ALL Star game voting is completed and there are a couple of trends of interest to CF fans. Most importantly the top vote getters in each league are Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. This shows that the two most popular players in baseball are young white guys, a great sign for the future. Both are five tool players with great skill, if they can stay healthy they can both become all time greats.
The other interesting note is the vote packing scheme by the fans of the KC Royals. A side effect of this situation is a boost in votes for St. Louis Cardinal players as the cross state ball club must be the beneficiary of the NL side of the ballet for all of the Royal fans ballot box stuffing. That's good for us as the Cardinals have consistently fielded heavily white baseball teams and this year in particular will elevate two guys that probably would not have won as starters otherwise.
Unfortunately all this winning by white guys will probably cause MLB to alter the method of choosing the starters so as to have some more preferable level of "diversity".
Here's a breakdown of the probable winners.
Expect 3 white starters in the AL, Trout, Alex Gordon, and Josh Donaldson.
Jason Kipnis should be the hands down winner at 2b but finds himself far behind a poor hitting Royal--Omar Infante and Jose Altuve.
There should be 5 white starters in the NL, Harper, Holliday, Goldschmidt, Buster Posey, and either Todd Frazier or Matt Carpenter at 3b.
(Note: Holliday and Gordon could possibly lose their slots when the final votes are released as the vote counters at MLB Inc. may be able to find some votes for the vibrant diversity players that trail them)
In the "blacks fading from baseball", exhibit A, only two US born blacks will get the start, Lorenzo Cain and Dee Gordon.
In what is typically referred to as America's midsummer classic, out of 17 starters there will be 7 foreign born players voted as starters. Considering the policies of the US government, that result is quite fitting.
The other interesting note is the vote packing scheme by the fans of the KC Royals. A side effect of this situation is a boost in votes for St. Louis Cardinal players as the cross state ball club must be the beneficiary of the NL side of the ballet for all of the Royal fans ballot box stuffing. That's good for us as the Cardinals have consistently fielded heavily white baseball teams and this year in particular will elevate two guys that probably would not have won as starters otherwise.
Unfortunately all this winning by white guys will probably cause MLB to alter the method of choosing the starters so as to have some more preferable level of "diversity".
Here's a breakdown of the probable winners.
Expect 3 white starters in the AL, Trout, Alex Gordon, and Josh Donaldson.
Jason Kipnis should be the hands down winner at 2b but finds himself far behind a poor hitting Royal--Omar Infante and Jose Altuve.
There should be 5 white starters in the NL, Harper, Holliday, Goldschmidt, Buster Posey, and either Todd Frazier or Matt Carpenter at 3b.
(Note: Holliday and Gordon could possibly lose their slots when the final votes are released as the vote counters at MLB Inc. may be able to find some votes for the vibrant diversity players that trail them)
In the "blacks fading from baseball", exhibit A, only two US born blacks will get the start, Lorenzo Cain and Dee Gordon.
In what is typically referred to as America's midsummer classic, out of 17 starters there will be 7 foreign born players voted as starters. Considering the policies of the US government, that result is quite fitting.
