Major League Baseball released its first update on All-Star voting on Monday, and against all odds, the White Sox actually have a position player running in third place.
It's just not in the place you'd think to look. Even if you don't necessarily have an idea where you'd begin.
Mike Tauchman is somehow receiving the third-most votes among American League designated hitter, even though Tauchman has been limited to 25 games this season, and only four of them have come at DH.
Once you see the other names in the field, it becomes slightly more apparent:
- Ryan O'Hearn: 353,029
- Ben Rice: 232,331
- Mike Tauchman, 177,483
- Yordan Alvarez, 172,720
- Anthony Santander, 168,208
His standing is mostly one of the least consequential ramifications of the Rafael Devers trade, as he was lapping this particular field with nearly 800,000 votes before the Red Sox sent him to San Diego. He now counts as an NL DH for All-Star voting purposes, and he's running a distant second to Shohei Ohtani.
There's also the fact that Alvarez has been injured since May, and Santander has been a major disappointment in the first half-season of his five-year deal with the Blue Jays, but it still doesn't explain why Tauchman would be running ahead of them, because even those paying real close attention to actual production would be giving those votes to Brent Rooker, who is currently in sixth. My guess is that it's residual support from Cubs voters who have no particular horse in this race, saw Tauchman's name and thought, "That guy was alright."
Otherwise, the only other White Sox position player in the top 10 at any position is Lenyn Sosa, and he's a distant 10th at second base. The White Sox's All-Star rep is going to be a pitcher, and it's up to Shane Smith to make it an impressive story, and not a sad footnote.
Spare Parts
- Inside the 'absolute shitshow' that led to the Boston Red Sox's trade of Rafael Devers -- Yahoo! Sports
- Craig Breslow: Rafael Devers trade isn't a 'waving of the white flag' -- The Athletic
The trade of Devers was mostly surprising due to the timing -- in the middle of June, with no real murmurs that something was in the works. Devers' existence in Boston seemed tenuous at best, particularly after Triston Casas was lost for the year and Devers showed no interest in playing first base, partially because the front office had already kicked him off his preferred position and pushed him into the DH lifestyle. It's a fascinating gambit that could blow up in Breslow's face, and it's hard to think of any deadline deal that will be able to top it.
Friday's Red Sox-Yankees game featured a terrific bit of theater, with Garrett Crochet pitching in the ninth inning for the first time in his career as a starter, facing Aaron Judge in a game Boston led 1-0. The count went full on the sixth pitch, and Crochet missed down and in on the seventh pitch, which Judge swatted onto Lansdowne Street to tie the game. This is a great breakdown of the at-bat, and what Crochet was trying to do.
We hadn't really covered what the Brewers saw in Vaughn, and from what Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy says, it's a surplus bat who has to hit in Triple-A to make himself an option down the line.
"We're looking to get him on track hitting right now and then we'll figure out a way where he's one of our nine hitters," said Murphy. "We'll figure out the rest after that. He's got to go down there and play well."
Somewhat adjacent to Vaughn's disappointing season, deep flies are traveling four feet shorter than expected due to increased drag. Rooker is quoted in the story as wondering if that's the reason his expected slugging percentage is 100 points higher than his actual slugging percentage, which was an issue that dogged Vaughn all season as well.
The Royals went 0-6 at home last week, including a winless weekend against a previously reeling Athletics team. Their postseason odds are down to 13 percent according to FanGraphs, when they were up toward 40 percent at the start of the month.
Since just about every former Brewer seems to end up in the White Sox organization, let's post this here, just in case.
