Royals fans are stuffing the All-Star ballot box early

[Frobby]

Hosmer is a close second at 1B.

Infante tied for 1st at 2B (not sure if this is accurate; could it really be an exact tie, or is it a typo?).

Moustakas (3B), Escobar (SS), and Perez © all leading.

Cain and Gordon are 1st and 3rd in the OF voting, while Rios is 5th.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2015/06/jones-remains-fourth-among-al-outfielders-in-all-star-balloting.html

The voting has gotten even more ridiculous this week. Hosmer (1B), Moustakas (3B), Escobar (SS), Perez © and Cain (OF) all leading at their respective positions, and Gordon and Rios ranked 3rd and 4th among outfielders (so Gordon would be selected if the voting held up). 2B Omar Infante is a close second to Jose Altuve.

[ChrisP]

The only one I don't agree with is Infante. ?

[DrungoHazewood]

The voting has gotten even more ridiculous this week. Hosmer (1B), Moustakas (3B), Escobar (SS), Perez © and Cain (OF) all leading at their respective positions, and Gordon and Rios ranked 3rd and 4th among outfielders (so Gordon would be selected if the voting held up). 2B Omar Infante is a close second to Jose Altuve.

The more ridiculous the better, I say. If the AS game is all Royals then it will both give MLB some exposure, plus it will drive them to change the game to something else, hopefully less of the weird attempt to get 34 players in a nine-inning game.

[Austin]

What a joke. I think MLB is going to be forced to change the selection process after this.

[ArtVanDelay]

Let's just be happy for another organization that has a few decent players and will get more than the token one player. (Says the Orioles fan in the heart of KC). Wade Davis should also make it as a RP.

No thanks.

[weams]

Karma.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yordano Ventura removed as a precaution because of right hand weakness, Royals say.</p>— Dave Brown (@AnswerDave) <a href="

">June 13, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Babypowder]

Here are the Royals who should be starting the All-Star game:

[SeaBird]

Ned Yost isn't apologizing. He said if fans of other teams are upset about the votes the Royals players are getting, the simple solution for those fans is to vote.

"There's nothing wrong," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "Vote! The votes are the votes. If you don't like it, go out there and vote. Our fans have gotten out and voted. Does seven starters surprise you? Yeah. But once you sit back and think about it, it's really not that surprising."

Hosmer echoed his manager's sentiments, also per Nightengale: "I don't know what people want us to do. Are we supposed to tell people to stop voting for us?"

Gordon, a two-time All-Star, isn't apologizing for his team's domination of the fan vote, but he does want to see a change in the way players are selected to the teams. Here's what he had to say on the matter, per Nightengale:

To be honest with you, I've never agreed with the All-Star voting. I always thought that guys most deserving, and having the best years, should go, especially now that the All-Star Game decide who wins home field advantage. But it's a popularity thing now, and after getting to the World Series, we got popular.

But we get seven guys starting at the All-Star game, they'll change the rule. They'll have to. It will be like a home game. Nobody wants to see one team playing against the other All-Star team.

It kind of ruins the point of an All-Star Game.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2496534-kansas-city-royals-are-not-sorry-that-team-is-dominating-all-star-game-voting

And to be honest, the voting for Orioles players is pretty bleak. Here's the latest results:

CATCHER

1. Salvador Perez, Royals: 4,419,620

2. Stephen Vogt, A's: 2,198,780

3. Russell Martin, Blue Jays: 855,798

4. Brian McCann, Yankees: 750,605

5. Caleb Joseph, Orioles: 400,802

FIRST BASE

1. Eric Hosmer, Royals: 3,551,005

2. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers: 2,933,108

3. Prince Fielder, Rangers: 1,088,428

4. Mark Teixeira, Yankees: 705,886

5. Albert Pujols, Angels: 587,805

SECOND BASE

1. Jose Altuve, Astros: 2,809,731

2. Omar Infante, Royals: 2,650,416

3. Jason Kipnis, Indians: 1,104,667

4. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox: 726,006

5. Ian Kinsler, Tigers: 702,907

THIRD BASE

1. Mike Moustakas, Royals: 4,046,726

2. Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays: 2,329,742

3. Pablo Sandoval, Red Sox: 620,193

4. Adrian Beltre, Rangers: 619,494

5. Manny Machado, Orioles: 562,311

SHORTSTOP

1. Alcides Escobar, Royals: 3,928,985

2. Jose Iglesias, Tigers: 1,819,764

3. Marcus Semien, A's: 910,707

4. Jed Lowrie, Astros: 713,703

5. Jose Reyes, Blue Jays: 464,104

OUTFIELD

1. Lorenzo Cain, Royals: 4,211,472

2. Mike Trout, Angels: 3,668,577

3. Alex Gordon, Royals: 3,393,134

4. Alex Rios, Royals: 2,311,122

5. Adam Jones, Orioles: 1,995,897

6. Michael Brantley, Indians: 1,466,472

7. Yoenis Cespedes, Tigers: 1,431,447

8. Jacoby Ellsbury, Yankees: 1,256,232

9. Jose Bautista, Blue Jays: 1,175,483

10. Josh Reddick, A's: 1,010,239

11. Hanley Ramirez, Red Sox: 857,182

12. Carlos Beltran, Yankees: 707,986

13. Torii Hunter, Twins: 672,479

14. Brett Gardner, Yankees: 602,804

15. J.D. Martinez, Tigers: 489,645

DESIGNATED HITTER

1. Kendrys Morales, Royals: 3,269,634

1. Nelson Cruz, Mariners: 3,128,121

3. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees: 788,538

4. David Ortiz, Red Sox: 690,977

5. Victor Martinez, Tigers: 504,983

[glenn__davis]

I'm actually pretty impressed. I mean obviously every team tries to get the fan vote out, but I'm not exactly sure how the Royals are doing this. Moustakas is almost doubling Donaldson, who's having a great year. Rios over Jones by 4 million? Infante only 1.5 million behind Altuve?

[ArtVanDelay]

I'm actually pretty impressed. I mean obviously every team tries to get the fan vote out, but I'm not exactly sure how the Royals are doing this. Moustakas is almost doubling Donaldson, who's having a great year. Rios over Jones by 4 million? Infante only 1.5 million behind Altuve?

Rios is ahead of Jones by 400,000k not 4 million and Infante in 150,000k behind Altuve.

[glenn__davis]

Rios is ahead of Jones by 400,000k not 4 million and Infante in 150,000k behind Altuve.

That was what I meant - just off by one measly factor of 10

[25 Nuggets]

I don't even think it's the entire Kansas City fan base doing this. I suspect it's actually just a handful of people that made some sort of bot program that creates emails and votes while they're AFK.

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm a little surprised no one brought up the 1957 Reds ballot box controversy. A Cincy newspaper printed thousands of pre-marked ballots, and a ton of Reds fans mailed them in. Seven of the eight position playing starters for the NL were Reds. The Reds had been a 3rd-place team in '56, and ended up in 4th place in '57. NL President Ford Frick intervened and pulled Gus Bell and Wally Post from the game, replacing them with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. And I'm pretty sure this led to changing the selection procedure the next year to (temporarily) take the fans out of the process.

[ledzepp8]

I don't even think it's the entire Kansas City fan base doing this. I suspect it's actually just a handful of people that made some sort of bot program that creates emails and votes while they're AFK.

Yeah. By now, I'm convinced that this is a calculated effort by some people to make a joke of the roster...kind of like how Vote for the Worst was with American Idol.

[Austin]

They released some new numbers today, Infante has officially surged past Altuve. Now the lineup is all Royals and Mike Trout.

MLB insists there is nothing wrong with the voting, they've apparently looked into it. I look forward to the overhaul of the voting system for next year's game.