According to Jeff Passan’s piece on Yahoo! Sports Major League baseball will erase 60-65 million votes for the All-Star game that they deem to be “fraudulent”.
Email addresses that had their votes canceled should have been contacted by the MLB saying their votes won’t count. The MLB won’t publicly announce the ways that voters where scamming the system because they don’t want to give away the holes in the system so more people can exploit them before the July 2nd voting deadline.
More than 300 million votes have been accepted, according to the league, and the record of 390 million should fall sometime this week. Almost certainly a half-billion votes will be cast by the time balloting ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on July 2. And that doesn’t include the massive amounts of votes Bob Bowman, the CEO of MLB Advanced Media, said the league disallowed because of concerns over fake or improper voting.
“I’m not saying we bat 1.000,” Bowman said. “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.” Quote from Yahoo! Sports
It would have been a travesty if the MLB allowed the rampant voter fraud to continue.
Here’s how badly the Royals compare to the rest of the AL who would be starting in the All-Star game if voting ended today:
(Top three vote getters at each position as of the MLB’s June 15th update. The Royals player is listed in italics)
| Catchers | |||||||||||
| Rank | Catchers | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Salvador Perez | .284 | 1/4 | .296 | 4/4 | .462 | 4/4 | .758 | 4/4 | 1.8 | 3rd |
| 2 | Stephen Vogt | .279 | 2/4 | .377 | 1/4 | .517 | 1/4 | .894 | 1/4 | 2.6 | 1st |
| 3 | Russell Martin | .277 | 3/4 | .357 | 2/4 | .500 | 2/4 | .857 | 2/4 | 2.5 | 2nd |
The fact that Perez holds such a big vote lead isn’t the end of the world. He’s damn good at everything except getting on base because he’ll swing at anything. He’s very good defensively and hitting for power so I have no issue with him being the starter.
| 1st Baseman | |||||||||||
| Rank | 1st Base | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Eric Hosmer | .297 | 3/13 | .366 | 3/13 | .462 | 6/13 | .828 | 6/13 | 1.7 | 4th |
| 2 | Miguel Cabrera | .342 | 2/13 | .446 | 1/13 | .598 | 1/13 | 1.045 | 1/13 | 3.4 | 1st |
| 3 | Prince Fielder | .344 | 1/13 | .406 | 2/13 | .527 | 4/13 | .933 | 3/13 | 1.5 | 5th |
Prince Fielder is on the ballot as a 1st Baseman, but doesn’t have enough at bats playing 1st Base to qualify as a 1st Baseman. His ranks are adjusted to where he would fall if he qualified as a 1st Baseman and not as a Designated Hitter. The numbers speak for themselves, Miggy has had double the impact that Hosmer has had, so he should be the starter.
| 2nd Baseman | |||||||||||
| Rank | 2nd Base | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Omar Infante | .228 | 10/11 | .236 | 11/11 | .311 | 10/11 | .547 | 11/11 | 0.1 | 17th |
| 2 | Jose Altuve | .287 | 3/11 | .328 | 6/11 | .390 | 5/11 | .718 | 5/11 | 1.6 | 6th |
| 3 | Jason Kipnis | .335 | 1/11 | .413 | 1/11 | .498 | 2/11 | .911 | 1/11 | 3.9 | 1st |
That’s horrible. What the bigger crime is that Jason Kipnis (3.9 WAR) and Brian Dozier (2.7 WAR) aren’t one-two on this list.
| 3rd Baseman | |||||||||||
| Rank | 3rd Base | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Mike Moustakas | .323 | 1/13 | .380 | 1/13 | .461 | 4/13 | .842 | 3/13 | 2.9 | 3rd |
| 2 | Josh Donaldson | .307 | 2/13 | .363 | 2/13 | .559 | 1/13 | .923 | 1/13 | 4.0 | 1st |
| 3 | Nick Castellanos | .221 | 12/13 | .268 | 12/13 | .333 | 13/13 | .601 | 13/13 | -0.5 | 25th |
This one isn’t a crime. I personally think Josh Donaldson is a better player, but Moustakas is having a amazing year and deserves to be at the game without a doubt. Castellanos is a very distant third in voting trailing Moustakas by over five million votes and Donaldson by over three million.
| Shortstops | |||||||||||
| Rank | Shortstops | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Alcides Escobar | .270 | 3/9 | .300 | 4/9 | .363 | 4/9 | .663 | 4/9 | 0.8 | 8th |
| 2 | Jose Iglesias | .333 | DNQ | .383 | DNQ | .403 | DNQ | .786 | DNQ | 1.8 | 1st |
| 3 | Jose Reyes | .285 | DNQ | .315 | DNQ | .386 | DNQ | .702 | DNQ | 0.6 | 10th |
Jose Iglesias is just a few at bats away from qualifying for the offensive leaders in the A.L. but Reyes is 40 or 5o behind pace. If Iglesias qualified, he’d be first in batting average, on base percentage, and OPS and second in slugging. What a shame Iglesias, also a defensive wizard, won’t be starting the game.
| Designated Hitter | |||||||||||
| Rank | DH | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Kendrys Morales | .283 | 4/11 | .344 | 5/11 | .452 | 6/11 | .796 | 5/11 | 0.8 | 8th |
| 2 | Nelson Cruz | .309 | 2/11 | .370 | 4/11 | .562 | 1/11 | .932 | 2/11 | 2.4 | T-1st |
| 3 | Edwin Encarnacion | .235 | 8/11 | .319 | 8/11 | .451 | 7/11 | .771 | 8/11 | 0.7 | T-9th |
Ironically, both Cruz and Encarnacion have been playing the field full time, but still are on the ballot as DH’s so their ranks are listed as if they would appear on the DH list. Morales doesn’t deserve to even be invited, and it’s sad he’s on the list.
| Outfielders | |||||||||||
| Rank | Outfield | BA | AL Rank | OBP | AL Rank | SLG | AL Rank | OPS | AL Rank | WAR | AL Rank |
| 1 | Lorenzo Cain | .292 | 7/28 | .343 | 8/28 | .442 | 13/28 | .785 | 12/28 | 3.6 | 2nd |
| 2 | Mike Trout | .300 | 5/28 | .382 | 3/28 | .584 | 1/28 | .966 | 1/28 | 4.0 | 1st |
| 3 | Alex Gordon | .271 | 11/28 | .381 | 4/28 | .452 | 12/28 | .833 | 8/28 | 2.5 | 5th |
| 4 | Alex Rios | .220 | DNQ | .244 | DNQ | .293 | DNQ | .537 | DNQ | -0.4 | 88th |
| 5 | Adam Jones | .301 | 4/28 | .342 | 9/28 | .494 | 5/28 | .836 | 7/28 | 2.3 | 9th |
| 6 | Yoenis Cespedes | .302 | 3/28 | .335 | 11/28 | .492 | 6/28 | .827 | 9/28 | 2.7 | 4th |
| 7 | Jose Bautista | .252 | 19/28 | .388 | 1/28 | .524 | 3/28 | .913 | 3/28 | 2.4 | 8th |
| 8 | Michael Brantley | .306 | 2/28 | .383 | 2/28 | .458 | 10/28 | .841 | 6/28 | 1.8 | 15th |
| 9 | Jacoby Ellsbury | .324 | DNQ | .412 | DNQ | .372 | DNQ | .783 | DNQ | 1.5 | 16th |
Cain and Gordon deserve the nod but the fact that Alex Rios is in the top-50 is a travesty. The fact that Mike Trout is trailing Cain by over a million votes is just stupid as well.
What will the 60-65 million removed votes mean? Hopefully a better quality All-Star game that people outside of Kansas City will want to watch. What will it change? Hopefully a lot of this pathetic lineup.