June 23, 2022
The fan voting for this year’s All Star Game is underway, and naturally there are some questionable things such as Fernando Tatis Jr. being #5 at Shortstop despite not playing a single game. The big names always draw in the votes while sometimes more deserving players get overlooked in the mess. Or in this case we could have the entire Blue Jays roster starting this game if all of Canada keeps voting for them. Here are some players who are deserving of attention but haven’t really gotten it in the voting through June 21st.
C.J Cron – Maybe Cron shouldn’t be starting this game, but come on eighth? That’s absolutely ridiculous. He is currently lower than Rowdy Tellez and a struggling Joey Votto. That’s unacceptable. Cron is currently hitting .296/.344/.551 with a .896 OPS and 136 OPS+. He happens to have a higher WAR than 2nd place first baseman Pete Alonso by 0.3 WAR right now. So HOW is he in eighth? Rowdy Tellez has a OPS 114 points lower than him! Cron really deserves more respect from voters than placing him 8th when he’s an elite 1stbaseman in Colorado.
Bryan Reynolds – You’d think fans would realize his existence by now with his name popping up in trade rumors, but it seems not. Reynolds isn’t just being snubbed by a low number, he’s not even on the Top 20 list! Meanwhile Adam Duvall and Cody Bellinger are in the Top 10. That’s just disappointing to see. Sure Reynolds is having a down year by his standards, but he ranks 4 among full-time NL outfielders in OPS. His OPS is 130 points higher than Duvall’s who is currently No. 6 in votes. That really explains itself. How can he be overlooked so badly?
Kyle Farmer – Kyle Farmer has been a very productive shortstop this season for the Reds so far, yet he’s not even in the top 10 of NL shortstops. I mean sure, I might be a bit too much of a Farmer fan but that just seems abnormally cruel. There’s only 15 on the ballot after all. He has a 3rd best OPS among NL shortstops and a .286 batting average. Believe it or not his OPS is the FOURTH best among all full-time shortstops in the MLB. So yeah, he at least deserves a spot in top 10 for NL shortstops. His placing is simply just rude. Come on Reds fans!
Andrew Vaughn – You’d think White Sox fans would get him at least in the top 20 AL outfielders considering he’s been elite this year. He is currently below Jackie Bradley Jr., Joey Gallo, Manuel Margot, and Kiké Hernandez. Anyone care to explain? Vaughn is hitting .330/.378/.497 with a .875 OPS right now. That OPS is the 3rd Best among AL Outfielders this year. He’s even ahead of the likes of Kyle Tucker, Giancarlo Stanton and George Springer in that department. He would be slightly behind Byron Buxton in OPS, but Buxton doesn’t qualify on the leaderboard currently so I didn’t add him and the same with Taylor Ward.
All four of these players are certainly deserving of making the All Star team, but it seems like they will have to rely on the coaches to get them in. Hopefully they get in, but there will always be someone left off for whatever reason. We will see.