St. Louis Cardinals: The All-Star voting conundrum

Every year, All-Star voting can be greatly skewed and distorted by a variety of unworthy votes, and some of the biggest offenders outside of the St. Louis Cardinals all fall into the same category.

Exhibit A: Loving a legend

While it sometimes happens because fans are attempting to pay homage to legends like with Cal Ripken in 2001, there are also situations like in 2010 where a legend coming up on the end of his career is given a pass in favor of another great player who clearly deserved to make it over.

A prime example of this is Derek Jeter‘s election to the team in 2010 and 2011. While his election in 2012 had some merit, Jeter was clearly undeserving in these two years. He was 9th among shortstops in both WAR and batting average while playing below league average on defense in the first half of 2010.

2011 was even worse. Jeter was not 9th, but 19th in WAR among shortstops at the break. His OPS was just .683, and he was once again below average on defense. People will favor the names of legends simply because that legendary status makes casual spectators assume that they’re playing great.

If Jeter announced his retirement in one of those years and got elected like he did in 2014, that would be understandable. But here, he didn’t earn his All-Star spot based on merit, but on reputation.

In the St. Louis Cardinals’ case, Buster Posey‘s reputation as an offensive player is more appealing for an All-Star Game than Yadi’s defensive talents, despite Yadi having more home runs. However, it’s the reputation of Posey as a hitter that pushes him over Yadi in this case

Every year, All-Star voting can be greatly skewed and distorted by a variety of unworthy votes, and some of the biggest offenders outside of the St. Louis Cardinals all fall into the same category.

Exhibit B: Equating team wins to individual value

This is something that also played a part in Jeter’s unjustified elections in 2010 and 2011. One of the main reasons that Jeter was chosen over Ramirez or Gonzalez in 2010 was simply because the Yankees had 56 wins at the break, compared to just 42 for the Marlins and 44 for the Blue Jays.

Wins are important, but they should be secondary when looking at individual awards, especially in baseball. Mike Trout and Jacob deGrom‘s performances this year has made it clearer than ever that one player cannot carry a baseball team to victory.

Should Trout or deGrom’s scorching seasons be discredited simply because the rest of the team can’t provide the support to defeat a more balanced team? At some point, you have to ask yourself how much more they are expected to produce in comparison to players on winning teams like Jose Altuve or Mike Foltynewicz.

In the St. Louis Cardinals case, Yadi is behind Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki despite very similar batting averages and a lower ISO.

There is an argument that Suzuki has played more this season, but the more compelling argument by many standards is the success of the Braves against the success of the Cardinals. Using team success as a “tie-breaker” between two players is acceptable, but it becomes misguided when your judgement is lead by it.

Every year, All-Star voting can be greatly skewed and distorted by a variety of unworthy votes, and some of the biggest offenders outside of the St. Louis Cardinals all fall into the same category.

Exhibit C: Blind loyalty

We saved the worst for last, because these people are just brutal. These are the fans who post their ballot to their team’s Twitter page in hopes of public recognition.

Look, I get that you love your team and its players, but doing this is just flat out wrong. Whether it be the best player, or a player that everyone would love to watch on a big stage, people should vote for players that all fans will enjoy watching.

It might not seem like a big deal, but when players are receiving bonuses for All-Star appearances in their contracts, it goes to show that the game is held in higher regard then many fans think.

Why is voting for your own players a problem then? Well, we can draw a parallel with the 2016 Presidential Election, where many Democrats implored people to vote for them instead of jumping to a third party. This third party jump was considered supporting the other side because the top parties needed every vote they could get to beat the other side.

The same thing can be applied to All-Star voting. Those votes in random players could have turned the tides between two players if the votes were applied correctly. This can affect the game, which in turn affects which league receives home field advantage in the World Series.

So seriously, don’t be that guy who votes Cody Bellinger in 35 times a day just because you love the Dodgers.

Every year, All-Star voting can be greatly skewed and distorted by a variety of unworthy votes, and some of the biggest offenders outside of the St. Louis Cardinals all fall into the same category.

So What Should We Do?

This question is split into two parts, being:

A: Should we do anything about this?

B: If so, what is there to do that can stop these things?

The reason that these problems have been going on for so long is because both of these questions are rather difficult to answer.

At the end of the day, the All-Star game experience is about the fans and who the fans want to see, so is it in good spirit to limit the way fans vote? Even if statistically, a player is not the best, is it wrong to be an All-Star if that’s what the fans want to see?

Well, it depends on how who perceive the game in a relation to a player’s career. If All-Star appearances hold any weight in the discussion of one’s career achievements, then all steps should be taken to ensure the most deserving players get in.

Luckily, because baseball performance is so extensively quantifiable through advanced statistics, All-Star appearances aren’t used in career discussions as much as athletes in the other major professional sports.

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However, being named an All-Star still has its merits. Being an All-Star is still represents the fact that you were one of the best players at your position during the first half of the season. As long as this fact stands, the All-Star game will still have some weight in judging a player’s season and career.

If you do feel strongly enough to answer yes to part A, part B provides an even more difficult problem. Simply put, there is no surefire way to eliminate the three problems listed without significantly restricting the voting rights of the fans, which the MLB wants to avoid.

The combination of these problems lead the MLB to try to instead drown out these problem voters with regular votes by allowing people to vote multiple times a day everyday. It has worked to some extent, but the problems are still there.

Another option is to make the All-Star game even more casual by removing the home field stipulation that comes with it. Personally, I think that this aspect adds some extra excitement and a unique meaning to the All-Star game, and personally want to keep that aspect the way it is.

There are many ways to fix these All-Star voting problems, but almost all of them would involve restricting how and when people can vote. There is no single solution that will be able to fix these problems of All-Star voting.

But then again, some people don’t think we need one.

Next: Moose to STL?

What do you think about All-Star voting? Do you think that Yadier Molina should be an All-Star this season? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.