Major League Baseball released the latest All-Star ballot voting yesterday, creating an outrage among many in the media and fans. Eight – yes eight – Kansas City Royals are in the lead at their positions. All but Alex Rios (pictured right) of the Royals starting lineup would start the All-Star game if it happened today. Even Royals fans cannot keep Mike Trout from starting the All-Star game. Even if all eight end up starting the game – that is perfectly fine, so long as fans get to vote.
The all-electronic vote definitely affected All-Star voting in 2015. When ballots were passed out a games, every single fanbase had a ballot essentially put into their hands. With that came plenty of votes for one's home team. Even in 1989 after Mike Schmidt retired and the Phillies scarcely had an All-Star to put on the ballot, fans like me still punched out names like Tommy Herr and Dickie Thon. Fans vote for their team. This year, there is little motivation to do so.
Of course, this online-only vote does knock at least a generation of voters out of voting. My grandfather, I assure you, will not be casting any All-Star votes, even though he is a lifelong baseball fan. My dad does just fine with his email and simple web browsing, but registering and voting is not something he's likely to do. Had I been at a game with either, they probably would have filled out ballots that did not contain eight Kansas City Royals.
It is not like the Royals have any type of voting advantage among the 30 teams. Think about it: when the Phillies broadcast the same ads during the television broadcasts that the Royals do for their team: which fanbase is more likely to get off the couch, go to their computer, log in and vote? Of course the Royals fans will. It's hard to say that any other fanbase right now is as excited about their team as Royals fans. If other fans do not like it, there is a simple solution.
Royals Manager Ned Yost may have said it best in this USA Today piece:
"There's nothing wrong,'' Royals manager Ned Yost told USA TODAY Sports. "Vote! The votes are the votes. If you don't like it, go out there and vote. Our fans have gotten out and voted.
Really, there is nothing Royals fans are doing that no one else could do. Fans can complain about Jason Kipnis and Jose Altuve being far more worthy than the weak-hitting Omar Infante, but instead of complaining they can get out and vote themselves, as simple as that.
However, they may have incited fans:
Also I support #VoteOmar over Kipnis because there's no better way to expose a stupid system than by embracing the idiocy to its fullest.
— Kyle @ Driveline (@drivelinebases) June 15, 2015
Hey, Charlie Manuel took Infante as a reserve once, so why not.
The irony in all of this is that by starting a team of Kansas City Royals (plus Mike Trout), the team is hurting their own home field advantage for a potential World Series. While the Royals team is very good, they do not collectively make up an All-Star team. Should Yost want to win this All-Star game, he will take some of his players out quickly and replace them with the worthy players and go for the victory so the Royals can have a home field advantage once again.
There are always complains about fan voting. But, should the fan vote exist, this is what is going to happen. It has happened before and it will happen again. Given the large amount of money spent by sponsor Esurance to do the ballot this way, it will probably stay this way going forward until the contract runs out, however long that is. Until it changes, this is what we get. What the fans vote, they get.
