The 86th All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX Sports (7 p.m. ET air time, 8:15 first pitch), in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS, and worldwide by partners in more than 160 countries.
Advertisement
An American League pennant that some viewed as a fluke is being backed up with a 4-1/2 game lead in the division. My biggest problem of the voting this year is not only the abundance of votes that Royals’ players received, but the absence of Minnesota Twins’ Brian Dozier in the starting lineup. The remainder of the teams will be announced this week.
The reserves, pitching staffs and Final Vote candidates will be announced Monday night, so here are some quick thoughts on the players who were chosen by the fans to represent their respective leagues (as well as the voting results).
Sure, there are some undeserving players going to Cincinnati. I would imagine Jason Kipnis will get the reserve spot behind Altuve.
While the extended balloting gave fans and baseball officials ample warning that some undeserving Kansas City Royals could have been voted as starters, well, Alex Gordon still was elected. Cueto is third in the NL in WHIP (0.92) and average allowed (.199) this season while his 6.54 hits per nine innings rate places him fourth in the Senior Circuit.
Escobar is the easiest to argue against, but no AL shortstop has great numbers, and Sunday is one more example of a game the Royals could’ve lost without his defense. The Colorado Rockies’ D.J.
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Johnny Cueto reacts in the sixth…
If the NL really needed another infielder, Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman/utility man Justin Turner would have been a better choice.
Of course, four Royals is still too many. In reality, there’s only or two players in today’s game at the position who flash the leather at the shortstop position in any comparable way to those two (Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves is the only guy who comes immediately to mind as being comparable).
The game between the American and National Leagues has never been less relevant for a myriad of reasons that includes inter-league play, the illogical, farcical and wholly artificial scheme to make the contest “count”, and the lack of true rivalry, partially because leagues no longer operate as separate entities with their own presidents and umpires. The number one rebuttal to changing the system is that these are the players that the fans want to see, but that is much less true this season. This does not count Kershaw, who is 27, if he happens to win the Final Vote.
Holliday is also on the disabled list with a quadriceps strain but could return before the All Star break.
Advertisement
With a curious mind and always looking for an edge, Goldschmidt has used the past couple of All-Star Games to try to pick the brains of some of the game’s best players.
