The Kansas City Royals’ domination of the American League All-Star ballot has taken everyone by surprise. Including certain members of the Royals.
As of Monday’s latest update, eight of the team’s players are projected to start in the Midsummer Classic. It’s a classic case of ballot-stuffing, with passionate Royals fans voting over and over again (each fan can vote up to 35 times) for their favorite player.
First baseman Eric Hosmer is among the more deserving Royals to make the list, but consider this: He’s received nearly 500,000 more votes than Miguel Cabrera, who through Thursday ranks first in the AL with 51 RBIs and second in the AL with a .342 batting average.
Hosmer certainly isn’t going to complain about his top ranking, but at the same time, he’s not stupid.
“If I’m Miguel Cabrera, I’m looking at myself like, ‘Are you kidding me?'” Hosmer told Yahoo! Sports. “Miguel is a candidate and should be the starter.”
Hosmer added that the “rigging” of All-Star votes — which MLB has attempted to curb by cancelling 60 to 65 million votes so far — isn’t necessarily a positive for him and his teammates.
“It puts us in a hard spot,” Hosmer said. “You won’t go on my Twitter and see, ‘Hey, vote for me and I’ll sign a bat and send it to you.’ We’re not trying to go out and advertise ourselves. Obviously, the team does stuff for us. But that’s what every team’s gonna do.”
“Everyone looks at it from a whole. Certain guys maybe shouldn’t be there or shouldn’t be starting, and everyone puts us in that category.”
Regardless of who makes the final cut in Cincinnati, the surge in votes for Royals players clearly has exposed both the positives and negatives of MLB All-Star voting.
Thumbnail photo via Peter G. Aiken/USA TODAY Sports Images
