Javy Baez hit .483, scored 10 runs, drove in 11, and eight of his 14 hits last week went for extra bases. Tack on his usual handful of stellar defensive plays at multiple positions around the diamond – plus some sliding awesomeness – and there was no debate around who the National League’s Player of the Week was going to be:
Why should @javy23baez go to DC? Because he's just been named NL Player of the Week!#VoteEverybodyIn ➡️ https://t.co/k5PitY0blM pic.twitter.com/KarE029n3t
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 2, 2018
And yet, Baez still lost ground in the National League All-Star vote at second base.
No. Seriously:
Here are the latest American League and National League balloting totals for the 2018 @AllStarGame with less than four full days of voting left for the @CampingWorld All-Star Ballot. Visit https://t.co/Jd6REEkFYI to vote. #MLBVote pic.twitter.com/xQMrIIUtVr
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) July 2, 2018
Baez now trails Ozzie Albies of the Atlanta Braves and Scooter Gennett of the Cincinnati Reds. When we checked in last week, Baez was just 222,226 votes behind Albies and 19,955 votes ahead of Gennett. Now, Baez trails Albies by 270,297 votes and Gennett by 102,505. Javy Baez lost ground in the NL All-Star vote despite being the best player to lace ’em up last week. That is absolutely criminal, and I am definitely not here for it.
As it stands, no Cubs player is in line to represent in the starting lineup when the Mid-Summer Classic hits our nation’s capital later this month.
Catcher Willson Contreras is probably the Cubs’ last hope to get a starter voted into the game. Contreras has the second most votes for NL catchers, and trails Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants by 144,499 votes. That means Contreras also lost ground to Posey, despite hitting .417 with a double, triple, and a homer last week. C’mon, folks.
Clearly, it’s time for Cubs fans to get into the voting spirit.