If All-Star voting ended right now, James Wood wouldn't be starting the game. James Wood wouldn't even be on the roster. And that is an unmitigated travesty. On Monday, Nationals beat reporter Mark Zuckerman shared the league's release of the current standings of National League All-Star voting. The upshot: CJ Abrams is at the front of the league in shortstop voting. But at a position where six players get selected, James Wood is currently seventh in voting.
The case for James Wood to start the All-Star Game
James Wood leads all National League outfielders in home runs. He also leads in walk rate, on-base percentage AND slugging percentage, OPS, both wOBA and xwOBA, wRC+, and win probability added, He's 3rd in runs batted in, and second to only Pete Crow-Armstrong in FanGraphs wins above replacement.
Nobody in all of Major League Baseball--not in the American League, not in the National League, not at any other position--is ahead of James Wood in runs scored this year. They're not even close. The next-closest players (Mike Trout and Brice Turang) have scored 15 fewer times than Woody.
As it stands, it is absolutely inexcusable that James Wood is currently seventh in the voting for National League All-Stars in the outfield. It is ludicrous that Teoscar Hernández, who has barely 200 plate appearances and an OPS 190 points lower than Wood, is clearing him by over 75,000 votes. Brandon Marsh of the Phillies, much as I've been fond of him in the past, is currently slated to start the All-Star Game with north of 230,000 more votes than Wood despite 26 fewer weighted runs created. Ronald Acuña is also in position to start despite not yet crossing the one-win threshold.
The excuse that "oh, well, the Nationals aren't relevant" isn't even valid anymore. The Nationals just took a series from the Mariners, the leaders of the AL West, and are now 3 games above .500 for the first time since they won the World Series. James Wood has been no small part in that. He made national headlines with an inside-the-park grand slam less than a month ago.
His +2.72 WPA, which, again, leads every single player in the National League, has been a driving factor in the Nationals' success when it matters most. The only argument you can realistically make against James is that he strikes out a lot. That only matters if he's not producing, especially when it matters. Leading the NL in WPA illustrates that, by no small margin, Wood is absolutely producing, especially when it matters.
There is something you, the reader, can do about this. Even if you're not a Nationals fan: get out to MLB.com/Vote right now. Vote five times every day until June 25, and include James Wood in your National League outfielder ballots. If you love baseball, if you care about this sport and seeing the best, most exciting players in the All-Star Game with the most dynamic skillsets, you need to vote for James Wood. There is more than a week left. Make your voice heard. Make your vote count. Vote for James Wood.
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