You may or may not have heard about Royals fans coordinating, mobilizing, and voting by the millions for all the Royals players to start in the All-Star game.
According to ESPN's AL voting tracking, if the All-Star game were played today, 7 position player Royals, Mike Trout (OF), and Miguel Cabrera (1B) would start. Royals 1B Hosmer is right behind Cabrera in voting. Cabrera passed Hosmer in the past week. This isn't because the Royal players just all happen to be hitting/fielding/playing lights out baseball. It is a concerted effort by Royal fans to get as many Royals into the ASG as possible. For those of you who don't know how ASG voting works, you can vote up to 35 times per person online (I'm guessing more if you use different computers, email addresses, names, etc.) and unlimited voting at ball parks. Un. limited. voting. Right next to the beer vendors, so you know the decision making is going to be at its sharpest right around the 8th inning of a home team blowout.
The talking heads (when they're not talking about last night's draft, Tom Brady, or Pete Rose) are all sorts of up in arms about the Royals essentially representing the AL starters in the ASG. How can this happen? Why would anyone other than Royals want to watch essentially a "Royals vs. the best of the NL game?" Starters play four or five innings. Usually, with the quality of pitching in the ASG, getting 2 maybe 3 at bats. Then, the manager, this year--NL: Bruce Bochy, SF, and, of course, Ned Yost, KC, start rotating players through so that all teams are represented. Now, I'm guessing that if most of the starters are Royals, Yost will pull them as soon as he can so they are rested for games that actually matter. Managers and a lot of players use the Al Star break to rest, heal, and get ready for the second half of a long season. Still, this will be about half the game with KC players.
How many of those KC players getting votes (so, the seven who would be currently starting + Hosmer because it isn't out of the realm of possibility) are hitting over .300? You can look it up here. 1-Moustakas. I would say that Moustakas deserves to go. He's hitting .328 with 7 dingers. Catcher Salvador Perez should go because I can't think of an AL catcher who is having a better year. Perez has 11 HR and a decent .276. Catchers are rarely hitters. Mike Piazza, a young Jorge Posada, and the NL's Buster Posey are exceptions that spring to mind.
So what about Hosmer, 2B Omar Infante, SS Pablo Escobar, Out fielders Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon, and DH Kendrys Morales? If they get the votes they should start. Let the Royals start at nearly every position. Let players hitting below .300 (when they are facing all pitchers, so that would include good teams' 4 & 5 rotation guys AND bad teams' rotation guys, not to mention relievers) start over better hitters/fielders. Don't change the All Star Game this year. This is a monster that MLB has created. Royals fans just elevated it to the roof of the castle in the lightning storm. Let it happen.
And then bet H E A V I L Y on the NL.
The AL will essentially spot the NL All Stars (you know, the legitimate ones) 4-5 innings before the Real AL All Stars get to play. Royals fans will get to watch their .236 (Infante) to .292 (Hosmer who, ironically might be the one NOT to start) average hitters go up against the likes of Max Scherzer (1.76 ERA, 123 strikeouts, 1 no-no, which just missed being perfection by a hit batter in the 9th), Zack Greinke (1.70 ERA, 75 strikeouts), Clayton Kershaw (3.33 ERA--they might hit him, 131 strikeouts--on second thought, nope), Shelby Miller (1.94 ERA, 70 strikeouts), and Gerrit Cole (2.16 ERA, 102 strikeouts). Now, ASG pitching is interesting since pitchers only pitch two innings, tops. But those NL pitchers, even at 1 inning each, gets the NL through the warm-up crew the AL will be starting. Let the Royals start nearly their entire team. Then sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy the shut out, possibly 4-5 perfect innings where the AL doesn't put a runner on. Watch the Royals lose. Just for fun, start Madison Bumgarner if only to give Kansas City flashbacks to losing the World Series when they couldn't touch his stuff. Right now Bumgarner isn't even a statistical top ten NL pitcher in ERA (he is 6th in strikeouts, though).
Unless the AL pitching (Sonny Gray, King Felix, Chris Sale, Dallas Keuchel, Dellin Bettances) can limit what is going to be an NL murderers row--Posey (.293 11 HR), Paul Goldschmidt (.354,20 HR), Dee Gordon (.351, 107 hits already), Matt Carpenter (.286 8 HR), Jhonny Peralta (.305, 11 HR), Bryce Harper (.340, 24 HR), Giancarlo Stanton (.269 27 HR), and Matt Holliday (.303 26 HR), the NL is going to blow this game out. Now, there are a couple of the NL All Stars who are there on name and team (Carpenter) rather than stats. Stanton is coming back from a horrid facial injury that took him out last year and his average has suffered, but putting 27 balls into the cheap seats before mid-season warrants inclusion. Carpenter, Posey, and Stanton are the only players batting below .300. Posey is tied for first in batting average with Yadier Molina (who is a close second in catcher votes), but leads him in all other stat categories. Stanton, with the worst batting average of the vote getters, has the most HR. Carpenter is the one "Royal" on the NL, statistically doesn't belong, but gets support from fans.
The NL is going to field a legit All Star team. Baseball fans who have looked at the players and voted have put together a team I would like to watch--a team that can function and perform. The AL is going to roll out a team predominately voted for by fans of one team, blindly checking the KC ballot box regardless of performance or ability.
If you think about it, maybe it isn't just MLB voting that needs examining in the upcoming voting season.
No comments:
Post a Comment