7 Royals Lead ASG Voting

[Hrbowski]

Infante and Rios are closing in quickly, and none of them should start. I think that if they are voted in they should back out of the game, it would be classless if they play.

[drunksam]

How would accepting the will of the voting fan be classless? Every year there is usually an undeserving All-Star or two. Perhaps, if this does happen the whole voting issue is looked at closely and abolished, but then what would replace it? Also, how do you make the "common fan" feel like he is part of the game/process?

[nicksaviking]

It's stupid and nonsensical, but there's no requirements that the average voter, in baseball or in the political realm, has to be knowledgable.

 

Considering the yearly backlash for HOF, MVP, Cy Young and Gold Glove awards, the "educated" sportswriters probably will still get plenty wrong.

 

Players could vote each other in I suppose, but they're usually too far into the woods to see the trees and likely would mostly vote for guys they know well and have played with/against.

 

I guess the only solution is to pick guys based on advanced statistical analysis. We'll have to use that stat that is universally accepted as the best. Which one is that again, I forget?

[gunnarthor]

Good for KC.  They sucked for a longtime and now their fans are really into the game. 

[ashbury]

I am undecided whether

• I don't care about this news because I don't care that much about the ASG, or
• I don't care that much about the ASG because of news like this.

[DaveW]

 

  On 6/9/2015 at 12:19 AM, gunnarthor said:

Good for KC.  They sucked for a longtime and now their fans are really into the game. 

I have a feeling its not a large group of fans, its probably a couple dozen guys on a reddit subreddit who have to much time on there hands.

[James]

 

  On 6/9/2015 at 3:47 PM, ashburyjohn said:

 

I am undecided whether

• I don't care about this news because I don't care that much about the ASG, or
• I don't care that much about the ASG because of news like this.

 

All I can say is that the ASG was fun to be at last year.  

 

The Home Run derby was probably more fun, but that also had a lot to do with the copious amounts of beer that was consumed before/during the event.  The rain delay helped with that.

 

As far as this goes, I don't think most of those players deserve to be at the ASG, if the rosters were actually constructed on who are the best players at the position.  But, it is also based on fan participation, so if you don't like it, start voting.   

[Otto von Ballpark]

What's the theory on why this is only happening in 2015?  Paper balloting went away this year, but I doubt that was a major factor.  Online balloting has been around for years, with the ~35 per person ballot limit.

[gunnarthor]

 

  On 6/9/2015 at 5:19 PM, spycake said:

What's the theory on why this is only happening in 2015?  Paper balloting went away this year, but I doubt that was a major factor.  Online balloting has been around for years, with the ~35 per person ballot limit.

My guess is that the Royals have a big following in Korea and those fans are stuffing the ballot box.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

  On 6/9/2015 at 6:26 PM, gunnarthor said:

My guess is that the Royals have a big following in Korea and those fans are stuffing the ballot box.

Do the Royals have that big of a following in Korea, though?  I remember it was generally represented as one "super fan".  Perhaps he has recruited others there to follow the Royals, but still, online balloting isn't new.  If it was that easy to have this huge of an effect, you'd think something like this would have happened before.

 

You would think a strong Korean voting bloc would get Jung Ho Kang to appear in the top 5 at his position as a write-in candidate too, no?  (Too bad he's not on the ballot.)

[dgwills]

I have always thought the All Star game voting was a joke. Remember when the Yankee's were dominating it? I hated that. It bothers me a lot less now that it is the Royals. They do deserve to have someone to root for. I decided just to embrace it this year and voted for all Royals and Cardinals players. At least I'll get to see my guys win for once

 

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

  On 6/9/2015 at 4:05 PM, SpiritofVodkaDave said:

I have a feeling its not a large group of fans, its probably a couple dozen guys on a reddit subreddit who have to much time on there hands.

it really isn't that hard to write a script to vote in your guys.

[diehardtwinsfan]

that gives me an ASG idea... vote for the worst script.  Post it for download.  You'll probably get enough people doing it to give those guys a solid all star bump. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I think players did vote at one point. The All Star game actually has a pretty rich history behind it.

[spinowner]

I think it would be very interesting for all the Royals to be voted to start the game. It would help to reinforce what a farce the ASG has become.

[drock2190]

But why would Royals fans want their whole club there?

 

Besides being a bit funny, the winner gets home field advantage which is important for them considering they could be playing in the world series.

 

Infante doesn't help you win

[bluechipper]

Infante is now the leading vote-getter among 2B. This is embarrassing, and the worst part is that it could take away Brian Dozier's spot on the team when you factor in Kipnis, Pedroia, and Altuve all having strong seasons too.

 

Hopefully this joke of a starting lineup spells the end of fan voting.

[Hrbowski]

I think that the Royals should be removed from the ballot.

[beckmt]

This could be bad, but would be the end of fan balloting(or very strict ballot limits, like 2).  It would probably limit the Twins no matter what their record to one player(Probably Perkins).  It would also affect all the other teams the same way as you are now talking 21 players for the other 13 teams.  Tough

[mikecgrimes]

I stopped voting for the All-star game when they started allowing 25 on line votes a day.  My time isn't that valuable and I've done more pointless stuff on the internet, but the idea that to have my vote count equal to someone else not only do I have to spend 10 plus minutes voting I have to do it most every day makes the process stupid.  Give the fans who attend games a vote, maybe have one day of free for all online voting with a limit of one, a lot of people will get around that but it won't be nearly as stupid.

[stringer bell]

Did anyone else notice how many more votes there are for the AL?  It looks to me like someone figured out a way to stuff the ballot box/evade the 35-vote limit and are voting exclusively for KC players. IMHO, only Perez should be in the top two at his position. The totals for Rios and Infante are laughable.

 

I started a "Dozier All-Star" thread and electing Infante almost certainly would cost him his best chance to represent the AL. There is a history of the commissioner stepping in for justice on the All-Star team. I wonder if Manfred would do that.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

  On 6/15/2015 at 9:50 PM, mikecgrimes said:

I stopped voting for the All-star game when they started allowing 25 on line votes a day.

I don't think that it's ever been a DAILY limit.  I think it is per email address (so theoretically, per user).  And it's 35 now.

 

I just set a calendar reminder to vote the day before the balloting ends, so I can best target who to vote for (and sometimes more importantly, who to vote against ).

[Otto von Ballpark]

Dick and Bert could not contain their disdain for the current results when they had to plug the All Star Game balloting during last night's game.  I thought they were overly harsh, though -- they said that only one Royal deserved it (Perez), but I think if you primarily look at the current season, and incorporate defense, you can make a case for a few more.  I think it would be better to focus rage on the couple that least deserve it, like Infante and Rios, rather than the group as a whole.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Actually, I kind of like the whole thing (assuming we can still get Dozier on the team).  The voting has already been much more interesting than normal, and if the "all Royals" plan succeeds, the game promises to be one of the most memorable all-star games of my lifetime regardless of what happens on the field.  I wish it had been my idea and I had successfully delivered these results!

 

Still 2+ weeks to go, too.  I think MLB probably likes the attention -- I bet Tigers and Jays fans are feeling super-motivated to vote for Cabrera and Donaldson now, just to name a couple examples.

[TheLeviathan]

Maybe this will kill the all-star voting for MLB as we know it.  I'd consider that a huge win.