BLS Roundtable: Which player deserves more All-Star votes?
Royalmania has taken over the All-Star voting. If voting were to end today, the Kansas City Royals would have eight starters in the All-Star game. Things in the National League have been a bit more spread out, though St. Louis Cardinals’ fans have done well to stuff the ballot.
The situation has led to a bit of controversy. While we don’t want to come across as mean, there’s just no way Omar Infante should be the leading vote-getter at second base in the AL.
Instead, we’re going to focus on being nice. For this week’s BLS Roundtable, we asked our experts which player deserves more All-Star votes?
MIGUEL CABRERA, 1B, TIGERS
As we’ve documented elsewhere on The Stew and now in this very blog post, there are a number of deserving players who may get pushed out of All-Star starting spots because Royals fans are outvoting the rest of MLB fans. We can save the moral debate for another day, but I don’t care what city you reside in and which cap you wear while watching baseball — Miguel Cabrera deserves to be the AL starter at first base.
This isn’t just because of his name, but the numbers are, as usual, staggering. His .345 batting average leads the AL, as does his very impressive .449 on-base percentage. Royal Eric Hosmer, who leads the AL All-Star voting, has been pretty good (he’s fourth in the AL in fWAR among first baseman) but Miggy is beating him in pretty much every offensive category (unless you value triples from your first basemen). We’ve still got a few weeks left to vote, and Cabrera is within striking distance, so there’s a reasonable possibility that he finishes ahead of Hosmer. That would be the right thing, because an All-Star game without Miggy starting first would be a whammy. (Mike Oz)
NOLAN ARENADO, 3B, ROCKIES
One guy who continues to go largely under appreciated is Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado. He has tough competition on the ballot in Matt Carpenter, Todd Frazier and even now Kris Bryant, but Arenado is definitely the most well-rounded player in that group. Still only 24, Arenado is adding power to his game. It’s possible he’ll reach 20 homers, which would be a career high, by the All-Star break. And for those who might immediately credit that to Coors Field, note that Arenado is hitting nearly 30 points higher with twice as many home runs on the road.
You should also note that Arenado is even better defensively. He’s good for a webgem every day at the hot corner, but not at the expense of making routine plays or sound fundamental decisions. The world needs to get familiar with Arenado’s skill set, the All-Star game in Cincinnati would be a great start. (Mark Townsend)
There’s no debate as to who the best second baseman in the American League has been so far this season. It’s Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis and it isn’t particularly close. Kipnis leads AL second baseman in batting average (.305), on-base percentage (.409), and fWAR (3.7), and is playing mighty fine defense to boot. In fact, Kipnis is tied for third with Mike Trout in fWAR and trails only Josh Donaldson and Bryce Harper. So he’s a shoo-in to start in next month’s All-Star game, right? No, because Omar Infante, the worst hitter in baseball receiving regular playing time this season, currently leads the fan voting thanks those royally persistent ballot-stuffers in Kansas City.
It’s about time we started recognizing Todd Frazier. He may not have the name recognition of the other players featured here, but he’s been better than all of them, except Miggy, at the plate this season. Mark can dream on Nolan Arenado putting up 20 home runs before the All-Star break, but I’ll take the guy who has already done it. Frazier’s .293/.359/.622 slash line is ridiculous, particularly the slugging percentage. While the batting average and on-base figures aren’t elite, they would represent a career-high for Frazier.
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