Baseball's premier talent will descend on the desert on July 12 as the 2011 All-Star Game will be played at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. The year's outstanding achievers will be on hand to show off their talent to the world—or will they?
MLB.com released the first updates of voting that takes place online and at stadiums nationwide recently, and a quick check of the leaders in votes seems to be normal. That is until you examine the players that are getting snubbed.
Let's take a look at the number of players that are batting over .300 with enough at-bats to qualify as a league leader. There are currently 33 batters that fall into this category, with 18 being in the National League and 15 in the American League.
We will assume that each team would take the top two at each position, except for the outfield where we'll allow five. This of course isn't technically true, but this would result in 15 spots of each team's roster.
The voting shows that 10 of the top 18 batters in the NL and 11 of the top 15 in the AL will not be participating in the game. That's over two-thirds of the year's best hitters not in action.
This also means the biggest surprise of the first third of the season, the Cleveland Indians, would only have one representative: Asdrubal Cabrera.
This has been a concern for quite some time now, as aging stars are still milking their former glory well past their prime. The poster child for this in the American League is Derek Jeter.
There's no doubting Jeter is one of the best shortstops to play the game, but if this is strictly based on stats, Jeter's .264 average and two home runs fall well short of the requirements for an All-Star. He is one of the top three most popular players in the game, so he will lead American League shortstops in votes until he retires...in 2021.
Asdrubal Cabrera should be the starter. Best player on the best team in the league with the stats to prove it: .296 batting average, 10 home runs, 36 RBI and seven stolen bases. Behind him you could make a case for the Rangers Elvis Andrus and the Angels Erick Aybar, who have both had good years.
While we're on the subject of Jeter, lets look at how the Yankees did in the voting. Russell Martin, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez are all the leading vote-getters at their position. That's not an All-Star team; that's an All-Yankee team. Curtis Granderson by the way, was the second leading vote-getter in the outfield.
Josh Hamilton is another example of a player getting recognition from past accomplishments. He ranks third among AL outfielders in votes, yet has only played in 20 or so games due to an extended period on the disabled list. No one is doubting Hamilton's talent—he is the reigning AL MVP after all—but he just does not deserve to be playing in this game.
Tampa Bay outfielder Matt Joyce has had a tremendous year batting over .360 while hitting nine home runs and driving in 30 runs. On the list of the voting totals, Joyce is not in the top 15 outfielders. Although Sam Fuld and B.J. Upton, Joyce's outfield partners, both make the list.
Snubs are part of the game, as there are around five potential All-Star first basemen in the American League. Of course you can't take everybody, which is why Miguel Cabrera, Paul Konerko and Mitch Moreland potentially could be left out of the festivities.
The National League looks much more like a deserving All-Star team, but there are still concerns. Their spots are not occupied by over-the-hill players, but instead by players like Hamilton who are riding recent success despite down years.
Albert Pujols is one of the best players to ever play the game, but his stats, a .267 average and nine home runs, are a far cry from a usual Pujols season, and are leaving much more deserving players out in the cold.
Joey Votto, the reigning MVP is having another standout season but because of the popularity, he is still almost 200,000 votes behind Pujols.
Jose Reyes, although playing in a large market, is being overlooked as well. He is tied for first in hits with 76 and is second in stolen bases with 19. He is also one of the leaders in batting average (.335), runs (36), doubles (17) and triples (8).
Despite all of this success, he is only third in shortstop voting behind Troy Tulowitzki and Jimmy Rollins.
Tulo actually has more votes than Reyes and Rollins combined, yet he is underperforming, managing only a .250 batting average. That's not All-Star worthy.
Other notable national league snubs would be Hunter Pence, Martin Prado and Jay Bruce.
With this being said, what can be done?
Well you could remove the fans vote. That would eliminate most of the dumb choices.
You could leave it up to the managers. They should be able to bring the players that will help them win, right? Possibly, but there will always be a sneaking suspicion of favorites over players who deserve it.
The sports writers? Who knows more about what's going on in the entire league than Buster Olney, Peter Gammons and the rest of the baseball writers? It seems like it would be a logical idea.
But it would not work, as will no possible alternative, for the sole reason of it being so popular with fans. Jose Bautista alone has over 1,200,000 votes. That's a shocking number and just goes to show how much the fans love to vote.
MLB would never revoke voting privileges from fans because the game is for them. Since many "fans" are not well informed about players outside of their team, the results will always be the same. The list will be dominated by Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and Cardinals—probably forever. It has become a popularity contest. Sorry Matt Joyce, Hunter Pence and Jay Bruce. You just aren't popular enough.
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