Haha. The game that determines HFA for the World Series currently has 8 of the 9 starters KC Royals

[CHOPTALK]

Apparently there are a few KC fans that don't have much to do.
8 of the 9 leading vote getters all play for the Royals.

The only starter that does not play for the Royals is Mike Trout.

Lol.

I hope it stays that way. That would be awesome.


The KC Royals vs the NL All Stars.

 

[CHOPTALK]

<section id="mediacontentstory" class="yom-mod yom-card-main yom-article blogpost" data-uuid="4c3ef0ad-e826-3795-8043-87c498183acd" data-type="story" data-ylk="t1:a3;t2:ct-mod;sec:ct-mod;itc:0;rspns:nav;" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Some Kansas City Royals fans, it seems, just want to watch the world burn. Or, the MLB All-Star game.Royals players have been dominating the voting for the past month, but things hit a new low Monday when the latest tally of AL All-Star votes was released. The ballot-stuffing Royals fans — who make no effort to hide what they're doing — have pushed Omar Infante into first place among second baseman.
That means that if All-Star voting ended today, Royals would be starters at eight of nine positions that fans determine. (Players and managers pick the back-ups and pitchers). The only non-Royals starter in the current voting is Mike Trout, who has been the second-best player in the AL this season. Josh Donaldson leads all American League players in Wins Above Replacement, according to Fangraphs, but he's second in All-Star votes at his position to the Royals' Mike Moustakas.
[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]
Some Royals are deserving — Lorenzo Cain, for instance. Some are marginal — Alcides Escobar is an OK pick in the ho-hum AL shortstop pack. Some aren't, but still playing well — Miguel Cabrera should be starting at first base over Eric Hosmer, but Hosmer has been productive.
Infante, though, isn't remotely deserving of playing in Cincinnati this year. In fact, he's been the worst hitter in all of MLB so far this season. Just look:
<iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" allowfullscreen="" title="Twitter Tweet" height="176" style="display: block; margin: 7px auto; height: auto; border-style: none; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 375px; float: none; min-height: 176px; clear: both; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe><figure class="cover get-lbdata-from-dom go-to-slideshow-lightbox" data-orig-index="0" id="yui_3_18_1_1_1434433598570_308" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; min-height: 160px; position: relative;">.

</figure>
And that's the hometown beat writer pointing that out. See that video at the top of this post? That's Infante hitting an RBI single. It happened on May 19. And he hasn't had an RBI since then.Meanwhlie, Cleveland Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis has been the third best position player in the AL this season, according to fWAR, but is still in third place behind Infante and Jose Altuve.
How Much is My Used Car Worth?
NewCars Sponsor

[COLOR=#AFAFAF !important][/COLOR]​

Royals fans have turned #VoteOmar into a trending topic, rallying their digital voice and clacking their keyboards, almost defiantly. They know what they're doing. They don't think Infante deserves to be an All-Star. Rather he's their modern-day Sanjaya, who they're trying to make an "American Idol" for the fun of it.
There are two distinct camps involved, starting with the diehard Royals fans swept up in the ballot-stuffing hysteria:
<iframe id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" allowfullscreen="" title="Twitter Tweet" height="176" style="display: block; margin: 7px auto; height: auto; border-style: none; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 375px; float: none; min-height: 176px; clear: both; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe><iframe id="twitter-widget-3" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" allowfullscreen="" title="Twitter Tweet" height="176" style="display: block; margin: 7px auto; height: auto; border-style: none; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 375px; float: none; min-height: 176px; clear: both; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe>The other camp says it wants to make a legitimate point: That the All-Star game system is all wrong, so they must break it to fix it. Currently, the online vote alone determines the starters. The league got rid of in-stadium paper ballots this year. Online voters are limited to 35 voters per e-mail address, but that's easy enough to circumvent.
<iframe id="twitter-widget-4" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" allowfullscreen="" title="Twitter Tweet" height="176" style="display: block; margin: 7px auto; height: auto; border-style: none; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 375px; float: none; min-height: 176px; clear: both; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe><iframe id="twitter-widget-5" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" allowfullscreen="" title="Twitter Tweet" height="176" style="display: block; margin: 7px auto; height: auto; border-style: none; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 375px; float: none; min-height: 176px; clear: both; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe>Nobody in the Royals clubhouse seems to have a problem with this either. Infante told the Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough that he knows he doesn't have All-Star numbers, but appreciates the support of the fans. Meanwhile, K.C. manager Ned Yost told USA Today's Bob Nightengale: "The votes are the votes. If you don't like it, go out there and vote."
That's 100 percent true. The Royals fans might be stuffing the ballots, but the rest of the fanbases out there seem content to let them do it. There's one way to knock down the Royals and make sure players like Omar Infante don't start at next month's All-Star game — and it's not whining on Twitter or hoping the commissioner's office declares the whole thing a farce.
It's quite simple, really: More fans need to go out and vote.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
<iframe src="http://www.podbean.com/media/player/qegdy-56a313?skin=11" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="100" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto; height: auto; max-width: 100% !important;"></iframe>
Hearthstone is now on phones!
Hearthstone Sponsor

[COLOR=#AFAFAF !important][/COLOR]​

- - - - - - -​

Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! <iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.0b0ceee8fa9e1bde648efd58520a750f.en.html#_=1434433661233&dnt=true&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&screen_name=MikeOz&show_count=true&show_screen_name=true&size=m" class="twitter-follow-button twitter-follow-button" title="Twitter Follow Button" data-twttr-rendered="true" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto; height: 20px; max-width: 100% !important; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 199px;"></iframe>


</section>

​

View Comments (509)

• ​
• ​
• ​
• ​
• ​

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Share this story

<form class="W-a W-a Bfc Bdrs Bd-1 Mstart-6 Mend-6 Mb-6 Dimmed Fz-m" style="border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(226, 226, 230); overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-right: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-left: 6px; width: auto; color: rgb(175, 175, 175) !important;"><input class="share-link" value="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/ballot-stuffing-royals-fans-could-make-the-worst-hitter-in-baseball-an-all-star-starter-214052264.html?soc_src=copy" role="textbox" data-rapid_p="6" style="line-height: 1.5em; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; box-sizing: border-box; transition: border 0.2s linear, box-shadow 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: border 0.2s linear, box-shadow 0.2s linear; border: 0px; box-shadow: none; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; margin: 0px; height: 1.9em; width: 361px;"></form>




[/COLOR]

 

[slapshot]

Good job I'll try to help them when I get home

 

[CHOPTALK]

Good job I'll try to help them when I get home

I think a lot of people are going to do that.
Would not be surprised to see Trout get squeezed out of his spot and see all 9!starters Royals.

 

[CHOPTALK]

I think that's why ESPN is not talking about it to give it pub.
This could be a disaster for MLB.

 

[slapshot]

Maybe that wound be better to have the real team play innings 4-9

 

[CHOPTALK]

This is actually bad for the Royals organization.
A lot of those players have what is called "unlikely to obtain incentives " in the contracts.

Some of these players will get big bonuses for making the all star game.
And even bigger bonuses for starting the all star game.

Omar Infante is the worst starting SS in the American League and will be starting the ASG.

 

[CHOPTALK]

Maybe that wound be better to have the real team play innings 4-9

This would be true in football but there is really no advantage to that in a sport like baseball.

Baseball is basically an individual team sport.

Its the least team sport of all the team sports.

Its not like an outfielder plays better outfield just because he has a regular teammate to the left or right of him.


But I do believe that if an NFL team had all 11 starters in the PRO BOWL that would be a huge advantage .

I think if that happened the worst team in the NFL would probably best the other pro bowl roster in a 1 game situation where there is only 1 week of practice

 

[CHOPTALK]

Never mind. I see what you are saying.

After the Royal players play 3 innings then they can bring in the real all stars to play the rest of the game.

This is true .

Good point.

 

[JakeT.]

The fact that the MLB All-Star Game determines home field in the World Series and not the play of the teams participating in the actual World Series is the biggest joke in sports.

 

[The Guesser]

The more things change:
http://www.redszone.com/forums/show...he-Box-The-Redlegs-and-the-1957-All-Star-Game

 

[VIEJODINOSAUR]

This is a travesty......another Bud Selig gimmick.....

 

[CHOPTALK]

This is a travesty......another Bud Selig gimmick.....

Im glad he gone.

He was the 2nd worst commish in sports history