**The aim of this article is not to sway votes, but instead to inform you the voter! (Insert Russia joke here)
The Kansas City Royals are on the down hill stretch of their annual #VOTEKC campaign. A campaign that we all know to have been run flawlessly in years passed. But this year, a more realistic approach has taken over, and they have modified the hashtag to #VOTEHOS.
The cry to #votemoose has also been heard around the ranks, from a really bored Danny Duffy (who is twitter gold during games right now), to signs around the K and internet. But I caution you, unlike you may have done before, think long term before you vote for someone just because they are on your team.
The reason I write this is not to scold people who vote for all Royals.
The Royals are pretty much everyone's favorite team. It makes sense to vote for the players you like the most, and watch the most. I am not even writing this to say you should look at numbers and vote for the person with the best WAR or BABIP. I know most people don't give two craps about advanced metrics. They just like the game, and watching the Royals.
To you folks out there, and anyone else still reading, I write this to say there are some long term repercussions that we may need to think about before casting that ballot at https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot.
All-Star games are a major accolade to players. So much so that some players have clauses built into their contracts which give them bonuses for making them. And for this very reason, agents use them as a way to increase the value of their clients. To date both Moose and hos have been to one All-Star game a piece. Adding a second in their "walk" years would undoubtedly make them that much harder to re-sign.
I know they may be a long shot to re-sign in KC. So if you are in the boat to "Sell Now." It would be beneficial to vote these guys into the game. It will add to their trade value, and you really don't have to worry about future contract because we won't be dealing with that. Or if you are in the corner of, these are people who gave a lot of their time and talents to KC, we should do what's best for them, and their future.
Then we definitely should vote them in. Moose and Hos helped take this team to the World Series two years in a row, and if we have any chance at all this year, we will need them to do it again. So YES they do deserve to be rewarded for this. There is no reason to fault anyone for this view, and in-fact, I am very impressed again with the organization for doing pushing the #votehos hashtag. The Royals even changed their twitter handle to this.
So if you are in the long term Royals camp, you may want to think twice before voting for these two. It will make it even harder to keep these guys in KC. But if you are in the live for the now camp, #VOTEHOS and moose. After all, this really is a popularity contest, and the only thing that matters is what the popular vote of Americans want….which is a novel idea.
