All-Star Ballot 2021
While watching a game last week (on June 15th in fact), I saw my first indication about the upcoming All-Star Game: a graphic showing the current leaders in All-Star voting. I remember thinking this was fairly late in the season to start hearing about the All-Star Game - usually MLB tries to get you to start voting after the first month or so, which I always thought was early. But then again, I might have just not been paying attention to the right sources.
With the Zodiac Wheel having just turned to Cancer season, I thought this would be a good time to take stock of the top players in the league, and start casting some of my own All-Star votes. The new Google ballot requires you to sign in with a Google account, and lets you vote 17 times per day, after which the top three players at each position (nine outfielders) per league will advance to the final week of voting. I don’t know if vote totals reset for that final week, or if it’s just a way to narrow the field, but I guess I’ll be paying attention now.
Starting at Designated Hitter (the only “position” that does not appear in both leagues, although hopefully that won’t be the case for long), there’s no question that Shohei Ohtani deserves representation here. If you check the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League players page, you’ll see that Ohtani has a commanding lead in overall fantasy points with 1,829 (and 26.1 points-per-game), but keep in mind, that total is a combination of his batting and pitching points. According to my calculations, the splits are as such: 1,205 points (18.0 PPG) as a batter (55 games as DH, five in the outfield) and 624 points (62.4 PPG) over 10 starts as a pitcher. Either way, Showtime will be present in Denver in 2021.
Directly behind Ohtani in 2021 fantasy points is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1,337 / 19.1) of the Blue Jays. He’s the obvious first choice for American League first baseman, although Matt Olson (1,117 / 16.7) is the next-best AL batter, making the A’s first baseman a hopeful finisher in one of those final three spots. On the National League side, I have Freddie Freeman (938 / 13.8) on my ballot at first base, which is a surprisingly weak position in the NL.
After Guerrero Jr., the next-highest point scorer in the league is Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. (1,230 / 18.9), followed by another Jr. - Fernando Tatis Jr. (1,178 / 21.4) - who is the clear choice for NL shortstop. Moving back to outfield, I have two Reds behind Acuna on my outfield ballot: Jesse Winker (1,098 / 17.4) and Nick Castellanos (1,029 / 15.8), the only other NL outfielders who have broken 1,000 points so far (Chris Taylor is next with 918 / 13.8). The AL shortstop situation is a pretty close battle between Bo Bichette (1,097 / 15.7) and Carlos Correa (1,016 / 15.2), but I stuck with the theme of sons of former Major Leaguers for my ballot.
Meanwhile, the American League outfield picture is incredibly muddled, as far as fantasy points and eligibility are concerned. Orioles breakout star Cedric Mullins (1,013 / 14.5) is the only clear favorite here, since most of the top outfield ELIGIBLE players in the AL are on the ballot at other positions. Jared Walsh (1,020 / 14.6) and Trea Mancini (942 / 13.7) are at first base, Whit Merrifield (1,002 / 14.3) is at second, while J.D. Martinez (998 / 15.1) and Austin Meadows (934 / 13.7) are relegated to DH. I had to go all the way down to Kyle Tucker (925 / 14.5) and Mark Canha (923 / 13.2) before I could find players to round out my ballot. If I recall the graphic posted on the June 15th broadcast, I believe injured stars Mike Trout (552 / 15.3) and Byron Buxton (563 / 21.7) were on that list, so fans have evidently been voting based on early season performance.
The reason Merrifield wouldn’t get my vote as the AL second baseman is because Marcus Semien (1,101 / 15.7) is crushing it for the Blue Jays, following in the footsteps of Josh Donaldson as former Oakland A’s stars to have success north of the border (or rather, two miles east of the border, since the Jays are currently stationed in Buffalo). Ozzie Albies (948 / 14.1) gets my pick as the NL second baseman, joining his Braves teammates Acuna and Freeman on my ballot. AL third baseman was a tough choice between Rafael Devers (1,078 / 15.9) and Jose Ramirez (1,051 / 15.5) – I gave my vote to the latter, since he’s been slightly hotter in the last two weeks, but hopefully they’ll both show up in the final three. Nolan Arenado (897 / 12.8) gets the nod over Kris Bryant (885 / 13.4), since the latter has been ice cold recently. Venerable veteran catchers Salvador Perez (909 / 13.0) and Buster Posey (704 / 14.4) get my votes behind the plate.
Next time, I’ll return to my All-2000’s project, with a look at the best Gemini players who made the starting fantasy roster at any time during the last two decades.