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Royals continue to fall in final AL All-Star voting update

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

A few weeks ago, everything was coming up Kansas City Royals in the All-Star voting. Fast forward to the present, and things still look pretty favorable despite some slippage.

In the final American League voting update, the Royals still lead the charge.

The team's grasp on their starting spots, however, is slipping considerably. The Royals are down to just five starters now. A few weeks ago, they had eight players set to start the contest. Last week, the team still had seven starters.

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(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Josh Donaldson and Nelson Cruz became the latest non-Royals to lead their positions in voting. Miguel Cabrera maintained his lead over Eric Hosmer, and Mike Trout continues to dominate in the outfield.

Other than that, it's all Royals. While five starters seems like a lot, there's really only one egregious choice here. That's right, Omar Infante continues to lead the way at second base despite a .237/.243/.320 slash line. We're not sure if Royals fans are just stubbornly supporting Infante at this point, or if other fans have decided to embrace anarchy and vote for him as well.

You can make the case that at least three of the other four Royals are actually deserving of spots. Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon are both strong candidates. They rank third and fifth in WAR among AL outfielders right now, so it's easy to defend their presence in the lineup.

The crop at shortstop in the AL is so bad that you can't really argue with Alcides Escobar getting in. Jose Iglesias or Xander Bogaerts might be a better choice, but they don't have the same name recognition just yet. Escobar isn't an awful choice, and there's no clear superior candidate.

The only other legitimate gripe would be at catcher. Stephen Vogt, Russell Martin and Brian McCann have all been better than Salvador Perez this year. Blue Jays players have risen quite a bit in the past couple weeks, but Perez has such a commanding lead that it's tough to see Martin pull off the comeback.

So, in the end, you get one awful starter in the game, and one questionable voting decision. For the All-Star Game, that's actually not bad.

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Fans have until Thursday to continue voting for their favorite players. MLB will announce the game's starters Sunday.

Can the fans restore justice and get Jose Altuve a starting spot, or will team anarchy win out and give Infante the nod? Though Royals' fans have been quite the irritable bunch the past couple of weeks, we're kind of rooting for anarchy at this point.

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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