Tuesday, May 25, 2010

No love for Nats from All-Star voters

SAN FRANCISCO -- The first round of NL All-Star voting results was released today, and if nothing else, it's clear the rest of the baseball world isn't paying much attention to the Nationals' surprising early season success.

Only Ivan Rodriguez (third among NL catchers) ranks in the top five at his position. The future Hall of Famer, who was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday with a lower back strain, has received 247,998 votes, behind the Cardinals' Yadier Molina (316,795) and the Phillies' Carlos Ruiz (259,227).

Ryan Zimmerman, who leads all regular NL third basemen with a .579 slugging percentage and .951 OPS and is the league's reigning Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards winner, does not appear among the top-five vote-getters released by MLB. The Phillies' Placido Polanco holds a healthy lead over the Mets' David Wright, the Brewers' Casey McGehee, the Giants' Pablo Sandoval and the Braves' Chipper Jones.

As is often the case, players from the most-popular and most-successful teams dominate the early voting. Philadelphia starters rank either first or second at every position. Milwaukee players rank third or higher at every position but catcher. There are no players from the Pirates, Reds, Rockies or Padres among the top five infield positions or top 15 outfielders.

Final rosters for the All-Star Game, which takes place July 13 in Anaheim, will be announced July 4. Here are the complete ballots released today...

NL ALL-STAR BALLOT RESULTS
CATCHER
1. Yadier Molina, Cardinals: 316,795
2. Carlos Ruiz, Phillies: 259,227
3. Ivan Rodriguez, Nationals: 247,998
4. Brian McCann, Braves: 203,377
5. Russell Martin, Dodgers: 160,698

FIRST BASE
1. Albert Pujols, Cardinals: 647,666
2. Ryan Howard, Phillies: 329,673
3. Prince Fielder, Brewers: 200,395
4. James Loney, Dodgers: 116,850
5. Lance Berkman, Astros: 112,589

SECOND BASE
1. Chase Utley, Phillies: 687,724
2. Rickie Weeks, Brewers: 169,941
3. Martin Prado, Braves: 134,993
4. Kelly Johnson, Diamondbacks: 118,342
5. Skip Schumaker, Cardinals: 112,365

SHORTSTOP
1. Jimmy Rollins, Phillies: 340,747
2. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins: 309,244
3. Alcides Escobar, Brewers: 151,710
4. Rafael Furcal, Dodgers: 144,209
5. Jose Reyes, Mets: 137,321

THIRD BASE
1. Placido Polanco, Phillies: 309,458
2. David Wright, Mets: 236,387
3. Casey McGehee, Brewers: 185,312
4. Pablo Sandoval, Giants: 160,179
5. Chipper Jones, Braves: 143,558

OUTFIELD
1. Ryan Braun, Brewers: 423,834
2. Jayson Werth, Phillies: 365,402
3. Shane Victorino, Phillies: 348,841
4. Andre Ethier, Dodgers: 316,383
5. Matt Holliday, Cardinals: 309,463
6. Jason Heyward, Braves: 304,547
7. Matt Kemp, Dodgers: 249,554
8. Raul Ibanez, Phillies: 248,450
9. Manny Ramirez, Dodgers: 217,694
10. Jason Bay, Mets: 191,181
11. Alfonso Soriano, Cubs: 177,061
12. Jim Edmonds, Brewers: 162,130
13. Justin Upton, Diamondbacks: 154,502
14. Carlos Gomez, Brewers: 140,145
15. Colby Rasmus, Cardinals: 139,519

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks that David Wright has been playing like an All-Star is obviously not paying attention.

natsfan1a said...

Meh. Front runners.

GHF: have we ever had a Nats player ranked 3rd in voting before? I can't recall that we have.

Now on to my idea: would it be very wrong to have a Vote for the Worst campaign for the AL, as has been done for American Idol in the past? That way, the NL might finally win one. :-)

Steve M. said...

Alfonso Soriano

Steve M. said...

This All Star thing is usually a big "homer" vote and a few of the big undeniables get in as well as some superstars (from seasons passed) that have had a lousy season.

I rely on the Manager to make the right choices and still, in the end, team politics comes into play.

If the Manager was to choose TODAY one Nat, it should go to Matt Capps. If the Manager chooses 2, then Matt Capps and Livan Hernandez.

Doubtful the Phillies manager would pick more than 2 Nats and this year there are so many deserving to go to Anaheim.

Still a long way to go for the Manager's choices and maybe, just maybe, Zim and the Hammer and Pudge get the call.

Anonymous said...

The Brewers, Cardinals, and Mets are killing this ballot box by my expert analyzation (lol) of the frontrunners.

phiten said...

Stupid to vote this early, just plain stupid!

Kevin Rusch, Section406 said...

Also, how many home games have the Nats had since the ballots came out? 6?

Positively Half St. said...

Eh, I am voting now. Early or late, I'll get my votes in for the boys.

natscan reduxit said...

... really though, I don't get my knickers in a twist over who's voted in and who's not in regards to the ASGame. I'm more focussed on how many fans notice the nats in the big run for the prize in September.

Go Nats!!

K.D. said...

Well, I am pushing for at least Pudge & Zimmerman to make it. The All-Star game is a great stage, why not have a few Nats represent!

Mike said...

Capps has to make the NL all-star team as a reliever. No question about that.

A DC Wonk said...

Mark, you wrote: "As is often the case, players from the most-popular and most-successful teams dominate the early voting."

That seems to imply that as the voting continues, this is less so. Why is that?

Mark Zuckerman said...

DC Wonk: Because early voting is mostly based on reputation, and based on which stadiums draw the most fans. Most fans can't identify in May which players are having breakout seasons. As this next month plays out, guys having good seasons start to get more attention.

Bote Man said...

I'm writing in Strasburg.

nattaboy said...

A tip for those attending games at Nats Park: if you stack a bunch of ballots on top of each other, you can punch out several chads at once.

"meh" and "who cares about all star results" are not the right answers. It's our responsibility to vote our boys in there. Zim is 7th? Travesty.

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp

Get your 25 online votes in, and fill out as many as the usher will give you every time you're there.

natsfan1a said...

nattaboy, way ahead of you there, as I've been using the stack-and-punch method for years. In fact, my Chicago baseball buddy and I once picked up stacks of ballots at a RFK game, went home and punched them, and returned them at the next day's game. We also stood at the entrance briefly and offered "sample ballots," but sadly we had no takers. As Cordero was still with the team, we also made a few jokes about "hanging Chads." :-)

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