Everyone knows Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star vote is a popularity contest.
People don’t vote for the most deserving names on the ballot—they punch in for their favorite players or the stars they recognize. As a result, the starting lineups for the Midsummer Classic say more about the fans and media than the accomplishments of the players.
As is to be expected, it’s usually the biggest-market teams who dominate the voting—the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers have had some of the most inflated vote totals over the last couple years in the AL, while the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals get some of the most blind ballots in the NL. And, of course, there’s the most evil recognizable sports franchise in the universe: the New York Yankees.
Looking at the latest voting updates, this season’s balloting looks just as screwed up as (if not more than) usual. Current projected starters Lance Berkman, Troy Tulowitzki, Brandon Phillips, and Russell Martin would be good (or at least defensible) choices for reserve spots, but they’re definitely not the best at their positions. And a number of voting leaders—Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, and Albert Pujols—are completely undeserving of All-Star appearances. And that’s just among the No. 1 vote-getters at each position.
Moving down the lists in the AL, Mark Teixeira is somehow ahead of Miguel Cabrera and Mitch Moreland is inexplicably beating Adam Lind. Orlando Cabrera has more votes than Ben Zobrist and Howie Kendrick. Ichiro Suzuki, Carl Crawford, Nelson Cruz, and Nick Swisher, who have combined for 1.7 WAR, are among the Top 8 outfielders. And Jorge Posada, the DH with an 88 wRC+, is in third place.
Things are just as bad in the NL. Ryan Howard has nearly 1.5 million votes even though, at 1.1 WAR, he’s been roughly a league-average player. Dan Uggla is hitting .178 and has topped a million votes, while Chase Utley is nearing 2 million despite having missed nearly two months of the season. And Yuniesky Betancourt has been well below replacement value (-0.6 WAR) at least 860,163 people say he’s better than Jose Reyes.
I realize there’s no way All-Star voting can ever be objective. I understand and appreciate homerism—I’m guilty of it myself. But the striking thing is that these results betray the voters’ complete unawareness of the consequences of their actions—the fans who are affected most by the outcome of the Midsummer Classic are the ones who are putting the least thought into their selections.
Consider the teams the above players represent. The Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, Phillies, and Cardinals are all there, as are the Colorado Rockies, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves, and Milwaukee Brewers. What do they have in common?
Give up? The answer is: they’re all contenders.
For 28 of the 30 MLB teams, the outcome of the All-Star Game couldn’t matter less. It’s a meaningless exhibition game that brings prestige (and merchandise sales) to teams who have lots of representatives, but as long as no one gets hurt it doesn’t matter what happens after “Play ball!”
However, the final score means a great deal to whoever makes the World Series—whichever league wins the Midsummer Classic gets home-field advantage in the Fall Classic. Fans of non-contending teams have no reason to put the best-possible lineup on the field, but any franchise in the midst of a playoff run sure does.
Every fan who thinks his or her team has a chance of making the postseason has a logical imperative to throw subjectivity out the window when considering his or her ballot. There isn’t much that can be done about subconscious bias—I’m sure there are people out there are who really do think Robinson Cano has been the AL’s best second baseman this year—but to willfully vote for your favorite players rather than the best ones is to act directly against your favorite team’s best interest.
What if the National League loses when Albert Pujols flies out in a key situation on a pitch Prince Fielder would have hit out, and the Cardinals end up making the World Series? Or if Lance Berkman can’t score the tying run from second base on a play Andrew McCutchen could have made easily?
Yankee fans, imagine AL has a one-run lead and the bases are loaded with two outs in the ninth inning. Undeserving All-Star Brandon Phillips hits a weak grounder up the middle that Alexei Ramirez would get to in his sleep. But Derek Jeter is playing shortstop and it’s out of his reach. Now New York is at a disadvantage if they make the World Series—as Bombers fans surely expect.
If Kansas City fans want to vote for Jason Kendall as the best catcher in the league, it won’t matter for the Royals, and the Twins have nothing to lose by voting for injury-riddled Joe Mauer. But the more-than 2 million Red Sox and Rangers fans who want Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Yorvit Torrealba to be the AL’s starting catcher could very well live to regret it.
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