Monday, July 8, 2013

I voted. Did you?

Where’s my “I voted” sticker, Major League Baseball? There should totally be a sticker just like the one I wear to shame family and friends on election day every two years (Uh, local elections are cool too, guys).  For MLB’s “I Voted” sticker, I can picture a baseball in place of the letter “O” and intersecting mini-baseball bats for all the other letters. (My wife helped this vision become a reality.)

But unlike government elections, baseball’s equivalent of a popularity contest needs stickers to shame people into voting less.  As it stands, anyone registered on MLB.com can vote up to 35 times for their favorite players in both leagues.  

Here are my issues with this setup.

First, I don’t get the feeling that these are 35 of the most unbiased votes. Let’s be honest, most people simply choose to vote a Straight Party Ticket. I mean who hasn’t SPT’d an election or two? Come on, nobody’s ever heard of some of these district judges before. But with the all-star ballot, the old SPT can get a bit ridiculous. I would say in certain instances it is downright shameful to vote for certain players because they are on your favorite team.


I have a friend, let’s say for the sake of argument that he is a Mets fan in honor of Citi Field hosting this year’s game. He votes a SPT and raises it a notch, voting not only for Mets but also for Yankee rivals, too. That approach nets about 16 undeserving players. Most of the Mets are not all-star caliber this year. Sorry, but it’s true.

Yes, David Wright should start the game (even if the team may have explored some unique channels to stuff the ballot box).  But Ike Davis, while finally lifting his OPS above .500, is still batting well below the Mendoza Line and does not deserve a single vote. Ruben Tejada hasn’t played a major league game since May and obviously should not even be a candidate for ASG 2013.

Which brings me to my next gripe. Where do they come up with the players on the ballot? I mean, could they pick the candidates any sooner? Poor Scott Sizemore, the Oakland Athletics’ candidate at 2B, only managed six April at bats before re-tearing his ACL. As my neighbor, a two-time ACL-tearing survivor, has told me: life gets a little tougher after the second surgery.

I wish Scotty a speedy recovery, but the chances of him being healthy enough to play in Queens this summer are slim to none. Why even keep him on the ballot? I know MLB has to print paper ballots and distribute them to each ballpark, but at least wait a month. You can't even tell who is a real all-star and who is just faking it until mid-May. Putting Derek Jeter on the all-star ballot is like leaving Donald Trump on the 2012 Presidential ballot.

So the ballot itself has some flaws. If that were the end of it, I would be fine. But the voting system itself openly favors larger markets. Fans get to vote for the starting lineup and that gives larger markets a better shot at seeing their favorite players.

Not that I’m bitter, but if Josh Donaldson played for a New York or LA team, I’m pretty sure he would have at least made the all-star team as a reserve with his slash line of .319/.388/.536.  In a larger market the Bringer of Rain, with 15 HRs this season (including 8 bombs in 41 games at cavernous O.Co.), would probably be in the Homerun Derby, too.
Sure, 3B is stacked in the AL but Oakland deserves at least one hitter in the all-star game this year, considering only 7 teams have scored more runs in all of baseball. The small market works against Oakland year in and year out. The last batter to be invited was Ramon Hernandez in 2003. Really? In the last 10 years Oakland hasn't produced a better hitter than Ramon Hernandez?
That said, it looks like fan votes got the starters right this year. I’m sure you could nitpick and few of the starters on the NL team (Paul Goldschmidt’s 73 RBI is only good enough for a reserve spot??). By and large the masses did pretty well.
So, why am I taking such umbrage with an exhibition game? The internet makes it a little too easy to vote. There is nothing better than voting in person at the ballpark (making the same hanging Chad joke year after year). And, because in case you didn’t hear: It counts!!.
Comment below with your votes for this year's MLB All-star game (And be honest all you SPT'ers). Here's my ballot:

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