Abreu lone White Sox player getting All-Star votes
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball released the first wave of American League All-Star Game votes for position players and you can’t help but notice how well-represented the Kansas City Royals are.
The Royals are the best team in baseball and the fans believe they should be rewarded. At five of the eight positions there is a Royal leading in votes.
Salvador Perez (catcher), Alcides Escobar (shortstop), Mike Moustakas (third base), Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon (outfielders) would be starters if the voting ended today. Perez leads all AL players in votes with just over 1.4 million.
It is astonishing to see the fans give more votes to Cain than Mike Trout. Trout is considered by most as the face of baseball and is once again having a strong season. This time last season, Cain was an unknown outside the state of Missouri.
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The Royals love doesn’t just end there.
Kendrys Morales (designated hitter), Omar Infante (second base) and Eric Hosmer (first base) are each second in votes at their respective positions and Alex Rios who hasn’t played since April 13, is sixth in outfield votes.
That type of support hasn’t come about for the Chicago White Sox.
Jose Abreu is currently fourth among first base votes behind Miguel Cabrera, Hosmer and Mark Teixeira but after that, there isn’t a White Sox player anywhere to be found. And based on the year some of the other players at the position are having, it may be tough for him to remain there.
Through the first 43 games, Abreu is hitting .274 with eight home runs, 27 RBI and an .814 OPS. Prince Fielder is leading the AL in batting average and is tops among AL first basemen in RBI. He is currently outside the top five for votes and his Texas Rangers are in the process of turning their season around. Expect his votes to increase.
You can check out the rest of the MLB All Star Votes here.
Among the rest of the position players, only Avisail Garcia has put together a respectable season. He is seventh in the AL in batting average and has been the team’s most consistent hitter. Outside of his average however, he doesn’t have any all-star worthy numbers so even he may never climb the ranks of outfield votes.
The only player on the roster who is worthy of an all-star selection is closer David Robertson.
Robertson has proven to be worth every bit of the $46 million the White Sox gave him in the offseason. The issue is getting him opportunities.
Before a rough outing Tuesday night, he was 3-0 with nine saves in 10 chances, a 0.98 ERA, 0.65 WHIP and 29 strikeouts in 18.1 innings. His ERA now sits at a respectable 2.41.
The AL pitcher votes as well as the rest of the NL has yet to be unveiled.
There is still about a month left for players to improve their numbers as voting ends July 1. Major League Baseball will update the totals weekly from here on out.
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