If you want a good laugh today, check out the all-star voting for baseball’s mid-season classic. I know all star games in pro sports have become nothing but popularity contests but this year’s baseball voting is downright comical and sad at the same time. Generally every year there are players that get left off the roster that should have been on it and sometimes players will sneak on because of popularity but this year, so far anyway, the fans have got it very, very wrong.
First let’s talk about the leader at 1st base, Mark Teixeira. He’s having a pretty good year so far (16 HR’s, 38 RBI, .901 OPS) but is he really the best 1st baseman in the American League? Adrian Gonzalez is having a monster year (.918 OPS, AL Tex
Now let’s take it to the National League at the same position. Albert Pujols currently leads the voting and is so far having one of his worst statistical years ever. His batting line of .265/.335/.412/.746 and 9 HR’s, 31 RBI looks putrid next to Joey Votto (1.001 OPS, 7 HR, 32 RBI, .338 avg.) and Prince Fielder (.924 OPS, 11 HR, 42 RBI, .291 avg.) who are putting together fantastic starts to the year. Why does Pujols belong this year? Is it because of his past MVP seasons or maybe his hardcore St. Louis
The rest of the National League however is pretty good. The voting seems logical and all the leaders in other categories I could reasonably say deserve to go to the All-Star game. The biggest travesty comes from the American League. Your leading vote getter so far at the position of short-stop is….Derek Jeter. What the…? Derek Jeter? Really? He of the following stat line - .264/.328/.332/.660 with 2 HR’s and 16 RBI? Wow. Let’s see there are probably 7 other SS that should be ahead of him, but I’ll narrow it down for you to 3. Asdrubal Cabrera of the Indians is having a beast of a year so far (.875 OPS, 10 HR, 39 RBI, .299 avg.) and should be the leading vote getter. But there’s also Erick Aybar (.315 avg., .800 OPS, 3 HR, 20 RBI, 14 SB) and Jed Lowrie (.305 avg., .803 OPS, 3HR, 22 RBI) tearing it up right now.
I get it. Jeter is iconic and legendary but the All-Star game is for what players are doing THIS YEAR! It’s not what about you’ve done in your career. I could see if this was Jeter’s last season in the league and we all knew he was retiring, then great, vote him in one last time and give him his curtain call, but we all know he’s going to continue to play mediocre baseball for the rest of his contract, so why is he the leading SS vote getter?
Maybe it’s me but I think it’s time to revoke the fan voting system MLB has in place. If Major League Baseball is trying to push this game as “meaning something” and it does by giving the winning league home field advantage in the World Series it’s time to get the best players on the teams. If it wants to continue with the fan voting popularity contest, then it’s time to remove the meaning of the game and let it be just an exhibition game.
With the game determining home field advantage for the World Series, then it’s in the best interest to have the best players at each position for each league. Jeter should not be at shortstop and I’m sorry but Pujols shouldn’t be at first base this year. Take away the fan voting and come up with a new system. I’m sick of fan bases flooding the ballots to get their favorite players on the field when sometimes they just don’t deserve it.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that although I’m a Red Sox fan, I’m a baseball fan first and a baseball purist at that. I don’t care that there are six Yankees leading the voting so far. In fact I believe that 4 of those Yankees deserve to be in the game (A-Rod, Granderson, Russell and Cano) but let’s get rid of the ones that don’t deserve…
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