The early results of the NL All-Star voting have been posted on MLB.com and they’re pretty interesting . There are a couple of really good things that lead me to believe that fans are starting to vote for the right players who deserve it instead of the most popular but there are also some odd votes that are a little disappointing:
C: Buster Posey leads the voting for Catchers. I have no problem with this as Posey is the leader of the Giants and the reigning Rookie of the Year. Obviously, Posey, who is hurt and out for the year, won’t play in the All-Star game but it will be a nice honor for him to get voted in. Brain McCann is second in the voting right now and certainly deserves it. He’s got a .304 avg and 6 homers. Nice job voters.
First Base: Joey Votto is hitting .330 with 6 HRs, 30 RBI, and leads the league in walks. Prince Fielder is hitting .291 with 11 HRs and 42 RBI. Albert Pujols is batting only .262 with 9 HRs and 30 RBIs but leads the voting by 182,000 votes largely because of his past performance. The AS voting is about this year and in 2011, Pujols doesn’t deserve to start.
Second Base: I have no problem with Brandon Phillips and Rickie Weeks leading the voting but Chase Utley is 3rd? He’s hitting .208 in 24 ABs in 7 games! He is not an All-Star this year. C’mon fans.
Third Base: Boring, semi-predictable. Nobody really stands out since Pablo Sandoval got hurt. Placido Polanco leads the votes and that’s fine.
Shortstop: Troy Tulowitzki leads the voting by miles and Hanley Ramirez (who’s batting .210 with 4 HRs) isn’t even in the top 5. There is justice in the world.
Outfield: Lance Berkman is third and that’s good. He’s had a great year. Other than that I have no real comments. All the guys on the list are good, none really stand out as particularly good or bad or are having particularly notable seasons. Carlos Gonzalez may have as many votes as he does just because of his great year last year.
I’ll keep checking the for the AL votes and share my thoughts on them when I have them.
-Max Frankel
