Major League Baseball announced the most recent update for All-Star voting on Monday afternoon and the Cincinnati Reds only have two players in the running for making it to the next round of voting with outfielders Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker ranking 2nd and 3rd in the National League among outfielders.
Jesse Winker is hitting .341/.412/.610 with 14 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs, 51 runs scored, and 43 RBI this season. He’s in the top five in the National League in average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, runs, hits, home runs, and OPS+.
Nick Castellanos is right there with Winker among the league leaders. He’s hitting .344/.395/.591 on the season with 23 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs, 46 runs scored, and 37 RBI. He’s leading the league in hits, doubles, and average. He’s also in the top five of the league in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, runs, and OPS+.
Among the outfielders, Ronald Acuña Jr. leads the way in the National League with 15% of the vote. Nick Castellanos is next at 11%, and Jesse Winker is right behind him with 9% of the vote. Mookie Betts is in 4th plate with 8% of the vote, but he’s lost some ground to the top three players. Acuña Jr. picked up 765,598 votes last week. Castellanos picked up 599,330 votes last week, and Jesse Winker picked up 505,647 votes last week. Betts, playing in a large market and being a bona fide superstar, only picked up 426,749 votes last week.
This year isn’t like past years when it comes to All-Star voting. This season there are rounds that players must “advanced” through, with each new round resetting the vote totals. Seems really stupid, right? That’s because it absolutely is. But it’s a way for MLB and teams to continue to push voting and try to keep it all on your mind I guess……
With no other Reds in the running for their spots, we’ll focus on the outfielders. “Phase 1” of the voting ends at 4pm on Thursday June 24th. The Top 9 outfielders will advance into Phase 2, and everyone starts back at zero votes. On June 27th MLB will announce “the finalists” at noon on MLB Network. A day later, starting on June 28th at noon voting will begin again. Voting will only lasts through July 1st at 2pm. Whoever is in the Top 3 among outfielders in Phase 2 will be a starter. Those results will be announced on July 1st at 9pm on ESPN. The remaining players who will be selected by their peers and managers/coaches around the league will be announced on July 4th. The All-Star game will be played on July 13th at 7:30pm in Denver. That also means the home run derby will take place in Colorado on Monday the 12th, and that should be about as fun as it gets.
Maybe stupid , maybe not. Say in the old way guys get voted in who dont deserve it but are from a big market with a lot of voters(Yankees) This way the top 9 get voted on again and it gives the small market a chance. Maybe people will see the guys that deserve it and vote for them now that their home guys are not in it. Like Giants fans doing everything they can to vote out Mookie Betts. Just my opinion. Might be better than having 6 Dodgers starting and only 2 deserve it.
So at this point, barring a complete collapse, both Casty and Wink are headed to Round 2. That actually inclines me to skip the daily ballot box stuffing.
If it happens, one-fourth of the starting regular eight would look good for the Reds. Plus one of the two needs to win the homerun derby.
I’m on the fence about that one. So many times it seems that the HR Derby screws up the guy’s swing for the balance of the season.
“and try to keep it all on your mind I guess……”
With Manfred’s MLB, perception over reality all day every day