Valencia Wins Fan Voting, All-Division Team Position Players Set
By Wally Fish
The results of the vote are in and Danny Valencia has been picked by the fans to man 3B on FanSided’s 2011 AL Central All-Division Team. In all, 169 votes were cast over the weekend to help decide our representative at the hot corner. Brandon Inge had his share of support garnering 65 votes, but Valencia with 79 votes was the clear choice. Pretty much from the outset of the poll, the Twins 3B had a comfortable lead of at least 8-12 votes.
Wilson Betemit finished 3rd with 20 votes, while Brent Morel (4 votes) and Jayson Nix (1 vote) were barely noticed.
With Valencia on the team, the position players have now been set in stone and it is time to introduce them to you.
I’ve included the number of votes each player received in parenthesis. 5 votes means the player was the unanimous choice by our panel.
C – Joe Mauer – Minnesota Twins (5)
1B – Miguel Cabrera – Detroit Tigers (5)
2B – Gordon Beckham – Chicago White Sox (4)
3B – Danny Valencia – Kansas City Royals (3 + Fan Vote)
SS – Alexei Ramirez – Chicago White Sox (4)
OF – Shin-Soo Choo – Cleveland Indians (5)
OF – Delmon Young – Minnesota Twins (3)
OF – Alexis Rios – Chicago White Sox (4)
DH – Billy Butler – Kansas City Royals (3)
The final roster matches my personal ballot with the exception of 2B. As you know from my article on the topic last week, I voted for Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Along those lines I feel I will be justified in my vote by season’s end, but I certainly understand why Beckham got the nod on our roster. Nishi is such an unknown commodity at this point that it was difficult to rally support.
This week I will be working with the leads of the other 4 AL Central sites to select our team’s 5-man starting rotation as well as one setup man and a closer.