DownSwinging.com

You know mlb.com is going to have a field day when something relatively-meaningless-but-good-for-baseball-either-way happens like the tight race in the All-Star voting between Kevin Youkilis and Mark Teixeira. The two AL first basemen are big sluggers, both likable guys, and of course the fact that they play for the Red Sox and Yankees only helps fuel the fire. According to ESPN, as of June 16, Youkilis was leading in the polls, with 1,110,366 votes over Teixeira’s 1,109,051. So the question is, which player has had the better season. Youkilis boasts a .330 average and ridiculous .462 OBP, which trumps Teixeira’s .283 and .388 averages, respectively. But on the other hand, Teixeira has 17 more RBIs, 9 more HRs and has played in 10 more games than Youkilis. So who’s the winner?

Neither of them. It’s Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins. Morneau was always bound to lose out to these two because you knew both the Red Sox and Yankees fans were going to “get out the vote.” (For more on the all-star game voting problems, take a look here.) But in truth, the guy who plays for the often-overlooked midwestern team is actually the best candidate. He is tied in RBIs with Tex, and though he has a couple fewer home runs, his average is some 26 points higher than the Yankees’ first basemen, not to mention the fact that he has more total bases. And compared to Youkilis, he hasn’t got the OBP, but then again, he has played in 16 more games than him, which matters a lot when you consider how much more valuable Morneau’s batting average is in relation to Youk’s despite being essentially identical. No matter how you look at it, Morneau has 83 hits, Teixeira has 66, and Youkilis has 58.

It’s not like Morneau is really dying in the polls. He’s roughly 180,000 votes back, but that will be enough to keep him out of  the race. He’ll still get to make the trip to St. Louis, it’s just that he deserves to start.

Oh and by the way, if I had another pick for AL first basemen, it would be Victor Martinez, who leads the league in hits and has a better BA than any of the other guys. Lucky for Tex and Youk, he’s listed as a catcher.