Cubs dominate (fairly and unfairly) in latest NL All-Star voting update
By Paul Myron
In the latest National League All-Star voting update, some players are rightly slated to start the Midsummer Classic, while others not so much.
Major League Baseball has released another All-Star voting update. The latest National League voting results contain some deserving names. It also contains some very undeserving names. Take a look at the full update below:
Outfielder @Bharper3407 of the @Nationals leads the NL in fan balloting for the 2017 @AllStarGame. Vote now at https://t.co/qd5OOxn7ED pic.twitter.com/SdPsLKdClg
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) May 30, 2017
You are reading that correctly. Jason Heyward is currently holding a starting position for the All-Star Game. Heyward, who signed a $184 million contract prior to last season that he has not come anywhere close to living up to, is a prime example of why the All-Star fan voting is flawed.
Heyward is currently slashing a modest .258/.329/.409 with five homers and 21 RBIs. The numbers aren’t terrible. In fact, compared to last season, in which he slashed a dismal .230/.306/.325, Heyward is actually having a solid 2017.
The numbers, however, are far from All-Star worthy, never mind deserving of a starter’s role.
Heyward is not the only Cub unfairly receiving a plethora of All-Star votes. Ben Zobrist and Kyle Schwarber round out the top 5 in the NL outfield.
Zobrist is having a decent season: .259/.361/.455, six homers, 18 RBIs. Certainly, those numbers are not All-Star worthy though, especially with players like Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton trailing him.
Schwarber’s numbers, on the other hand, are just plain ugly: .173/.294/.339, seven homers, 19 RBIs. Yet the young Cub outfielder is fifth in fan voting.
Heyward, Zobrist and Schwarber are not the only Cubs who are taking unfair advantage of the fan voting process. Javier Baez (.261/.291/.486) and Addison Russell (.220/.299/.657) are both in second place at their respective positions.
Even Anthony Rizzo, who leads first basemen, is probably undeserving of a starting role. As Dieter Kurtenbach of FOX Sports points out, Paul Goldschmidt is probably more deserving of a starting nod.
The Cubs, once a widely well-liked are quickly turning into a hated team throughout MLB. Of course, nobody likes a winning team, and once the Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years last season, they lost their lovable loser status. Couple their recent success with their All-Star ballot-stuffing fanbase.
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The 2017 MLB All-Star Game will be on July 11, 2017 at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. It will be the first All-Star Game since 2002 that will not determine which league will have home-field advantage in the World Series. Instead, the advantage will go to the team with the best record.