Ty France was absolutely, unequivocally, and without question, ROBBED of being selected to the American League All Star team. There is absolutely no logical reason that Ty France should not be an All Star. Throughout the whole fan selection process, France was second to Vlad Guerrero Jr. That isn’t a shock since Vlad is a huge name, a second generation star, and an East coast star. That does not mean that France shouldn’t be the second first baseman in the All Star game.
It wasn’t a huge shock that in head to head voting to determine who the starter would be, Vlad Jr. won the starter bid. However, the basic fact that France was voted by fans to be the second first baseman in the America League and is not in the game, that is ridiculous. Even though Ty France has a great argument to be the All Star starter based on his numbers, he at the very least should be a reserve.
Looking at where Ty France ranks among American League 1B shows that he should no doubt be an All Star.
Ty France is technically second in batting average at .310 among AL first baseman, only behind Luis Arraez. However, Arraez has played less than half of his games at first base, so by that measure France has him and Vlad beat. In on base percentage, France has a .384 mark that is only second to Arraez again. In slugging percentage, France is 4th with .467. He is also second only to Arraez in wRC+ at 150, and third in WAR, all according to Fangraphs.
Looking at all of these numbers, France only trails Vlad in a few categories, pretty much just power stats like homers and SLG. He also only trails Arraez in a few categories, and Arraez plays many other positions besides first base. Arraez should be an All Star, but so should France. Both have had better numbers than Vladdy Jr. Also having Miguel Cabrera make the All Star team for his career accomplishments is dumb and it should not stop an actual star like France from making it.
All in all, it is great for the Mariners to have Julio Rodriguez in the All Star game in his rookie season at 21 years old, but it is an absolute atrocity that Ty France was barred from the game. Mariners fans need to do everything they can to stand up against this East coast bias from MLB and make sure that they know that Ty France is deserving of being an All Star. Mariners fans need to show their support and get MLB to see that France needs to be an All Star!