LA Angels: Jared Walsh needs our All-Star votes now

Jared Walsh is close to receiving All-Star recognition for our LA Angels, but we still need to step up.

On Monday, the MLB released their first look at the voting results so far. Phase 1 of All-Star voting ends on June 24th, and then the MLB will take the three top vote-getters at each position (nine for the outfielders) and have us vote for which of the three is the best.

Walsh currently would miss the top three threshold if voting ended today. He’s fourth right now among AL first basemen with seven percent of the vote.

LA Angels fans need to do our part in voting Jared Walsh into the All-Star Game.

There’s no excuse for Jared Walsh to not be in the top three, but he’s currently a percent behind the current number three guy in Yuli Gurriel.

Yes, he’s behind Gurriel, who has hit five less homers than Walsh (Gurriel only has ten on the season), and has a slugging percentage (.529) lower than Walsh’s .560. He can’t hit for the power that Walsh can, yet we’re letting him in the top three of the voting.

We need to do better. Does Gurriel cover the ground that Walsh does defensively at first base? No, and it’s not even close.

Gurriel is barely top 13 in the MLB in that category, where as Walsh leads the MLB, setting up 42.9 feet away from the base.

He’s so much quicker and can cover so much more ground at the position.

Walsh is the better athlete. He has the second-best 40 foot split time in the Majors at 2.18. Gurriel hardly cracks the top 12.

Walsh has a better fielding percentage (an unreal .997) at first base than Gurriel’s .990. Also, Gurriel has either DH’d or played first base this year. Walsh is so useful on defense that he’s played 18 games in the outfield.

Despite playing multiple positions, Walsh has still made a total of just two errors all year, where as Gurriel’s committed five.

Also, the second-leaving vote-getter being two percent over Walsh’s vote percentage really gets on my nerves as well.

Jose Abreu, who is hitting a terrible .253/.328/.459 is in second place with nine percent of the vote. That’s just plain ridiculous. Walsh is hitting .291/.358/.560.

Is this a joke? Walsh has hit 15 jacks this year while Abreu’s stuck at 11. Walsh has scored five more runs than Abreu’s 31, and Abreu has a lesser fielding percentage.

Abreu is tied for 25th in his 40 foot split time, as he looks slower than molasses compared to Walsh.

At the end of Phase 1 of voting, the top three candidates of this year should advance. What Abreu has done in the past should not keep Walsh out of the All-Star Game.

But we as the fans needs to do better.

We should not have let this happen, and we need to vote like crazy to give our guy what he deserves.

All he needs is a chance. An opportunity to give himself a shot for Phase 2.

Give him the chance to get hot and compete with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It would be great for our team, and great for the game.