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.

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.