Major League Baseball released its sixth All-Star Game balloting update Monday, with final results for the July 14 game in Cincinnati to be announced Sunday. Voters have until Thursday night to cast online, although there is always the threat of some votes being “scrubbed” away when the final count is announced.
The latest update shows that MLB’s cancelling of more than 60 million votes has taken some of the steam out of the Kansas City Royals’ domination of the American League starting lineup, but the message has likely been received that some tweaking to the system is needed going forward.
For now, we have the system MLB has relied upon since 1970, where fan voting determines non-pitching starters for each league, including a designated hitter. Despite the game determining home-field advantage in the World Series, the fan-voting system remains in place and has led to ballot-stuffing incidents, including this year, when eight Royals players were leading the AL voting as of June 15. That led to the cancelling of votes days later.
In the American League, there are only two races—second base and DH—where the leader and second-place player are within 1 million votes of each other. In the National League, there are likewise two—the race for third base and the third outfielder.
Some of the spots are therefore likely cemented, but a surge in some territories could lead to final-week upsets. So, knowing how things stand just days before polling closes, click through to check out Bleacher Report’s All-Star Game starter predictions.
- Login to post comments