ve probably heard about the leading vote-getters for the 2015 All Star Game. If voting were to end today, this year’s game in Cincinnati would essentially be an interleague game between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. A number of years ago, I stopped caring about the All Star Game for the most part. There are always a ton of people that don’t really deserve to be there, and a ton of people that are deserving, but nowhere close in the fan voting. After letting myself get worked up about it year after year, I finally just said “You know what…if that’s who these idiots want to see, let them see them.” That’s why even though I’d get slightly annoyed to see Derek Jeter at shortstop year after year, (even during years where he was not necessarily the best shortstop in the AL) I’d be okay with it. He’s a superstar, and if fans want to see superstars, so be it.
This year is a little different, at least when it comes to the AL. The Kansas City Royals lead the voting at 7 of 9 positions, and could feasibly end up with 8 starters when all is said and done. The only two non-Royals leaders right now are Mike Trout and Jose Altuve, and Altuve is facing a serious threat from Omar Infante. Mike Trout is likely safe (for now) – he’s second in vote getting among AL outfielders, and fourth place vote-getter Alex Rios (who was injured for most of the year and hasn’t even played that much) is about 1.3 million votes behind Trout.
Here is the AL All Star team, as of today:
C – Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
1B – Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals
2B – Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
3B – Mike Moustakas, Kansas City Royals
SS – Alcides Escobar, Kansas City Royals
OF – Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals
OF – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
OF – Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals
DH – Kendrys Morales, Kansas City Royals
The only two Royals in any kind of danger of being passed are Eric Hosmer (by Miguel Cabrera) and Kendrys Morales (by Nelson Cruz). Otherwise, the Royals have a 1-2 million vote lead over their next closest competitor. Obviously Royals fans are psyched about their World Series appearance last fall, but it should also be noted that this is the first time that voting moved to online-only – there are no more ballots handed out at MLB parks.
So how should we determine who is the “best” at each position each season? Should there be a limit on how many starters can come from a single MLB team? I’m not sure if I necessarily have the answers, but I did at least attempt to come up with what I felt were the “best” all star rosters. Even though WAR doesn’t necessarily tell you everything, I went with the players with the best WAR at every position. For something like the All Star game, that’s not a major, lasting award, I figured it was likely close enough. Here is the lineup I came up with (including a starting pitcher, which is not voted on by fans).
C – Stephen Vogt, Oakland Athletics
1B – Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
2B – Jason Kipnis, Cleveland Indians
3B – Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays
SS – Jose Iglesias, Detroit Tigers
OF – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
OF – Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals
OF – Yoenis Cespedes, Detroit Tigers
DH – Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays/Nelson Cruz, Seattle Mariners *
SP – Sonny Gray, Oakland Athletics (with Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros, a very close second)
* – Nelson Cruz is actually the 3rd best outfielder when it comes to WAR, but he’s on the ballot as a DH. I felt he was at least worth mention.
This breakdown – 3 Tigers, 2 Blue Jays, 2 Athletics, 1 Indian, 1 Royal, 1 Angel, 1 Mariner. While this isn’t perfect, it’s at least a bit more balanced then 7 players from one team.
So where does the current vote leaders rank in terms of WAR, compared to this list of players?
C – Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals (4th in WAR among AL catchers)
1B – Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals (tied for 3rd in WAR among AL 1B)
2B – Jose Altuve, Houston Astros (6th in WAR among AL 2B)
3B – Mike Moustakas, Kansas City Royals (2nd in WAR among AL 3B)
SS – Alcides Escobar, Kansas City Royals (7th in WAR among AL SS)
OF – Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals (in top 3 among outfielders)
OF – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (in top 3 among outfielders)
OF – Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals (7th in WAR among AL outfielders)
DH – Kendrys Morales, Kansas City Royals (5th in WAR among AL designated hitters)
Out of all of the vote leaders, Cain and Trout definitely belong as AL All Star starters. Moustakas isn’t a huge stretch at third, because he’s not statistically that far behind Donaldson. The rest…ehhhh, probably not. If Omar Infante were to overtake Altuve, then he is currently second to last in WAR among AL second basemen.
How about the list of WAR leaders – are they even in the ballpark (pun intended) in terms of voting?
C – Stephen Vogt, Oakland Athletics (2nd in voting, 2,220,840 behind Perez)
1B – Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers (2nd in voting, 617,897 votes behind Hosmer)
2B – Jason Kipnis, Cleveland Indians (3rd in voting, 1,705,064 behind Altuve…Infante is just 159,315 behind Altuve)
3B – Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays (2nd in voting, 1,716,984 behind Moustakas)
SS – Jose Iglesias, Detroit Tigers (2nd in voting, 2,109,221 behind Escobar)
OF – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (among top vote-getters)
OF – Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals (among top vote-getters)
OF – Yoenis Cespedes, Detroit Tigers (7th in voting, 1,961,687 behind 3rd place Alex Gordon)
DH – Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays/Nelson Cruz, Seattle Mariners (Bautista not in top 5 of voting, Cruz 2nd in voting, 141,513 behind Morales)
For the most part if you remove almost all of the Royals, the best players are in second place in voting for most positions.
How about the National League? Did voters do any better when it came to voting for the players on the senior circuit? Here are the current NL vote leaders:
C – Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
1B – Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
2B – Dee Gordon, Los Angeles Dodgers
3B – Matt Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
SS – Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis Cardinals
OF – Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
OF – Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals
OF – Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
Not quite as bad as the AL, but it still has 4 of 8 players that are from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Now what happens when we look at the leaders in WAR for each position?
C – Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
1B – Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
2B – Dee Gordon, Los Angeles Dodgers
3B – Todd Frazier, Cincinnati Reds
SS- Brandon Crawford, San Francisco Giants
OF – Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
OF – A.J. Pollock, Arizona Diamondbacks
OF – Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
SP – Shelby Miller, Atlanta Braves (Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals, is a close second)
4 of the 8 leaders in WAR are also leaders in voting. Much better than the American League’s 2 of 9.
Where do the current vote leaders rank, when it comes to positional WAR?
C – Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals (13th in WAR among NL catchers)
1B – Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
2B – Dee Gordon, Los Angeles Dodgers
3B – Matt Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals (4th in WAR among NL 3B)
SS – Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis Cardinals (2nd in WAR among NL SS)
OF – Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
OF – Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals (13th in WAR among NL outfielders)
OF – Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
So while Peralta is a close second to Crawford, the other three Cardinals really don’t belong on the All Star team this year.
And finally, are the WAR leaders anywhere close in the voting?
C – Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants (2nd in voting, 4,898 votes behind Molina…Molina just passed him)
1B – Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
2B – Dee Gordon, Los Angeles Dodgers
3B – Todd Frazier, Cincinnati Reds (3rd in voting, 2,075,170 votes behind Carpenter)
SS- Brandon Crawford, San Francisco Giants (2nd in voting, 620,347 behind Peralta)
OF – Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
OF – A.J. Pollock, Arizona Diamondbacks (not among the top 15 vote-getting outfielders)
OF – Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
What have I learned from the looong process of putting all of these lists together? If you eliminate most (but not all) Royals and Cardinals, you have two pretty solid All Star teams. Since that isn’t going to happen, this is what we’ll likely be watching in a little over a month, outside of major changes in voting. There’s a small part of me that almost hopes the entire starting lineup for the AL ends up as all Royals. I mean, would MLB step in and make changes? Would people have a royal (pun intended) fit? Because let’s be fair…if I wanted to watch a Royals game, I’d just wait until the next time they came to Cleveland. Maybe if we’re lucky, the “final 5” vote will end up as some Royals pitchers and back-up catcher Drew Butera. Everyone else could just have a few days off to relax and prep for the second half of the season.