Advertisement

Cardinals lead the way in first NL All-Star balloting update

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Forget about East Coast bias, Major League Baseball ought to start looking into its Midwest bias. The first National League All-Star balloting update was released Wednesday, and the St. Louis Cardinals are represented well.

Four Cardinals would currently make the All-Star Game, and that doesn't include Kolten Wong, who is second in voting at second base. The voting is eerily similar to the American League update, which featured five Kansas City Royals leading the pack. Instead of saying baseball has a Midwest bias, we can probably amend that to say Missouri bias.

(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)

The Cardinals aren't the only story, though. Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper leads all candidates with 1,116,582 total votes. That's not really a surprise. He's been one of the biggest stars this season, and his .331/.467/.734 slash line is more than deserving.

The fans also seem unconcerned about Kris Bryant starting the season in the minors. Though he missed the first couple weeks of the season, Bryant ranks second in voting at third base.

Mike Oz outlined some of the issues with the AL ballots Tuesday, but the NL ballots are actually pretty good thus far. There are a lot of Cardinals, sure, but those players are deserving. The only real complaint is at catcher, where Buster Posey should be ahead of Yadier Molina.

In the outfield, there's a case to be made that Justin Upton should be much higher. The 27-year-old currently ranks ninth at the position despite a .288/.348/.553 slash line. He's actually ranked lower than teammate Matt Kemp, who has gotten off to a rough start this season.

[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]

First base is also a mess. Adrian Gonzalez is more than deserving of the top spot, but both Anthony Rizzo and Paul Goldschmidt have put up MVP-type numbers thus far. All three deserve to make the All-Star Game.

This is just the first of six updates MLB will release, so the list should change as fans have more time to vote. For now, though, it looks like Missouri is poised to dominate the contest. Who could have seen that coming?

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

- - - - - - -

Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik