Kershaw Among 5 Final Vote Candidates For 2015 MLB All-Star Game
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Four Dodgers were selected for the MLB All-Star Game that will take place on Tuesday, July 14th.
Zack Greinke, Yasmani Grandal, Joc Pederson and Adrian Gonzalez were all selected for the National League All-Star team on Monday, as Clayton Kershaw was surprisingly left off of the team, for now.
Kershaw has a second chance to make the 2015 All-Star team, in the MLB's "Final Vote", which nominates five players from each league, and lets the fans vote to decide who the final spot on each team goes too.
Before you head to bed, vote to get the #MVPtoASG: http://t.co/roG8PW3E45 pic.twitter.com/HhFGuCX2U0
— #MVPtoASG (@Dodgers) July 7, 2015
Kershaw, the reigning NL MVP and Cy Young Award winner, has a 5-6 record this season, despite a 3.08 ERA and an impressive 5.44 strikeout to walk ratio. He is also tied with American League All-Star Chris Sale for the major league lead in strikeouts, with 147.
The Dodgers are using the hashtag #MVPtoASG to get fans to vote for Kershaw and send him to his fifth consecutive All-Star game.
Kershaw sits in 50th place in the MLB in run support per nine innings with an RS/9 (Runs scored per nine innings) of 4.34. He has pitched 114 innings on the season, but has only received 55 runs from the Dodgers offense while he has been on the mound.
To put that in perspective, Drew Hutchison leads the MLB in run support with a whooping 7.64 RS/9, as the high powered Blue Jays offense seems to score relentlessly when Hutchison takes the mound.
Hutchison sports an impressive 8-2 record despite having a 5.23 ERA. Hutchison leads the MLB in win percentage among pitchers, certainly in part to his high run support he receives from the Blue Jays offense.
Hutchison was not selected for this years' All-Star team.
Brett Anderson ranks highest among Dodgers pitchers in run support per nine innings, with a ratio of 4.68 RS/9.
Run support has been a major factor in Kershaws' season, and he could certainly would have more than five wins if he garnered more run support from his teammates.
Kershaw leads the league in both strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings, but will need the fans' help in order to be selected to this years' NL All-Star team.
Joining Kershaw on the NL's Final Vote Ballot are Reds' pitcher Johnny Cueto, Mets' closer Jeurys Familia, Cardinals' pitcher Carlos Martinez, and Rockies' shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
The American League ballot consists of Red Sox infielder Xander Bogaerts, Twins' second baseman Brian Dozier, Tigers' outfielder and reigning Home Run Derby champion Yoenis Cespedes, Royals' third baseman Mike Moustakas, and Yankees' outfielder Brett Gardner.
The Final Vote opened on Monday, and will close at Friday, July 10th, at 4pm EST.
Fans can go online to vote, or fans can also text their votes by first texting "VOTE" to 89269.
If voting via text, fans can next select their players by sending in the player codes N1-N5 for National League players (Kershaw is N3), and A1-A5 for American League players (Standard messaging rates do apply).
National League codes are: Cueto (N1) , Familia (N2) , Kershaw (N3), Martinez (N4) and Tulowitzki (N5)
American League codes are: Bogaerts (A1), Cespedes (A2), Dozier (A3), Gardner (A4) and Moustakas (A5).
There will also be a Twitter vote during the last six hours the ballot is open.
From 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, July 10, 2015, any public tweet that includes a hashtag designated for a candidate will be tabulated as part of that candidates€s overall Final Vote total used to determine the American League and National League winners.
Kershaws' hashtag is #MVPtoASG, but only tweets that occur from the designated time period given above will count towards the vote.
Be sure to check CBSLA.com on Friday to see which two players were selected as the final All-Stars for this years' Midsummer Classic.
