Dodgers: Corey Seager getting snubbed from ASG start is a crime

All-Star starters have been announced, and while no Dodger is starting, there is perhaps no bigger snub than LA’s shortstop.

The best team in the National League does not have an All-Star starter. Let that sink in. That may change if Clayton Kershaw gets a chance to start the game, but that will be up to Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon. As of now, though, the Dodgers have zero.

It’s easier to live with Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger, and Yasmani Grandal not getting the starts. Turner has to deal with Nolan Arenado. While an argument can be made for Turner having the better season, Arenado no doubt deserves the start as well. He’s having an MVP-caliber season by doing Arenado-like things on a playoff team.

Buster Posey has been better than Yasmani Grandal this year, and Cody Bellinger wasn’t even on the ballot because of his late call-up. Everyone else starting has an argument to be.

However, the biggest crime has to be LA’s star shortstop Corey Seager being left out in favor of the Cincinnati Reds shortstop Zack Cozart. Like seriously wow.

Cozart, in his defense, has had a good season thus far. He’s hitting .322 with nine home runs and has played excellent defense. If it weren’t for the Dodger sophomore, he’d have a legit argument to be starting.

However, Seager is around and balling. He leads Cozart in home runs (13 to nine), doubles (21 to 16), walks (45 to 32), hits (85 to 73), runs ( 57 to 40), RBI ( 42 to 33), and stolen bases (albeit three to two). He may not have the same average, but he’s still hitting an elite .305 with a .923 OPS. It’s no secret that Seager is the better player, and possibly the best shortstop in baseball.

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Throw that on top of being the best position player on the best team in the National League, arguably the best in all of baseball, and it’s not even close. It’s a crime, plain and simple.

This is the flaw of fan voting. The All-Star Game is supposed to be “for the fans” and also the best of the best. Thus, it shouldn’t be left up solely to the fans to decide who should start in the Midsummer Classic because, in reality, it has just become a popularity contest.

You need at least some objectivity, and a battle of the fanbases isn’t that. I mean, in the NBA, Zaza Pachulia almost became an All-Star starter this past season because of fan voting, and he’s an average, at best, player for crying out loud. The only reason he did not was because the NBA had altered the voting system and decreased the power fans had, which turned out to be smart.

When you are encouraging competition amongst fan bases, you aren’t 100% making the game for the fans because most fans will have no objectivity and stuff the ballot in favor of their players for the heck of it, even though they won’t be deserving.

This means one fan base will be happy while the other 29 really won’t. Voting takes away from players that are deserving. Last year, the NL’s best team at the break had six players starting, and not all of them were deserving. This year it’s zero.

It’s hard to blame Dodger fans when 70% of them can’t even watch the games. And if you do want to blame the fans, then you are saying that it isn’t about performance but rather anyone is deserving as long as they get the most votes. That means an MVP front-runner should be a reserve because of the starter, who is inferior to him, is more deserving just because he was more popular (Paul Goldschmidt vs. Ryan Zimmerman). And that is just ridiculous, but that’s just me.

Next: June Outfield Grades

I can guarantee that majority, if not all, fans outside of the Reds fanbase would rather see Seager than Cozart. This is why it should be more than fan voting to determine the starters. However, as disappointing as it is, Corey Seager is still in the All-Star game as a reserve. He will also tell you that he has bigger fish to fry in October.