Royals in line to have 8 All-Star starters
The Kansas City Royals are a very good team. The Royals have the best record in the AL and the third-best record in baseball. So yeah, getting a few All-Stars should’ve been expected. But the latest fan voting results have come out, and Kansas City currently has a ridiculous eight players slated to start. EIGHT.
Some of these players in line to start make a bit of sense. Others, not so much. Let’s take a look at the eight.
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Catcher: Salvador Perez has over seven million votes, the most in the AL. Perez is having a very good season, hitting .285, tied with Russell Martin for tops in the AL among qualified catchers. Martin is probably having a better season, but this one isn’t totally out there.
First Base: Eric Hosmer is having an excellent campaign, hitting .298 with seven homers and 36 RBI. But starting over Miguel Cabrera, who has a slash line of .341/.444/.592, is laughable. Prince Fielder is having a monster season as well and should be ahead of Hosmer.
Second Base: Omar Infante just overtook Jose Altuve in the voting, and this one is just a joke. Infante has an OPS under .500, the lowest among qualified second basemen.
Third Base: Mike Moustakas is leading all qualified third basemen in batting average, but he doesn’t have nearly the power numbers of Josh Donaldson, who’s just percentage points behind Moustakas in batting average with 12 more homers and 25 more RBI.
Shortstop: There aren’t that many great candidates at shortstop, so Alcides Escobar isn’t the worst choice in the world. Jose Iglesias and Jose Reyes are probably better options, although they have significantly less at bats.
Outfield: Lorenzo Cain leads all outfielders in voting, even over Mike Trout, while Alex Gordon and Alex Rios are third and fourth in outfield voting. Cain certainly shouldn’t be ahead of Trout, and it’s hard to argue that he should be in the top three. Gordon doesn’t really belong either, and Alex Rios has 66 at bats and is hitting under .200. So yeah, this is dumb.
DH: Kendrys Morales is having a perfectly fine season, but Nelson Cruz has been dominant with 18 home runs, 40 RBI and a .323 batting average. Advantage to Cruz here.
So if we’re going strictly on who deserves to start, Perez probably has the best case, with Escobar a possibility as well. A lot of these other players have been solid, but not deserving over other players having superb years. I wonder if this will change what happens with fan voting moving forward, because it’s going to be just silly if the All-Star Game starts with eight Royals on the field.
