Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado each has some ground to make up if they hope to earn the fan vote to be the starter at their position for the 2015 All-Star game. Both Tulowitzki and Arenado sit in 4th place in fan voting at their respective positions with just over three weeks remaining in the vote.
Tulowitzki is 517,611 votes behind St. Louis’ Jhonny Peralta, who leads all shortstops with 1,279,711 votes as of June 2.
Arenado has a much larger hill to climb, lagging behind Matt Carpenter, also of St. Louis, by 1,396,260 votes. Carpetner is second among all NL players in voting, behind only Bryce Harper.
The voting may stack up in the Cardinals’ favor, but the stats show that the two Rockies should be getting higher consideration.
Fantasypros.com provides us a quick side-by-side comparison of the two shortstops…
Tulowitzki leads in every major offensive category except stolen bases – which is not a strong suit for either – and Tulo is batting a full 33 points higher on the season.
A similar comparison between Arenado and Carpenter shows a much tighter race, but one that Arenado holds an advantage in three of the five categories, including batting average and home runs.
In the end, it’s a fan vote – not a performance vote. That may explain why the No. 3 hitter in the National League isn’t even in the top five in voting at his position.
D.J. LeMahieu is hitting .335 through June 8, good for fifth in all of baseball, yet he has not cracked the top five in voting among second basemen. Dee Gordon of the Marlins leads the league in batting and leads second basemen in voting. The Cardinals’ Kolton Wong is in second among second basemen, despite being fifth in batting among all NL second basemen and 14th overall in the National League.
And that’s not to mention that Tulowitzki, Arenado and LeMahieu are all Gold Glove winners, with Arenado and LeMahieu the reigning winners at their positions.
Rockies fans have some ground to make up for their three star infielders, otherwise they’ll have to depend on the players and coaches to give Colorado some love in Cincinnati.
Colorado starts a three game series with the Cardinals on Monday at Coors Field.
All-Star voting ends at 9:59 p.m. MDT on July 2.
