Colorado Rockies: If David Dahl played for the Cubs, he’d be an All-Star

It’s that time of year again.  The time when some of the game’s best players get overlooked while some of the most overrated players on teams in the biggest markets travel to play in an All-Star game that is becoming more and more of a joke every year.

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the MLB All-Star Game and I’m thrilled that it no longer determines home-field advantage in the World Series.  However, there are certain mind-boggling aspects of our current ASG situation that are going to drive fans mad–and I’m not just talking about the head-scratching decision to have Google searches equal All-Star votes.

Every year we go through the same discussion, the only thing that makes this year different is just how much worse it looks.  I think it’s safe to say that there are fans of 14 other National League teams that are tired of seeing Chicago Cubs players atop voting leader-boards well ahead of where their performances suggest they should be.

This has been a problem since the Cubs returned to relevance in 2015 but it has reached new levels of ridiculousness in 2019.

Currently, the Cubs have three outfielders in the top 9 in voting, which is strange because they probably only have one outfielder who would qualify as a top 10 in the NL–Kyle Schwarber.  Right now Albert Almora, Jr is fourth in OF voting in the NL.  Almora is a decent player but he is far from the fourth-best outfielder in the NL.  He’s hitting in the .250’s with 7 HR, 21 RBI, and only 2 stolen bases.  Almora’s OBP is under .300 (!) and yet he is safely in fourth place while far better players like Charlie Blackmon (who’s hitting .336 with 17 HR, 48 RBI and a 1.031 OPS) and Bryce Harper (12 HR and 50 RBI) battle for a spot in the top 9.

That brings us to David Dahl who has quietly been one of baseball’s best outfielders in 2019.  Dahl is hitting .332 with 7 HR, 36 RBI, and 20 doubles but he is nowhere to be seen in the All-Star conversation.

Dahl’s .382 OBP is almost .100 points higher than Almora’s and his batting average is .100 points higher than Schwarber’s.  Dahl also has more RBI than Schwarber.

I don’t have a problem with Schwarber being an All-Star, and his 16 HR are certainly well ahead of Dahl’s 7, but you can’t tell me that if Dahl was putting up these numbers for the Cubs he wouldn’t be somewhere near the top 5.

I mean, Almora is in fourth and his season has been nowhere near as good as Dahl’s. Same goes for Blackmon who would easily be within the top 4 or 5 in voting if he was putting up the same numbers in a Cubs’ uniform.

Ironically, those voting for Cubs’ outfielders can’t even get them in the order they most deserve.  Schwarber is clearly their most deserving of an All-Star berth among their outfielders and he has received the least amount of votes between the three of them while Almora has received the most despite being the least worthy of an All-Star appearance.

No disrespect toward Almora, but honestly, a part of me wonders if fans mixed up Almora, Jr. and Acuna, Jr. because nothing else explains the number of votes he is receiving.

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Trevor Story has gotten most of the attention of Rockies fans for his position in the voting and rightfully so.  Story’s lack of votes has been atrocious since he leads NL shortstops in batting average (.294), RBI (48), stolen bases (12), and his 17 HR are one off the pace of Javier Baez who has 4 times as many votes as Story (1,672,062 compared to Story’s 457,159) and sits in first while Story was in fourth as of the last update.

But this problem is much more than just an anomaly at the NL Shortstop position.  It’s a deep-seeded, growing issue that awards players for playing in cities with the largest populations rather than for having the best seasons at their position.  The resulting “all star” game hurts players, disappoints fans, and quite honestly is beginning to make a mockery of the sport.

Making the correct All-Star selections is crucial for the growth of the sports as well as for players when the time comes they are up for Hall of Fame votes.  Complaints of snubs should be taken seriously instead of being brushed off as whining from home-town fans.

If MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wants to increase the baseball fan-base he should spend less time on pitch clocks and more time trying to fix a Midsummer Classic that is supposed to be a National Exhibition of everything great in baseball but instead has turned into a perfect example of everything wrong with the league in 2019.