MLB All-Star rosters revealed: Cubs’ entire infield voted in as starters

Rosters for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game were announced on Tuesday night, and the main takeaway is how many Chicago Cubs are on the team: Seven.

In fact, the entire Cubs infield has been voted in as National League starters for the game at Petco Park. Kris Bryant is the starting third baseman, Addison Russell is the starting shortstop, Ben Zobrist is the starting second baseman, and Anthony Rizzo is the starting first baseman. It’s the first time since the 1963 St. Louis Cardinals that a team’s entire infield is starting in the All-Star Game (assuming all of these Cubs play in the game, of course):

The race at second base was unbelievably close, with Zobrist edging out the Washington Nationals’ Daniel Murphy by just 88 votes:

MLB release says Ben Zobrist beat out Daniel Murphy for 2B starter by 88 votes. 88 votes! — Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 5, 2016

Now, Bryant, Zobrist, and Rizzo are all very deserving, but even as a Cubs fan, I will admit it’s super lame that Russell is starting this game at shortstop. Using FanGraphs‘ Wins Above Replacement, Los Angeles Dodgers rookie shortstop Corey Seager is behind only Kris Bryant (4.3) in the entire NL in WAR at 3.9, while Addison Russell ranks sixth among NL shortstops at 1.8. Russell is having a fine season, but he probably shouldn’t even be in this game, and most certainly shouldn’t be starting in it given the tremendous season Seager has had.

The Cubs had three more players voted in as starters, and these ones were all pretty fair calls: Dexter Fowler as the starting center fielder, and Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester on the pitching staff.

Here are all of the players on the NL All-Star team:

Here is your starting lineup for the 2016 NL All-Star team. pic.twitter.com/s7WCUD8xBO

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 5, 2016

NL All-Star Pitchers: Kershaw Arrieta Bumgarner Cueto Syndergaard Familia Jansen Rodney Strasburg Fernandez Teheran Melancon Ramos Lester — Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 5, 2016

And then there’s the American League roster, which features six Boston Red Sox players, including four starters:

Here is your starting lineup for the 2016 AL All-Star team. pic.twitter.com/xW6zSYfDeo

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 5, 2016

AL All-Star Pitchers: Betances Brach Britton Colome Wade Davis Estrada Hamels Herrera Kimbrel Miller Salazar Sale Wright Will Harris

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 6, 2016

So, get ready for what is basically going to be a Cubs-Red Sox exhibition game next week in San Diego.

We’ll have more soon on the All-Star Game snubs, so check back on the site for that.