All Star Craziness

First off, baseball's All-Star game has been a mockery ever since the "this one counts" push that gave the winning league home field advantage in the World Series. Over that time period, the AL has won most of the all star games, and yet has only won half of the World Series championships, so it doesn't even matter, which makes the current All-Star dynamic ridiculous.

Second, the idea of the fans voting on the All-Stars is inherently flawed. Each team pushes their fans to vote early and often for everyone on their team, and only the players who are superstars (Albert Pujols, Carl Crawford, etc.) are easily able to overcome the fact that they are small market teams.

A prime example of this is the omission of Joey Votto in the initial balloting. By all statistical measures, Votto is having a season very similar to Albert Pujols, and in many respects is surpassing him, including batting average. He is currently considered the highest ranked first baseman in the NL according to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. His ranking (6) is far ahead of Ryan Howard (29) and Adrian Gonzalez (66) who made the team outright.

I don't know if a better solution would be to allow the players and coaches to determine All-Stars, because Omar Infante makes absolutely no sense as an All-Star either. If the Braves were healthy, Infante would barely play, and then only in a pinch-hitting or double-switch scenario, but because of injuries, he's seen significant playing time. Even in that playing time, his stats have been underwhelming.

If Major League Baseball wants to continue the ridiculous stance that the winning league of the All-Star game gets home field advantage, which is a terrible idea to begin with, then the selection of All-Stars needs to be more serious and actually give each league a chance to put the best team on the field, not just the same people over and over again without regard to whether they deserve it. However, if they will get rid of that stupid provision and just make it an exhibition game, the fans can vote in whoever they want and can have a whole team full of Omar Infantes if they choose.

In the end, the more important measure of who is the best at any given position comes at the end of the season with the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards. Currently, the All-Star game is meaningless.

That said, here's how the rosters should have been filled out based solely on performance and not Q rating:

American League:
C Victor Martinez, Red Sox (backup Joe Mauer, Twins)
1B Miguel Cabrera, Tigers (backup Justine Morneau, Twins)
2B Robinson Cano, Yankees (backup Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox)
3B Evan Longoria, Rays (backup Adrian Beltre, Red Sox)
SS Derek Jeter, Yankees (backup Elvis Andrus, Rangers)
OF Josh Hamilton, Rangers (backup Torii Hunter, Angels)
Carl Crawford, Rays (backup Brennan Boesch, Tigers)
Alex Rios, White Sox (backup Shin-Soo Choo, Indians)
DH Vladimir Guerrero, Rangers (backup Paul Konerko, White Sox)
SP Cliff Lee, Mariners
Jon Lester, Red Sox
David Price, Rays
Andy Pettitte, Yankees
RP Mariano Rivera, Yankees
Rafael Soriano, Rays
Joakim Soria, Royals
Obligatory Picks for Teams Without an All-Star Already
C John Buck, Blue Jays
2B Ty Wigginton, Orioles
SP Trevor Cahill, Athletics

National League:
C Miguel Olivo, Rockies (backup Brian McCann, Braves)
1B Joey Votto, Reds (backup Albert Pujols, Cardinals)
2B Brandon Phillips, Reds (backup Martin Prado, Braves)
3B David Wright, Mets (backup Scott Rolen, Reds)
SS Hanley Ramirez, Marlins (backup Jose Reyes, Mets)
OF Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies
Chris Young, Diamondbacks (backup Matt Kemp, Dodgers)
Corey Hart, Brewers (backup Colby Rasmus, Cardinals)
DH Ryan Braun, Brewers (backup Ryan Howard, Phillies)
SP Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies
Josh Johnson, Marlins
Roy Halladay, Phillies
Adam Wainwright, Cardinals
RP Brian Wilson, Giants
Billy Wagner, Braves
Heath Bell, Padres
Obligatory Picks for Teams Without an All-Star Already

OF Andre Ethier, Dodgers

SP Carlos Silva, Cubs
RP Matt Capps, Nationals
Matt Lindstrom, Astros
Evan Meek, Pirates

In the end, the All-Star game is about pitting everyone's favorite players against each other, as if they were the only participants in a two person fantasy league. The best solution to end this ridiculousness is to get rid of the home field advantage angle and let total fan vote determine who gets picked for each league. Then it would truly be an exhibition and we could stop calling people "six time All-Stars" when they really are three-time All-Stars that had name recognition the other two years, or were the best player on a terrible team. But that is a subject for another post.