With a month to go in All-Star voting Major League Baseball has released the vote totals from players so far and as usual there are some surprising results.
The Yankees are known to rack up All-Star votes due to their enormous following and 2011 is no different with the team currently set to start at six positions this year if the current voting trend holds.
While some guys (Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano) have a valid case, others (Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter) are simply leading because of the team they play for. Coming off the worst season of his career, Jeter has managed to play poorer and still lead all AL shortstops in votes.
Even when they weren’t leading, the Yankees received strong support (Jorge Posada is third for Designated hitters and both Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher rank in the top 11 for outfielders).
The most surprising part might be that no Red Sox player is currently slated to start. While they haven’t played as well in 2011, they usually receive plenty of votes as well and have one of the best first basemen (Adrian Gonzalez) in the league.
The three non-Yankee leaders in the AL are Michael Young, Jose Bautista and Josh Hamilton ( who was selected to the All-Star game in 2009 despite hardly playing in the season’s first half).
Along with some questionable leaders, there were a couple AL runners up who have no business in the All-Star game. Joe Mauer is second in voting for catchers despite hardly playing this year and Ichiro is fourth among outfielders despite a .640 OPS.
The National League had some questionable selections as well.
Buster Posey was the leading vote getter at catcher. Even before he got injured he was being outplayed by other catcher’s (notably, Brian McCann and Yadier Molina).
Albert Pujols led all National League players in votes despite a rather pedestrian .755 OPS on the season while Joey Votto was over 100,000 votes back in second.
Brandon Phillips and Troy Tulowitski are currently projected to start in the middle infield although both have their flaws. Tulo is hitting just .250 on the season and Phillips has been outplayed thus far by Rickie Weeks.
Placido Polanco currently leads an extremely weak third base class for the NL. (No player has over six homeruns or nine stolen bases).
The National League’s outfield is great all the way around. Ryan Braun and Lance Berkman have been terrific this year and Matt Holliday currently has a .975 OPS. Matt Kemp might be more deserving of a spot but you can make a strong case for all three of the current starters.
All in all, this year is typical of what to expect from the All-Star game. Many players get rewarded for good seasons but some get rewarded simply for being on the right team or having a lot of fans. Although the All-Star game “counts” now, the best players still won’t get to go.
Used with permission of the author.
Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.
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