What MLB fans got wrong in the latest All-Star voting update

Look: I believe in MLB’s current All-Star Game format.. The fans who show to the ballpark and turn the games on TV are the only reason why the league is what it is, and those fans deserve to have their voices heard — especially when it comes to something like the All-Star Game, which only exists to serve those fans in the first place.

Still, when USA Today’s Bob Nightengale unveiled the initial voting update ahead of this year’s Midsummer Classic … well, I started to question just how committed I was to democratic governance. Here’s the situation in the NL, where Shohei Ohtani unsurprisingly leads all vote-getters.

And here’s the AL, with Astros DH Yordan Alvarez setting the pace.

Ohtani and Alvarez are hardly controversial selections. Everything else, though, is where we start to run into some issues.

Ben Rice should be the AL’s starting first baseman

It’s bad enough that Rice, who has the best wRC+ of any qualified hitter in the AL, isn’t even leading the vote at his own position. But the fact that he’s trailing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of all people is downright criminal.

Vladdy is, of course, a huge name who has earned his reputation as a star, but he’s been a far cry from his best self so far this season, with an OPS barely above league average and just three homers all year. Rice has been the more impactful offensive player by orders of magnitude; there’s just no way to make this vote make sense, beyond the fact that Guerrero Jr. has an entire country at his back after last year’s run all the way to the World Series.

And speaking of which: It might be time we had a talk with our friendly neighbors to the north.

… why are there so many Blue Jays here?

The Blue Jays have been among the biggest disappointments in baseball this year; after coming two outs from a title last fall, they enter play on Monday at 34-38, out of the playoffs entirely if the season ended today. And yet no team in the AL is better represented in this first voting update, with Toronto players in the top two at every position save for the outfield.

It would be one thing if this were a case of great players being rewarded despite an underwhelming team, but does George Springer and his 79 OPS+ really belong in the running at DH? Should Alejandro Kirk come in ahead of guys like Adley Rutschman and Dillon Dingler despite having played in all of seven games so far due to injury? Are we seriously going to let Andres Gimenez compete with Bobby Witt Jr. for starting shortstop honors?

Obviously Canada should be praised for supporting their team, and I don’t mean to turn this into a referendum on the fan vote itself. But this will be a tough look for the league if it holds.

Yet another reason to be sick of the Dodgers

Of course, the Jays aren’t the only ones stuffing the ballot box right now. Their World Series opponent, the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, are the most represented team in baseball in this first voting update, with finalists at every single position.

Unlike Toronto, L.A. is running away with the NL West yet again and deserves more than its fair share of All-Star representation. At a certain point, though, it goes too far — and it’s awfully tough to justify guys like Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez as starters in the Midsummer Classic based on their performance so far this year. Then again, when you’re the most dominant force in the sport right now, that comes with some added benefits.

We need to find a way to get James Wood to the All-Star Game

A primary victim of the Dodgers’ hegemony? Nationals slugger James Wood, currently on the outside looking in on the top six outfielders (and a spot in the next round of voting) despite leading the NL in OPS. Wood — and the Washington Nationals offense more broadly — has been one of the best stories of the season so far; he’s a genuine superstar in the making, maybe the most powerful bat in baseball this side of Aaron Judge thanks to his 6-foot-6 and 234-pound frame.

Wood would likely still make it to the All-Star Game even if he doesn’t earn a starting spot, but he shouldn’t have to sweat it out. This is a downright electrifying talent, the sort of player that fans pay exorbitant ticket prices to see. He’s more than earned it with his play on the field, and baseball will be worse off if he’s not a part of the NL roster.

Star-studded rookie class gets very little love

Early on in the year, all the talk was about just how good this rookie class was shaping up to be. And yet not one of them is currently slated to start the All-Star Game; heck, only one — Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto — is even in position to advance to the next round of voting as things stand right now.

JJ Wetherholt has been too good for the Cardinals to be mired in ninth place in NL second base voting. Ditto Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle, inexplicably mired behind Andres Gimenez at shortstop in the AL, and White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami, who should in no world be trailing Guerrero Jr. right now. It’s a problem for Rob Manfred if his best young players, guys who should be on track to become household names, are denied the spotlight they’ve earned.

Can the NL Central step up its voting game?

Arguably the single biggest loser was the NL Central, which is in line to see just one player — the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker, currently sixth in outfield voting — move on to the next round. Elly De La Cruz is on the IL right now and might not be back in time to play in the All-Star Game, but he absolutely should be leading Betts. Brice Turang has been worlds better than Bryson Stott at second base, and somehow Pete Crow-Armstrong sits just 14th among NL outfielders despite ranking first in fWAR.

What gives here, guys? I get that the Cubs have been disappointing, but every team other than the Reds is smack in the playoff chase right now. Can we get a little bit of enthusiasm going? Pirates, Cardinals and Brewers fans have reputations as among the most passionate in the league; time to prove it.