Six Yankees lead the voting for All-Star slots, but even the most passionate Pin Stripe fan must admit there’s some ballot stuffing going on. Russell Martin, Mark Teixera, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and A-Rod are the top vote getters at their positions so far, but careful scrutiny of their stats – compared to other players – will reveal why only 3 of them deserve to be there.
Let’s start with catcher, where Russell Martin is hitting an anemic .232, with 24 Runs, 9 Homers, 27 RBI and 6 Stolen Bases (the latter stat is excellent for a catcher). By contrast, the Tigers backstop is hitting .297 with 24 Runs, 9 Homers, 35 RBI and 3 Stolen Bases. But no one has ever heard of Alex Avila – and as a result, Martin will undeservedly go to the All-Star game in Phoenix – even though the Detroit catcher is hitting 60 points higher.
Mark Teixeira is the leading vote getter at first base. His stats are impressive: 38 Runs, 19 HR, 47 RBI on top of a .252 batting average. But that pales in comparison to Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox who is hitting .341 with 45 Runs scores, 13 HR, 45 RBI and 1 Stolen Base. Gonzalez is clearly having a better year and should be the fans choice, but the marketing power of the New York Yankees will win out.
Derek Jeter is your American League All-Star shortstop, but he’s hitting only .259 with 2 Home Runs, 20 RBI, 39 Runs scored and 7 Stolen Bases. Yet the best Shortstop in the AL is Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians, who is hitting .302, with 41 Runs scores, 12 HR and 42 Runs Batted In, along with 9 Stolen Bases. In other words, Cabrera tops Jeter in every single statistical category. Yet Cabrera trails Jeter by 300,000 votes. You can correct that injustice by voting here: All-Star Ballot
The other three Yanks on the list, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano all deserve to be there. A-Rod is hitting .288 with 40 Runs, 13 HR, 45 RBI and 4 Stolen Bases. Granderson has 20 Home Runs and Cano has 12 HR on top of a .281 average.
In the National League, the biggest injustice is at shortstop, where Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies is the runaway leader. Yes he has 13 HR and 45 RBI, but he’s hitting only .274 with 34 Runs scored and just 4 Stolen Bases. By contrast, Jose Reyes of the New York Mets is leading the Major Leagues in hitting at .346 (62 points higher than the Colorado shortstop) and he has 43 Runs scored along with 20 Stolen Bases. Yes his 3 HR and 25 RBI are much weaker than Tulowitzski’s numbers, but overall who would you rather have playing shortstop for your time? I’ll take the guy who can get on base more often, steal second and then score over the power hitter any day. The vote is surprising perhaps because the New York media advantage hasn’t helped Reyes – but it just shows which team (the Yanks) dominate the Big Apple when it comes to fan allegiance.
