MLB All-Star Final Vote

The MLB All-Star voting is over, and the results look mostly reasonable. For the next few days, there's one last vote for the final spot on each team.

The All-Star voting process certainly has its quirks, as I've mentioned, but it seems to have worked fairly well this year. The starting lineups for both squads have fairly heavy representation from just a few teams, but it doesn't appear to be ballot stuffing by one team. The Red Sox, Royals, and Cubs simply have a lot of players who are having great years.

There's one last voting process before the final rosters are set. Each year, each league chooses five players and puts the last roster spot up for a popular vote. The MLB website lets you vote a bunch of times, which is silly, but other than that I think it's a good idea. Adds some publicity and gives one more player a chance to be selected.

In the American League, I'm partial to Detroit second baseman Ian Kinsler in the final vote. Largely this is because I'm familiar with his work from all the Tigers games that I've watched. I don't doubt that the other candidates are deserving as well, but none of them stand out as having a much better year than Kinsler.

On the National League side, I voted for Colorado shortstop Trevor Story. He's one of the more impressive rookies this year, starting with a bunch of home runs early in the season to make a name for himself, and continuing to do well since. It can't be easy coming into Colorado at Troy Tulowitzki's old spot as a rookie, but Story has handled it well. The other candidates are also deserving, particularly Giants first baseman Brandon Belt, but you can only vote for one.

Just about a week left before the All-Star game takes place in San Diego. It's just an exhibition, but I still look forward to it. Looks like we'll have a fun group of players to watch again this year.