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Hahahaha, the MLB finally wises up and cancels fraudulent All-Star votes

Royals

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.

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