Once again, like every year around this time, I take a look at the "All-star" voting results, and this year is no different from the last five years, in which the annual Indians ballot stuffing and other general ballot stuffing has produced some players having some pretty sub-par years that will end up starting or being scheduled to start. I decided to find out which players were getting unnoticed and underrepresented the most, and which players were getting the biggest "free-rides".
I listed 66 of 70 American League players, all within the top 10 in their position in votes (top 20 for outfielders) and also listed their final votes and current OPS [on-base percentage plus slugging percentage -- ed.]. Then I ranked each player in OPS and votes, from 1 to 66. I then calculated their rank differential (votes rank - OPS rank). So in this case, the players with the greatest positve rank differential would seem to be more underrepresented by voters, and vice versa. Here are the results...
Name OPS Rank Vote Rank Diff.
Dean Palmer 24 64 40
Magglio Ordonez 8 47 39
Charles Johnson 14 51 37
Brian Daubach 29 58 29
Jose Valentin 39 66 27
Eric Chavez 30 56 26
Carlos Delgado 1 24 23
Greg Vaughn 19 40 21
Frank Thomas 3 22 19
Mike Bordick 37 53 16
Luis Alicea 38 54 16
Jay Buhner 26 41 15
Randy Velarde 35 48 13
Troy Glaus 9 21 12
Ramon Hernandez 49 61 12
Mike Sweeney 16 27 11
Mo Vaughn 21 32 11
John Olerud 23 34 11
Royce Clayton 52 63 11
Rafael Palmeiro 15 25 10
Ben Grieve 27 36 9
Jason Varitek 36 44 8
Juan Gonzalez 34 42 8
Raul Mondesi 28 35 7
Jason Giambi 2 9 7
Miguel Tejada 50 57 7
Brad Ausmus 60 65 5
Carl Everett 6 10 4
Albert Belle 22 26 4
Tony Batista 25 29 4
Alex Gonzalez 58 62 4
Jorge Posada 13 16 3
Travis Fryman 17 20 3
Darin Erstad 11 13 2
Nomar Garciaparra 7 8 1
Alex Rodriguez 5 4 -1
Ray Durham 32 31 -1
Ricky Ledee 44 43 -1
Ivan Rodriguez 4 1 -3
Jermaine Dye 10 7 -3
Jim Thome 18 14 -4
Dan Wilson 63 59 -4
Brian Johnson 64 60 -4
Joe Randa 33 28 -5
Bernie Williams 12 5 -7
Adam Kennedy 53 46 -7
Carlos Febles 56 49 -7
David Justice 20 12 -8
Brady Anderson 46 38 -8
Jose Cruz 42 33 -9
Delino DeShields 41 30 -11
Rey Sanchez 66 55 -11
Johnny Damon 45 37 -12
David Bell 62 50 -12
Vinny Castilla 65 52 -13
Jose Offerman 61 45 -16
Carlos Beltran 59 39 -20
Derek Jeter 31 6 -25
Paul O'Neill 40 15 -25
Tino Martinez 47 19 -28
Chuck Knoblauch 48 18 -30
Scott Brosius 54 23 -31
Omar Vizquel 57 17 -40
Roberto Alomar 43 2 -41
Kenny Lofton 55 11 -44
Cal Ripken 51 3 -48
* Note: The four players I did not use were Darrin Fletcher, Manny Ramirez, John Valentin, and Sandy Alomar. To qualify, a player had to play over 50 games.
Dean Palmer is the leader, having a rank in OPS 40 better than in total votes. Cal Ripken is getting the biggest free-ride, mostly because a. there are a lot of people in Baltimore, b. people still think he deserves an all-star induction this year just because he's had a good career, and c. because fans who are foreign to baseball are voting for the only AL 3B of which they have heard. They do not even recognize the T Glaus, the T Fryman, or the T Batista listed on the ballots.
Another thing to point out is that the last 9 in rank differential are either Orioles, Yankees, or Indians, and three of the last four are Indians. Not surprising.
Also of note is Carlos Delgado, who seems to have been forgotten in all this Giambi hype, when he is the hottest hitter in baseball right now. He is way ahead of the pack in OPS in the AL, and his voting rank is 24th.
The players closer to 0 are those with whom the fans actually seemed to be accurate, such as Ivan Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra.
I know this is a slightly new way of looking at things, so feel free to make suggestions. I am definitely one supporter of all-star voting reform, and hope this will help point out how year after year, baseball falls just a little short of showing the fans a TRUE All-Star Game.
If anyone wants the full copy of the spreadsheet with all the info, I'd be happy to email it and answer any questions. rocket21cy@hotmail.com
» Jeffery S. Brubaker is a high school senior at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been a member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) for about one year, and this past summer attended SABR's national convention in West Palm Beach, FL. He enjoys playing formal and informal baseball over the summer, and in winter frequents the indoor batting cages. He also takes part in baseball research. He is currently researching the history of left-handed infielders (not including 1B) and has been a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Toronto Blue Jays since the age of 4.
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