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MLB All-Star Voting 2015: Latest Ballot Results Before Roster Reveal
July 3, 2015
Voting for the MLB All-Star Game concluded Thursday night, leaving fans waiting until Sunday night's lineup unveiling.
For the most part, the latest results offer a clear picture at who will start the Midsummer Classic. Save for a few close position battles, the leaders have built up comfortable advantages during months of voting.
One such race has the deserving candidate gripping a newly gained lead. In the other two, the better recipients are rapidly closing the gap. Will the last wave of votes pull them ahead?
Courtesy of MLB Communications, here's a look at the latest tallies from Monday, June 29:
Tightest Races
AL 2B: Omar Infante vs. Jose Altuve
Stuck in a distant third place, Jason Kipnis clearly deserves to start at second base for the American League. Hitting .347/.420/.514 with a 4.7 fWAR, his needs to be the first name written on the reserve list.
The Cleveland Indians star conceded the election to Cleveland.com's Paul Hoynes:
Neither Jose Altuve nor Omar Infante merits the starting nod over Kipnis, but Altuve is a far less offensive choice. Brandishing a nauseating .235 on-base percentage, .307 slugging percentage and minus-0.1 fWAR, Infante doesn't deserve to start for the Kansas City Royals.
Starting pitcher Jose Fernandez, who made his season debut Thursday, has hit one more home run than Infante, the current leader to start in a game that determines World Series home-field advantage.
Altuve has predictably taken a step back from last year's breakout but is still hitting .298/.342/.421 with seven long balls and 23 stolen bases. Were Kipnis leading the vote, Altuve would have earned a backup nod anyway.
AL DH: Nelson Cruz vs. Kendrys Morales
Along with third baseman Mike Moustakas, designated hitter Kendrys Morales was one of two Royals to lose their laughable leads. Now they only have five guys in the starting lineup.
Morales is enjoying quite a steady season, batting .285/.348/.466 with 10 homers. Those who still don't see RBI as a byproduct of happenstance and a slugger's surroundings will gush over the 50 runs he's driven in so far.
Kansas City couldn't have asked for anything more from the free-agent flier, who received a second chance despite hitting .218/.274/.338 with a minus-1.8 fWAR last year.
Nelson Cruz is still better. He's fallen back to earth after another fiery start, but the Seattle Mariners' offseason acquisition sports a .307/.370/.557 slash line and 20 homers. His 160 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) rank seventh among qualified position players.
Slotting Cruz alongside Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera and Josh Donaldson would make the AL's starting nucleus much more dangerous.
NL 3B: Matt Carpenter vs. Todd Frazier
This is the flaw with opening voting so early.
Matt Carpenter represented a perfectly sensible choice a month ago. Now? Not so much.
While the St. Louis Cardinal hit .190 during a homerless June, Todd Frazier and Nolan Arenado crushed everything in sight:
| NL's Top 3B in June | ||||
| Player | BA | OBP | SLG | HR |
| Matt Carpenter | .190 | .337 | .241 | 0 |
| Todd Frazier | .287 | .310 | .598 | 9 |
| Nolan Arenado | .304 | .319 | .714 | 12 |
| FanGraphs.com | ||||
It's too late for Arenado to mount a comeback, but Frazier trails by 62,980 votes. Considering he gained much more ground in the latest update, he's the best bet to complete a last-second rally.
Starting would be especially fitting with the game taking place in Cincinnati. Frazier expressed his desire to represent the Cincinnati Reds to the Asbury Park Press' Steven Falk.
"That would be one of the best achievements one can have in baseball," Frazier said. "To be a starter in my home city would be one of the coolest things. And to have my family in town to see it, sure would be something I would never forget. It would be a dream come true."
With 25 homers and a .606 slugging percentage, he certainly deserves the honor.
Advanced stats courtesy of FanGraphs.