Cardinals' Jordan Walker Continues to Slide in All-Star Voting Despite Stellar Stats
Cardinals star Jordan Walker dropped to eighth among National League outfielders in voting for the MLB All-Star Game, meaning he will likely have to be selected as a reserve to play in the Midsummer Classic.
Video Transcript
Debate has raged for years as to who should pick the All-Stars for the American League and the National League.
Should it be the fans?
Should it be the All-Star players?
Should it be the media?
Should it be some combination of the three?
Personally, I think it's an exhibition game for the fans, so I have no problem with the fans picking.
But here's the problem.
It turns in to be a popularity contest instead of picking the most deserving players often.
And we all know Jordan Walker is an All-Star by any stretch of the imagination this season for what he's done for the Cardinals.
But it's looking more and more like if Walker's gonna make that All-Star game, he's gonna have to go as a reserve picked by manager Dave Roberts of, of the Dodgers.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
Well, the second round of results came in from the Major League-- from Major League Baseball today for voting, and not only did Jordan Walker not go up in the voting, he fell two spots.
He fell from sixth to eighth.
The problem with that, of course, is the top six advanced to phase two of the voting.
Walker's now out of that top six.
Juan Soto, the, $670 million man, for the Mets jumped into the top six.
James Wood, who's having a breakout season, much like Walker is, passed the Cardinals outfielder, for seventh, and Walker fell all the way to eighth in the voting.
that, that comes even though Jordan Walker is the National League leader in RBIs with 58 RBI.
you know, the-- Just look at Walker's season so far.
he's fourth in the National League in hits.
He's tied for fifth in the National League in home runs with 18.
Like I said, he leads in RBI.
He's eighth in the National League in slugging.
He's 12th in OPS.
and then here, put, you know, put these numbers together.
the, the three players that are in front of Walker right now are Andy Paez, the, Dodgers center fielder who's having a great season, Ronald Acua Jr., who's been out for, almost a month with a hamstring strain, been on the injured list, and then Brandon Marsh.
The game is gonna be played in Philadelphia, so obviously the Phillies are making a strong push.
Marsh is having a good batting average season, but, when you look at the raw numbers, there's just no comparison.
Teoscar Hernndez, another Dodger, is, is, is on that list.
He's in the top six, even though he's also been on the injured list, with a, with a hamstring strain as well.
look at these WAR numbers here.
Jordan Walker has a 3.2 WAR so far.
Juan Soto, 2.4.
Brandon Marsh, 1.7.
And then Teoscar Hernndez, 0.8.
He's ahead of Walker, in the All-Star voting.
But, you know, like I said, we all know this is a popularity contest.
You're gonna see lots of players from the Dodgers with them being two-time champions.
You're gonna see Juan Soto, the biggest-- one of the biggest stars in New York outside of Aaron Judge, make the game.
but let's hope that, you know, Jordan Walker deserves this.
But for some reason, his struggles to success story just doesn't seem to be resonating with All-Star voters this year.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
