Tweaking the All-Star Selection Process

Well, the people (fans, players, and coaches) have spoken and the 2008 major league baseball All-Star teams have been announced. In terms of those who deserve to be in New York City for this year’s Midsummer Classic, many of the selections were right on the money. Others, not so much. Still others (Jason Varitek, Kosuke Fukudome) leave me shaking my head in disbelief.  Am I advocating taking the vote away from the fans? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, there is no way to force the fans and players who vote for the All-Star game to do their homework and actually cast their ballots for those who most deserve to represent their league in the game that decides home field advantage in the World Series.

How in the world do we combat cases like Fukudome if the fans are allowed to vote? The answer is we really can’t. In Fukudome’s case, he had the online backing of the second largest market in the United States as well as the entire country of Japan. So, in spite of his .287 average, seven homers, and 35 RBI—pedestrian numbers by outfielder standards—the 31 year old rookie is going to be a starter. If the fans had not voted him in as a starter, he would not have been invited as a reserve. Again, short of hoping that fans vote with their brains rather than their hearts there is no way to fix these kinds of cases.

The players can screw up too. Varitek was chosen by the players in large part out of respect for his hard work, toughness, and elite game-calling skills—all worthy traits, but credentials rarely taken into account when voting for any other honors, be it All-Star berths to MVP awards to the Hall of Fame. The fact he is probably having his worst season at the plate and is batting .215 is a borderline embarrassment to the All-Star roster and again calls into question the process by which he was elected. Varitek was leading in the fan balloting for much of the early going until the masses came to their senses and rallied behind the deserving Joe Mauer. The players messed things up anyways, but again it’s tough to take away the right to vote from the players. The problem of course is that many of them put less thought into filling out their ballots than the fans do, so poor selections are bound to occur.

One thing I would like to suggest as a step toward educating the voters is a simple listing of players’ primary stats on the online ballot without having to click on a small link to get the full list. The voting is done online anyways, so a simple listing of batting average, home runs, RBI, runs scored, and stolen bases under their names wouldn’t be tough to do. That way, the voters can’t escape the stats. Of course, I like the click through to the sortable stats by position so that’s a handy feature to keep regardless.

Another dilemma in choosing the All-Star squads has been baseball’s requirement that every team be represented. This rule needs to go, folks. Football and basketball don’t do it that way, not that baseball needs to follow their lead, but in reality this is an archaic requirement left over from the pre-Internet, cable TV, and satellite dish days when you couldn’t watch every game like you can now. The every team requirement was not too much of an issue this season. Ichiro Suzuki is a dubious pick because he is having his worst year at the plate and his team has the worst record in the American League, but he was voted in as a starter so what are you going to do? The Nationals have baseball’s worst record and their selection, Cristian Guzman, probably comes closest to being a bad pick because of the “every team” rule, but he’s leading NL shortstops with a .313 batting average and has scored 50 runs so it’s not that heinous. Let’s be honest: we’ve seen much worse. The problem is his inclusion keeps Jose Reyes off the roster, who is a much better all-around player and has better stats (home runs, RBI, runs, and stolen bases) in pretty much every other category. Of course, Miguel Tejada’s inclusion on the team didn’t help Reyes either.

The other frequent problem in All-Star balloting occurs when marquee players get hundreds of thousands of votes based on name recognition long past their primes. Ken Griffey Jr. came close to being voted in as a starter because of this, but was surpassed in the balloting by the much more deserving 2008 All-Star Ryan Braun in the final week. This is the toughest issue to have a real problem with since it’s hard to suggest that future Hall of Famers don’t belong at baseball’s showcase.

At the same time, I believe this issue also has the simplest solution. Baseball should enact certain criteria which, when met, entitles that player to an open invitation to be a part of the All-Star team for his league without counting against roster limits. These players should also then be taken off the ballots, forcing fans to cast their votes for someone else. This would allow a guy like Junior to be in New York and available to participate in All-Star weekend, doff his hat in pregame introductions, and come off the bench to play in the game if the manager so chooses. Exactly what that criteria would be is the question. Perhaps the easiest way to do it would be to base it on number of All-Star appearances because, after all, this is the All-Star game we’re talking about. In other words, if a player is an All-Star X number of times, he receives the open invitation to be part of the team. Perhaps that number is 10 All-Star appearances. Setting the bar there would mean that Griffey would be invited to the game since he’s played in 13 of them, but his appearance would not cost someone else a spot. Other active players who have appeared in at least 10 All-Star games and would be invited under my suggested criteria include: Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Ivan Rodriguez. Setting the bar at eight would mean Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Derek Jeter, Vladimir Guerrero, and Gary Sheffield would also get the standing invite.

Baseball’s All-Star game is the best of the All-Star showcases by a wide, wide margin. It has the richest history and it’s the most meaningful game since it dictates home field advantage in the World Series. I am all for keeping the fans and players involved in the process, but I think my suggested tweaks above would help ensure that the most deserving players go to the game.

My next suggestion: play a double-header! What other sport has double headers? This would allow the full roster to be involved in All-Star play rather than limiting players to just an inning or at-bat. What happens to home field advantage if the teams split the double-header? The winner of the Home Run derby would serve as the tie breaker! Too much? Ok, I’ll stop there.