Should All The Kansas City Royals Start The All-Star Game?

Photo Credit: Outsidepitchmlb.com

The 2015 All-Star game is only a few weeks away. The All-Star game is known to bring the best of the best around the Major Leagues. In order for a player to be selected into the All-Star game they must garner enough votes; those votes come purely from the fans around the league.

Well, the 2015 All-Star game, hosted by the Cincinnati Reds, may a look a tad odd, at least on the American League end of things. Currently, the Kansas City Royals have eight potential starters holding the highest amount of votes. Do all the Royals deserve, rightfully, to be in the All-Star game?

Major League Baseball (MLB) is one of the few sports that entitle their All-Star game to be important. For those unaware, the All-Star game winner gains home-field advantage in the luxurious World Series. Yet, the fans hold the responsibility of choosing who gets to play in the game, rather than coaches and officials of the game.

The most recent Royals player to lead the voting in their respected position is second baseman Omar Infante. Many non-Royals’ fans are concerned as to if Infante is worthy of an all-star bid, and they have a right to be too. Through 53 games, Infante holds a mere .204 batting average and has driven in 17 runs. Other individuals in the American League who are second baseman that can prove to more worthy are Cleveland Indians’ Jason Kipnis and Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve. To put it into perspective, Kipnis is batting an astounding .355; Altuve, on the other hand, has 17 stolen bases and has aided the Astros to a 36-28 record, good for first in the American League West.

The same statement could be made in several cases around the field. An additional example, is Lorenzo Cain more worthy than Los Angeles Angels star outfielder Mike Trout? Trout has 13 additional RBI than Cain, and provides a more stable batting average at .297. In terms of WAR, Trout has an edge over Cain by 0.8 (3.8 total).

Names that could be worthy that are missing on the current roster of All-Stars are Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, Seattle Mariners’ Nelson Cruz, and Toronto Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson.

As Royals’ fans decide to celebrate, one minor flaw could be installed. Using Infante as an exemplar, if Infante is rightfully named as an All-Star, the Royals will have to pay an additional $250,000 to his contract as a bonus. As Infante is struggling this season, having an additional All-Star would be neat, but when he wouldn’t deserve it, would Royals’ fans want to pay an additional dollar value? Same could be said about various other players.

Regardless, currently the Royals lead all position players, except one, in terms of All-Star game votes. Manager Ned Yost doesn’t have much to say about it either.

“If you don’t like it, go out there and vote. Our fans have gotten out and voted. Does seven starters surprise you? Yeah. But once you sit back and think about it, it’s really not that surprising” (USA Today Sports).

In ends meet, the annual All-Star game is in fact fan selected. If you’re unhappy with the results, as Yost stated, go vote for the player you believe deserves to be named an All-Star.

*Below is the current (June 15) rosters and votes per player.