Astros fans will be furious after All-Star snub exposes MLB voting flaw

Major League Baseball revealed the results of Phase 1 voting for the All-Star game on Thursday, and for Houston Astros fans, it's confirmation that the current process has some egregious flaws. Sure, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge were the deserved top vote-getters in each league, and there should be no gripe with that. Both players are likely favorites to win the respective MVP awards, but after that, the voting results are littered with offenses against the Astros.

The voting confirmed that the Astros will have no players starting for the American League during the All-Star game. Considering the Astros enter the weekend as the second-best team in the American League, it seems impossible to think that no player on their roster is deserving of a starting nod.

All-Star voting mess just gave Astros fans their latest reason to rage

The closest race for the Astros was at second base as Jose Altuve was under 125,000 votes away from advancing to Phase 2 of the voting process. As part of the voting process, the top two vote-getters at each position move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Phase 2 then decides which of the two players will start at each position.

Despite playing a majority of his time in left field this season, the Astros listed Altuve as a second baseman for voting purposes as a way to better his path to a 10th selection to the All-Star game. At first, it seemed like the decision was going to work; however, Holliday's recent resurgence with the Orioles likely halted Altuve's momentum.

It's also crazy to think that Jeremy Peña, who has been mentioned in the MVP conversation this season, fell short of Jacob Wilson as part of the voting for American League shortstops. Sure, Bobby Witt Jr. is going to get recognition based on his name alone, but for Wilson, while it has been a surprising story, Peña is posting identical numbers while playing for one of the best teams in the American League.

If anything, the results of Phase 1 prove that Major League Baseball still has to tweak the voting process. There needs to be room for discretion, and in this case, Peña's snub is too egregious to ignore.

It's not all lost for the Astros, however, as Hunter Brown is still in consideration for being the starting pitcher for the American League. However, it seems that Astros' players are being ignored when it comes to the All-Star game.

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