NL All-Star Hijinks

Dave Paisley

A couple of days ago I showed you how the voting for the American League All-Stars has gone pretty much by the law according to Paisley. Well, the National League isn't much different. Not quite such astute students, but good nevertheless. The votes are being tallied at seasonticket.com, so you can go check them out as they pile up.

These are the first returns, and there will be a lot more votes to count between now and the close of the polls. You can vote up to 25 times online with the same e-mail address, so you creative types out there ought to be able to bash out 100 or so votes to make sure the right guys get to start.

One aspect I find curious in the whole balloting deal is that both leagues get to vote on all the stars. If I was a malicious National League fan I might be tempted to vote for Mike DiFelice, Scott Brosius and Ron Coomer. Which may explain how Coomer has all of 6,000 votes, of course. Or maybe his mom has 240 email accounts.

But enough digression, let's take a look at how the voting in the National League is shaping up.

Catcher

M. Piazza	510,484
J. Kendall	151,753
J. Lopez	117,711
J. Girardi	71,671

Kudos to the fans here for getting the top three correct. As before, my pick is in italics, and it doesn't shock me at all that Piazza is hammering the competition, leading the entire NL in votes at this point.

Kendall and Lopez could both go too, depending on whether Bobby Cox wants to carry three catchers. Tough to leave Kendall off the roster and tough to leave your own guy at home. Even in the NL we can see the big name recognition value of being an ex-Yankee pay off for Joe Girardi. When will they ever learn?

First Base

M. McGwire	388,714
A. Galarraga	230,655
J. Bagwell	123,868
T. Helton	118,932

A closer race than it probably ought to be, it's evident that the heartwarming Galarraga story is showing up at the ballot box. Todd Helton promises to make things interesting if he's still hitting over .400 in late June, though. How can you not take him, but how can you possibly leave Andres at home? Some tough decisions coming up for Cox and his staff.

Second Base

C. Biggio	187,011
E. Alfonzo	169,823
P. Reese	137,494
J. Vidro	102,746
J. Kent	90,213
F. Vina	90,088

Finally, the fans screw up. Craig Biggio has been good for a long time, even if he does look like a thumbtack up there at the plate. But Edgardo Alfonzo is much better this year, while Kent is playing better still (with a 1.087 OPS) and has been excellent for years.

Pokey Reese? Give me a break. Must be the Griffey halo effect. And while Jose Vidro is doing very well, he needs to do it for longer than two months to beat out Biggio, Alfonzo and Kent. So get voting for Kent and Alfonzo! Now!

Shortstop

B. Larkin	269,170
R. Ordonez	199,392
R. Gutierrez	123,011
E. Renteria	112,794

Here's a scary proposition. With Larkin out early, it looked like the NL might be saddled with flash in the pan Ricky Gutierrez at short. Fortunately, Larkin is back, putting up decent numbers and the fans remember his name. But what's with the sympathy vote for Rey Ordonez?

Third Base

C. Jones	319,248
R. Ventura	137,665
K. Caminiti	137,378
F. Tatis	125,115
S. Rolen	66,625
P. Nevin	55,613

Now here's a tough choice. Chipper is doing quite well, thank you, but aging veteran Ken Caminiti is having something of a renaissance couple of months. That season-ending hamstring pull is just around the corner, of course, but should we hold it against him?

Moot point, though, as the fans appear to be intent on keeping up with the Jones. Meanwhile, Robin Ventura has that whole New York thing going for him, if not his bat. And I'll admit I just don't understand 55,000 votes for Phil Nevin. Must be some dearth of viable third base All-Star candidates or something.

Outfield

K. Griffey, Jr.	424,442
B. Bonds	372,366
J. Edmonds	342,284
V. Guerrero	328,369
S. Sosa	326,870
A. Jones	133,671
D. Bell	105,962
B. Giles	98,030
T. Gwynn	92,949
S. Finley	89,114

Now here's a fascinating category. I was very interested in seeing how the Griffey voting would go. On the one hand, he still has enormous popularity and name recognition, while on the other, he has had a pretty gruesome and well-publicized year so far. Fifteen homers isn't bad, but only five doubles? And he's being pitched around at an unprecedented rate. He's on a pace to get about 150 walks - about 60 more than his previous season high.

If there wasn't three totally viable candidates all having great years, I'd be inclined to vote for Griffey myself, despite the troubles. But the fact is that Bonds, Edmonds and Guerrero are having killer years and I'd hate pick a guy struggling mightily over three guys at the top of their game.

The voting could still go any way, with any three of the top five starting and the other two likely to get picked anyway. But who understands Derek Bell ahead of Brian Giles? Must be that New York thing again.

One final note - remember to vote early and vote often, even if you have to make up silly email addresses to do it.

about the author

Dave Paisley attempted to set up a mailbot to stuff the ballot box for Johnny Damon, but was foiled when the return e-mail randomizer somehow entered the address, "timmccarver@lovejoecarter.com." That one doesn't work, but drdjp@strikethree.com does.