Duh: Phillies Fans Hate The Phillies

In recent years, the Phillies have made a distinct effort to get fans to vote in the All-Star Game. The Phanatic wears a jersey reminding fans to vote for their favorite Phillies as All-Stars. (Wes Helms and Rod Barajas are surely getting a lot of votes.) The Phils even use oh-so-cute ballgirls to urge fans to make sure Chase Utley gets in. Oh, and ushers collect the ballots, Dan Baker reminds you to vote and the Phillies’ website also urges fans to pop out those chads at the ballpark or vote online.

Too bad it’s not working. An article — not really scientific, since MLB doesn’t announce all of the vote totals — done today by Nate Silver’s Baseball Prospectus attempts to gauge how many votes a player gains or loses by playing for a particular team. (It’s behind a paywall.) It’s based on a player’s VORP, which fans don’t really vote based on, but it’s a fun study nonetheless.

And, gee, the Phillies don’t do all that well. The Phillies’ rank 27th in the league, in front of only the Indians, Rockies and Marlins. A player gets more votes — or, rather, loses fewer — by playing for the Devil Rays. By playing for the Phillies, a player can expect to lose 205,883 votes. If one plays for the Mets, he gains 435,030. From the article:

There are also different types of “homerism” between different sets of fans. Fans in the northeast are very loyal to their clubs, with the notable exception of Philadelphia, a contrarian city where fans will find any excuse to rag on their own players.

Oh, now, come on. We rarely need an excuse; we’re being realists.

Lies, Damned Lies: All-Star Balloting [Baseball Prospectus]