I have to get this off my chest. I despise the 10 days between when Major League Baseball discloses its All-Star Game selections and the Mid-Season Classic itself.
The announcement of the initial rosters leads directly into the “Final Vote” process, which enables fans to put one last player onto each roster from among a group of five. At face value, that is fine, but what irritates me is the over-the-top campaigning by the each of the 10 teams with a player on these ballots. Instead of an evaluation of the players’ merits, it becomes a competition of who can run the best PR campaign.
What I hate the most by a country mile, however, is the moronic and excessive deployment of the “snub” label, liberally applied to dozens of players left off the American and National League squads.
More often than not, the term is recklessly thrown around by homer media members and bloggers alike, representing about the least objective source as one could find.
They don’t care about the limitations of the voting process and the requirement for each team to be represented.
They don’t care about the reality that their own team’s fans did not get out enough of the vote to elect their favorite player as a starter in the first place. If they had simply accomplished that, there would be no possible way for a snub to occur.
They don’t care that other players on other teams have better stats – and maybe their favorite just didn’t quite put together a good enough first half. ‘My guy is more deserving because I say so’, with emphasis!
They don’t care how ridiculous they look in cherry-picking stats, parsing out small sample sizes to try to make their case. (Here is one apparent example, citing stats since May 13 – clearly an arbitrary date chosen to put their favorite in his best light – while being oblivious to the flawed “analysis”.)
wRC+ leaders since May 13
Max Muncy (198)
Shin-Soo Choo (192)
J.D. Martinez (188)
Matt Carpenter (184)
Mike Trout (180)
Jose Ramirez (180)
Nelson Cruz (175)
Paul Goldschmidt (174)
Brandon Crawford (173)
Alex Bregman (172)
Jose Altuve (170)— Isaac Rodriguez (@isaacfromCT) July 7, 2018
Finally, they don’t care that the best of the supposed “snubbed” players will likely soon be added to the squads via the “Final Man” voting process or as the many “injury” additions made to the rosters each year, anyway.
They just want their dissed favorite player to get his due – and they want it now!
Please, just stop already with the incessant whining.
I believe the current process works very well. The fans get their say, with the players themselves filling much of the gap. The managers and leagues only get involved at the end, mostly to ensure all teams have a representative.
No matter how large All-Star Game rosters might be, there will always be the next tier of players whose results are close to the ones selected. The only way to eliminate this entirely would be to invite every player from all 30 teams.
Your favorite player did not make the team? Get real, shut up and deal with it.
Personal preference
For the record, I cover the St. Louis Cardinals system in my day (and night) job. Their third baseman/first baseman Matt Carpenter was on the “Final Vote” ballot, but my choice was the eventual winner – Milwaukee first baseman Jesus Aguilar, a key and unexpected contributor to the first-place Brewers’ strong first half while putting up superior numbers.
The validity of his selection seemed to be confirmed when Aguilar was subsequently announced as one of the Home Run Derby participants, as well.
These guys still have a chance.
We present your 2018 @CampingWorld All-Star #FinalVote candidates. Vote NOW: https://t.co/8a7gYAR1L5 pic.twitter.com/GfG1naL1P5
— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2018
A possible exception
One area in which I think MLB could make an All-Star roster accommodation would be to keep aside a spot or two for a late-career player, preferably a long-time star in his final season. Likely, the former great’s best years were in the past, making his choice over a more-deserving younger player based on comparative results in the current season highly questionable under the current process.
However, few players pre-announce their retirement plans a half-season or more in advance, so this could get tricky.
First-half All-Stars only is unfair
I illustrated the May 13-to date kind of silliness above and just added the fact that the All-Star Game only recognizes results during the first half of the current season.
Players with excellent second-halves last season are totally ignored in All-Star consideration.
I think this is wrong.
I get that there is no way to practically merge 2H 2017 stats with 1H 2018 ones.
I get that the season re-sets each year, as players change teams and in some cases, leagues.
I get that with the post-season, there would be no practical way to hold an October or November All-Star Game.
The solution is simple.
Forget the game, but still recognize the best second-half/full-year players with a second set of All-Stars.
This idea is hardly revolutionary. The Triple-A and Double-A leagues have followed this process for years – naming All-Stars at mid-season who play in the game – and follow that up at the end of the schedule by also honoring the best players over the full season.
It would not cost MLB a dime to implement this, so why not do a better job of recognizing their most consistent standouts?
‘Because we have always done it this way’, is not an acceptable response.
Brian Walton was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most points in the league’s history. He also holds the all-time NL Tout single-season records for wins and saves. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
