Rob Neyer conducts an interesting exercise: what would happen if you had to make an all-time All-Star team following the same roster rules to which today's All-Star are subject? Specifically, a 33-man roster, picking from players' individual seasons, and a rule that every team -- including historical teams like the Boston Braves and New York Giants -- has to have a representative. The linked piece is for the NL selections. Presumably the AL will follow later today.
Rob does a good job, but man, Chad Cordero of the Nats sure sticks out, doesn't he? Especially given that Bob Gibson's 1968 season, among many other excellent ones, is left off. Not that it's Rob's fault, of course, because who else are the Nats going to have on that team?
Which leads me to believe that, in addition to simply being fun, the point of this exercise is to show just how stupid the every-team-has-to-have-an-All-Star rule truly is.
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No love for Ryan Zimmerman? Also, couldn't we include members the Expos since their technically the same organization?
You're taunting me, right CC? I mean, I have been railing against this rule since they made this exhibition count.
Either make the game COUNT and pick the best 32 (or 33, whatever) players, regardless of team...OR leave it an exhibition and I won't complain about the mandatory representation rule/fan vote ever again. I promise!
Just don't have a selection process that is fit for an exhibition for a game that has meaning!!!!!!!!
ArRRFGgggRGHHHH!!h
(my eye is twitching!)
This reminds me of the time you put two 2003 Cubs post in two days on your blog....I could have swore you were trying to push me over the edge.
Ryan Braun's current half-season being the NL-version-of-the-Brewers' representative and (presumably, to them) supplanting Roberto Clemente sure got the commenters all in a tizzy.
Chad Cordero wasn't even the best reliever in his division in 2005, much less the NL. Classic case of "let's just pick the guy with most saves and call him an ace reliever" (see Thigpen, Bobby)
I don't care how stupid it is. If you'll look just a little past your nose, you will see that the All Star game is for the fans and every Fan Base that pays to see their team play has a right to cheer for their player even if he is batting 187 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI's
If you want to complain about something, complain about large market versus small market. Mornaeau of the Twins beats t exiera in every department and should be starting.
Don: first, try checking some spelling. It enhances credibility.
Second, fan voting (including mandatory representation) has flaws. One of which is that large market teams have an inherent advantage over small markets. You can't have one without the other.
I understand that the game is about the fans. But MLB made it less about the fans when they made it count. So pick one or the other, Buddy Boy.
I fail to see how people get so up-in-arms about this All-Star Game "counting." You do realize that the outcome of the game affects just ONE game and whether or not it's played in the WS representatives home or away park. 93% of all major league baseball teams don't make the World Series, so very likely this has no effect on your fan experience. It's a really trivial matter. So why do people go around every year saying how the All-Star Game is "a joke" and not even worth watching. The ASG, like MLB in general, has always been about entertainment, so why do people get so pissy about it?
But it's not stupid; it's a reasonable, and I would say wise, trade-off. In exchange for the loss of the aesthetic of having "the best team possible" (as if anyone could agree on THAT), you involve the fan base of all the teams, make the game inclusive, avoid the specter of an All-Star team consisting of 11 Yankees, 9 Red Sox, and change, and duck the insult of telling multiple fan bases that they have no players worthy of calling "stars." Most years, the lone representatives are legitimate stand-outs, and sometimes the rule prompts the naming of an all-time great who is a welcome presence. Obviously the mandatory team rep is stupid for Neyer's team, because nobody is watching Neyer's team play, no TV ratings of Neyer's team matter, and nobody cares who's on it. But I remember rooting hard for the lonely single All-Star of my team when it was a beneficiary of the rule, and being thrilled when he had an impact on the game. It simply doesn't pay to lose that.
Ahh MLB doesn't even know what they want to do with the All-Star game. Entertainment or serious game? They want to please everyone so they try to make it both, which instead makes it neither, it's sad.
The league differences are stupid, in the first place, and having this game decide home rights makes it even worse, then you tack on these stupid selection rules, but then still tell us its fan picks?! We can only pick from the people THEY choose for us to pick, it's like a bad card trick on that How They Do It magic show, only without the scantily clad women.
Actually that's the solution right there, add more scantily clad women and those other problems will seem pretty minor by comparison.