5 guys who deserve more All-Star support

The first round of All-Star Voting is out, and all told, congratulations, baseball fans, I think you’ve done a pretty good job. There are no obvious groaners here, no one who has no business being in the starting lineup, nothing to be embarrassed about.

I will confess, though: Looking over these results, I have a few quibbles. You were great, but you weren’t perfect. Allow me this opportunity to review your selections and let you know what you may have been a little bit off on -- to let you know what players you may have undersold considerably. Don’t fret: This is just the first stage of voting, you’ve got a couple more chances to get it right.

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Juan Soto, Nationals, OF (5th)
Leader: Mookie Betts, LAD
Look, I know the Nationals aren’t particularly fun to watch right now, and it’s not like Soto is having the best year of his career: He’s basically putting up the worst numbers of his career in every category. The thing is, though, Soto’s “career worst numbers” are still better than just about every other outfielder in the National League.

Soto leads the league in walks, like he always does, and the only NL outfielders with more total bases than him are Mookie Betts (justifiably first in outfield votes) and Kyle Schwarber who, uh, Soto more than makes up for by wiping him out in defensive metrics. You can make an argument that Soto -- again, having the worst year of his career right now -- is still having the second-best year among NL outfielders. And he’s fifth in voting? Behind Starling Marte?

C.J. Cron, Rockies, 1B (8th)
Leader: Paul Goldschmidt, STL
Being overlooked won’t come as much of a surprise for Cron, who has been overlooked his entire career, from Anaheim to Tampa to Minnesota to Detroit to now Colorado. But he has hit everywhere he has played -- here’s a fun fact: He’s four homers behind former MVP (and current teammate) Kris Bryant for his career -- and he’s having the best year of his career for the Rockies, with 17 homers, 52 RBIs, and a .298 average.

Sure, he's doing it for Colorado, which always makes people fly right past him on their ballot, but they shouldn’t. First base is stacked, no question: He’s probably not passing Paul Goldschmidt, Pete Alonso, Freddie Freeman or Matt Olson. But eighth? Behind Rowdy Tellez, Eric Hosmer and Joey Votto? Come on.

Tommy Edman, STL, SS (4th)
Leader: Trea Turner, LAD
FanGraphs has Edman as the seventh-best player in the Majors by WAR this year, extremely heady company, and third overall in the National League (behind Manny Machado and Paul Goldschmidt, both leading their respective positions). But Baseball Reference’s version of WAR has Edman even higher than that: Would you believe that bWAR says Edman, accounting for offense and defense, has been the best player in baseball? It’s true, ahead of Sandy Alcantara, Machado, Rafael Devers, Mike Trout and Goldschmidt.

Now, maybe you don’t think Edman is the best player in baseball. Maybe you don’t even think he’s the seventh-best player in baseball. But surely he’s better than the fourth-best shortstop in the National League, no? Edman may be being hurt by the fact that he only recently became a shortstop. But he’s been fantastic since moving there, too. He’s only one spot ahead of Fernando Tatis Jr. … who of course hasn’t played a single game all year.

Jeff McNeil, Mets, 2B (3rd)
Leader: Jazz Chisholm, Jr., MIA
All right, so third isn’t that low, and it’s totally understandable that Chisholm would be leading this category. But we’re going to have McNeil -- who is hitting .327, playing excellent defense and basically sparking this entire lineup -- stand in for all sorts of Mets fan aggrievements here. (Seriously, the team is playing some of its best ball in 15 years and it doesn’t merit one starter? Not one?) Pete Alonso second, Francisco Lindor third, Brandon Nimmo 11th; wow, just typing that I think inspired some boos in Queens. Take your pick for your underappreciated Met, but there sure are plenty of them.

Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox, SS (3rd)
Leader: Bo Bichette, TOR
Note that we haven’t had a single mention of the American League yet. That’s for good reason: It’s pretty tough to argue with Vlad Jr./Altuve/Devers/Judge/Trout/Springer/Alvarez/Kirk (though take your pick at catcher, really). But, uh, what’s going on over there at shortstop?

To be fair, Bichette is leading the Majors in at-bats. But last I checked, making the All-Star team requires more than just showing up. The shortstop position in the AL is stacked, and it’s stacked with players having better years than Bichette, from Bogaerts to Carlos Correa to Correa’s replacement Jeremy Peña (who’s hurt) to J.P. Crawford to Corey Seager to Tim Anderson. Bichette is a nice player, and Blue Jays fans clearly like to make their voices heard. But it’s tough to make a case for Bichette (.725 OPS) over any of those guys. Ultimately I’ll go with Bogaerts, but I’d take a few of these guys over Bichette.