Monday Morning... Evening Quarterbacking

2009
Trey Hillman-Coach
Zack Greinke

2010
Joakim Soria

2011
Aaron Crow

2012
Nick Kenney- Trainer
Ned Yost- Coach
Billy Butler

2013
Alex Gordon
Greg Holland
Salvador Perez

2014
Alex Gordon
Greg Holland
Salvador Perez

2015
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...


Look carefully at that list for a moment.  You can discount the coaches and trainers.  Look at the players. 

7 different players since 2009 have made the All-Star Game team for the Kansas City Royals.  I can't remember specific numbers, but few if any were actually voted in.  From 2009-2012 only one player a year, the bare minimum a team can have.

Earlier today the third update was released for voting so far for this years All Star Game.  Notice anything interesting?

Now I'm not a Trekkie, but I know a little about Star Trek.  One of the characters on Star Trek Voyager (I had to look it up, I thought it was Deep Space Nine) was 7 of 9.  That could explain this latest All Star ballot.

The two non-Royals are Jose Altuve and Mike Trout.  I mean 9 of 9 couldn't be possible could it?  It's not like people would vote for Omar Infante and Alex Rios over those two right?  WHAT?  They are close behind?  GOODNESS!

In actuality I am happy about this for a number of reasons, mainly because it is my team that has been flooding the boxes with votes.  Add in that Ned Yost will be skipper, and if he has the ability (after squeezing in at least one guy on the other teams, he'll likely pick a Royals pitcher or two, my guess is Holland and Davis), this could be 12 Royals represented!

Now some most people are mad about this and I suspect its because it isn't their team, so of course they're steamed, but oh well.  Sorry!  It has gone so far as sites such as Fox Sports telling fans to vote for other players to oust those dastardly Royals.  Which has somewhat backfired since after they posted that last week, 2 more spots have gone to Royals.  I say keep it up.  There didn't seem to be this much backlash when Jeter kept getting voted in on namesake, or when Boston or New York kept getting multiple selections.

Another reason I'm happy is because people are mad because they think a team of Royals won't do good, because historically they have sucked.  They seem to forget that this squad made the World Series last year.  Some who have realized that fact have quipped, all the NL needs to do is start Madison Bumgarner and its an easy NL win. Cute, but I ain't mad.

People have claimed they would skip watching the game if is filled with "a bunch of Royals".  Casual fans could make up the difference if the diehards do skip the game.  Last years All Star game was the highest rated one in 4 years.  In addition, the World Series featuring most of these same boys in blue had astronomical ratings, according to TV By The Numbers:

"In terms of total audience, Game 7 attracted 52 million viewers who watched all or part of the game, making it the second most-watched baseball game since Game 4 of the 2004 World Series.  It is the most-watched sports event since the Sochi Olympics (58.6 million) and most-watched program since the Academy Awards in March (68.5 million)."

Not too shabby.  Maybe an all Royals squad wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Having said all that so far, let me state for the record that I have not voted once for this years All-Star Game.  Honestly aside from the 2012 ASG played in Kansas City, I can't recall the last time I cared about watching the game or even watching more than a few minutes.  Maybe the tied game, maybe the one where Randy Johnson threw over Larry Walker's head.  It's been a while.

If nothing else, I hope at least 6 Royals get voted in.  Not because I'm petty or think they deserve it, but because it will open the eyes of MLB.  Sure its nice to have fan interaction and allow the fans to vote for things, but the All Star Game today means who gets home field advantage in the World Series (which I still love that idea).  There is too much on the line to have the fans get so much power.  If they allow maybe the top 5 vote getter's a spot on the team, sure I could go for that, maybe if they expanded the roster to 35, and players pick 10 of the players, thats fine.  Allowing the fans to pick the starters to me is just crazy,  maybe this is the wake-up call MLB needs to see how crazy this idea is.  Another reason I think its crazy is because you are allowed to vote I think 35 times a day online.  THIRTY FIVE!  Why does that make any sense?  One vote a day is plenty.  Honestly, I think one vote a week is fair enough.  If you want to vote more times, go out to the games, and vote at the stadium.  I think the fans that go to the actual games should get more votes than people sitting at home on a computer ringing in votes. 

So I guess this in more of a rant than an actual post, but I'm behind on stuff and wanted to get that off my chest.  I decided since I was going to rant, I would fill out a ballot on how I would pick.  I decided not to submit it, but I have a screen shot.

Of course I am bias and picked more Royals than I should.  I also want to point out that if the game is in a NL ballpark, why is there an option to pick a DH for the AL?  Anyways, as you can see, I selected 5 Royals, better than most people who picked all Royals.  I tried to picked who was the best at each position according to the stats provided.  When there wasn't a clear cut winner (in most cases it came down to 2-3 at each position), I picked personal preference. 

Eric Hosmer was my third pick at first behind Prince Fielder and Miggy.  At second, I didn't see anyone who could compare to Jason Kipnis.  At Shortstop, there wasn't an absolute, so it allowed me to pick Alcides Escobar.

I picked Mike Moustakas at third mainly because it was close with a couple others, but at this time last year Mike had to go back down to AAA to learn how to hit.  It wasn't until the postseason that he finally learned how to.  So I kind of gave him an edge because of how much he has improved.  The outfield had two standouts, Adam Jones and Mike Trout.  The third was tricky, but based on defense skills and his speed, I picked Lorenzo Cain.  Kendrys Morales at DH because, why not?  There wasn't many options anyways.

On the NL, I had less bias.  With the exception to the Cardinals, I haven't seen most of them play, so it was a lot based on stats.  Besides Bryce Harper, it may not be the most sexy squad (in terms of name recognition, not their overall hotness, that's not my expertise), but it looks to be very productive.

So I guess I'll finish on this note.  It's an all-star game, its not a life or death situation, Until the rules change for better or for worse, any team can vote their entire team in if they have a big enough fanbase, even a small market team, as is being proven.

Thank you for wasting you precious time on reading this, and if you have any comments to share feel free, or if you thought it was well-written or just feel the need to share it, be my guest.  I do appreciate those of you who spend time reading my blog, thank you and have a great night.