The MLB All-Star Game rosters were announced on Sunday night, and Corey Seager and Justin Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers were not voted by fans as National League starters. Seager still made the team as a reserve, while Turner is one of the candidates on the Final Vote (Turner was one of our snubs).
Well, Dodgers All-Star closer Kenley Jansen thinks Seager and Turner should be starting in the game, and he’s blaming the team’s fans for not voting him in:
“I’ll say it loud and clear again. It’s the Dodgers’ fans fault.”
Kenley Jansen on Seager and Turner not getting voted to start: "I'll say it loud and clear again. It's the Dodger fans' fault."
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) July 3, 2017
Kenley Jansen: "Its #Dodgers fans fault. We should have voted those 2 guys (Turner, Seager). They should be starters"
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 3, 2017
Yikes. Blaming the fans — especially of the team you play for! — is never a good idea. And the voting decisions weren’t even bad calls by the fans.
The Cincinnati Reds’ Zack Cozart gets the start at shortstop over Seager, and here’s a comparison of their numbers:
Cozart- .321/.404/.558, 9 HR, 33 RBI, 148 wRC+, 2.9 fWAR in 60 games.
Seager- .299/.401/.511, 13 HR, 40 RBI, 143 wRC+, 3.3 fWAR in 75 games.
Cozart has been slightly better offensively, and the defensive metrics like him a little more than Seager as well. You can’t this was a bad decision by the fans, and it may have even been the right decision by the fans. Whatever the case, it’s fine.
How about Justin Turner vs NL starting third baseman Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies?
Arenado- .296/.348/.549, 15 HR, 61 RBI, 112 wRC+, 2.7 fWAR in 82 games.
Turner- .388/.473/.565, 7 HR, 31 RBI, 182 wRC+, 3.7 fWAR in 58 games.
Okay, now this one when you look at the slash line and the advanced stats, you see a clear advantage for Turner. But, keep in mind that most fans voting don’t even know what the hell wRC+ or WAR is. And they do know that Arenado is one of the most exciting players in the game, finding himself on highlight reels daily for his defense to go with his 40-homer power. Additionally, Turner only played in 58 games due to injury, and that could’ve factored into some fans’ votes. Turner doesn’t even show up as “qualified” when looking at statistical leaders, for example.
But probably the biggest thing here is that so many Dodgers fans can’t even see games on television (most notably DirecTV, which is also carried at any sports bar you’ll find), as Awful Announcing’s Ken Fang recently detailed. Los Angeles-based writer Molly Knight also tweeted about this following Jansen’s comments:
https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/881683891479748608
https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/881684346255560704
https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/881686781078364160
Fans are usually going to vote for players that they’ve actually watched play, and a large percentage of fans rarely get the opportunity to see Dodgers games. So, it’s easy to see how Dodgers players could lose a lot of All-Star votes as a result of the television issues, and that’s not the fans’ fault.
