Anarchy in MLB!
I think in sports you need to see the humor in things before you get outraged. Usually if something is bad then it'll get changed eventually. If something isn't working the higher ups will convene and figure out a way to correct the problem. In the meantime laugh, because life is too short not to enjoy the smaller things in life.
This brings me to the 2015 MLB All-Star voting. If you haven't taken a look at what I'm talking about I'll explain it in six words: The Kansas City Royals are All-Stars. I'm not talking about a player or two that made the team, I'm talking about seven of them. More specifically, seven Kansas City Royals will be STARTING the All-Star Game.
Only two starting position players aren't on the Royals, Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera. Those two guys have won the MVP of the American League each of the last three years. Everybody else from Jose Altuve to Nelson Cruz to Josh Donaldson have to hope they make it as a backup.
As for now make way for Mike Moustakas at third, Alcides Escobar at shortstop, Kendrys Morales as the designated hitter, Salvador Perez at catcher, Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon in the outfield and my personal favorite Omar Infante at second.
Why is Infante my favorite? As of today (June 24th) his batting average is .227, his OBP is .234 and he hasn't had a walk since May 23rd. Right now Infante is roughly 500,000 votes ahead of Jose Altuve, who led the American league in batting average last year. Anarchy!
The voting isn't over yet and there's still another update for the votes coming on June 29th but here's a breakdown to the votes as they stood on Monday.
Now, maybe you want something to be done about this. Maybe you think that MLB should take away some votes because fans are making a mockery of this. They tried. Last week MLB came out and announced that they were eliminating 60-65 million votes. Here's what they said.
"I'm not saying we bat 1.000. But it's between 60 and 65 million votes that have been canceled. We don't really trumpet it because if someone thinks they're getting away with it, they'll try to again.
We scrubbed these first set of numbers incredibly thoroughly. We said, 'Can this possibly be right? Look at all these votes for Kansas City.' It just didn't turn out that way."
After eliminating all of those votes the Royals are still bringing in seven players and Eric Hosmer is in second place for a first baseman.
Is this fair to the other MLB players? No, it's actually pretty mean to the people who deserve to play. Then again, this is the price you pay when you allow the fans the ability to vote for the starters for an All-Star team. We saw it in the NBA when Yao Ming made an All-Star team even though he only played in five games.
Fans don't do rational and they definitely want to see their team do well. This is the culmination of all of it and now MLB will probably have to announce next year that the voting is going through an overhaul and the fans voting won't be as valuable as it is this year. In the meantime sit back and laugh with me as the American League side of the game is 78% Royal players. At least you'll be watching history.
