Blue Jays Star Leads First Baseman in Current All-Star Balloting
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The MLB announced that Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has taken over first place for All-Star voting in the American League when it comes to the first base position.
It has been a battle for the top spot between him and Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees.
Guerrero now has a solid lead with over 74,000 more votes than Goldschmidt as of the latest update.
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Guerrero has been a solid slugger his entire career, averaging a slash line of .287/.364/.496 to go along with 170 home runs and 576 RBI.
During the past seven games, he has been even more impressive.
He has been walked five times, hit two homers and driven in eight runs to go along with a .292 batting average and a 1.081 OPS.
Besides his slugging percentage, his season numbers are fairly comparable to his career marks.
He has a batting average of .279, tied for third amongst Toronto’s hitters, and has an on-base percentage of .383. His slugging on the season has dropped to .442, but his OPS is still first on the team at .825.
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In the field, he has been pretty consistent all year.
He has played first base in 72 games (69 starts). He’s totaled 483 put outs, 40 double plays and 32 assists with only six errors in over 613 innings.
The Blue Jays have used him as a designated hitter in six other games, too.
In comparison, Goldschmidt has cooled off in the month of June, and his current numbers don’t really compare to that of Guerrero.
In the past 15 games, he's slashed .192/.263/.346 two homers and four RBI, numbers that get worse when looking at what he's done in the past week's worth of games.
However, Goldschmidt does have a stronger case in the field with 451 putouts and only two errors.
His numbers on the year are definitely better than this past 15 days stretch. His batting average jumps to .298 while his on-base and slugging percentages go up to .358 and .447, respectively.
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He’s valuable to the Yankees, but his recent struggles have not helped his case in the All-Star Voting.
Phase 1 of the voting will end June 26. In Phase 2, the fans must select from the two finalists who advance out of Phase 1 at the first base position.
The winner of each phase will be named the starter for the All-Star Game.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.