Player Picking or True All-Star?
By Missy Zielinski
It’s been a long week in the MLB, some historic (Jeter’s 3000th) and some rather tragic (in Texas), but with all the buzz around baseball this week, I thought it only timely and appropriate to continue to hype up the yearly controversy surrounding the All Star game that always happens at this time in July by adding my two sense about the display of what’s supposed to be today’s “best.”
If you noticed the quotations hugging the word best it was for good reason. Are the players set to match-up in tonight’s game really the best the MLB has to offer? And, does the MLB even care?
A Chance to Make Some Money
In my opinion, the MLB is one big marketing scheme. While I love the fact that baseball is attempting to advertise and promote to get back into terms of America’s pass time, they’ve forgotten one very crucial thing…the All Star game is there to honor the best. Call me a real fan, but I love to watch a game that can truly celebrate the number of players who actually have talent, but will not see it go past the regular season…think Andrew McCutchen? I mean the Pirates are above .500, but playoffs? That’s a stretch.
What the MLB does is promote a game around the most popular players in the league for a very meaningless match up. This is all for the sake of grabbing a huge national fan base. Yet, it’s not even working- according to ESPN viewership is down and the fact that players are pulling out due to injury and vacation doesn’t help.
Let’s get to the numbers though….
American League Mistakes
Starting with Derek Jeter- yes, I’m going to point him out because come on now, he is Mr. 3,000th- and wouldn’t it seem that he’d be the perfect person to be the starting shortstop for the American League? Sure it all seems correct in theory, but it’s not.
Just because someone will forever be known as an all star over their career doesn’t necessarily make them a 2011 All Star. Jeter’s season has had a slow start and was plagued with a calf injury thus far. His average is also only .270 and he’s ranked 5th among the AL in his position. Yet, what about Jhonny Peralta (DET) who ranks second in the AL and has a .312 average. That looks like a better pick to me.
Asdrubal Cabrera from Cleveland was listed as the reserve (sixth-best SS in the AL), but Peralta was only added after Jeter withdrew from the game. If it were up to me I would have had Peralta as the starter, saving room for J.J. Hardy (BAL) and Erick Aybar (LAA) as my reserves. They rank first and third among there position, respectively, and both have averages higher than Jeter. Still neither is in the game.
Well it is also well known that I am certainly not a fans of the Bronx Bombers, I don’t want to see them pushed out entirely. Alex Rodriguez definitely deserves his spot at third. He’s ranked 1st at his position and is always consistent at the plate. Also, what about C.C.? Guess you Yankee’s fans got it wrong there. He is currently the winningest pitcher in the AL, but wasn’t even listed as a reserve…only added again due to other players who dropped out.
Sabathia had this to say about the situation…it shouldn’t be about how many come from a team, but how good each player really is....if this were the case, we’d see more C.C.’s and less Jeter’s.
National League Was Worse
There was even more disappointment from the National League. When it came to Joey Votto (CIN), who ranks second at his position (1B) and is ranked fourth among the whole MLB in hitting. Yet his spot went to Prince Fielder, who not only had a poor showing at the Home Run Derby, but also ranks 13th at his position and 17th in the NL among hitters.
Another huge snub was Andrew McCutchen. If you aren’t mesmerized when you look at this 24-year-old, then you haven’t seen a ball player like him. This CF doesn’t only have wheels, he can use them in the field and at the plate. While his average is just hovering below .300, he also owns the 10th spot in rankings for CF. Luckily, someone saw that he was left absent from the roster and added him to the reserve list after others opted out.
My last player argument (yet it could go on) is Shane Victorino, who ranks second in his position and has an average of .303. While all the outfielders have averages above .300 it makes it a little harder to get in all the talent that’s loaded in this position for the NL, but still they shouldn’t be forgotten.
The Problems Will Continue…
So, as the MLB continues to “market” its league, we’ll continue to see the choices being made and sports journalists will continue the same arguments year after year, but if this is what we do to get players noticed than so be it.
Coaches of their respective league's team in the All Star game (who are in charge of the reserve roster) will continue to make the hard choices they must when it comes to players who will be recognized and players who won’t. In a league where talent is so often left unnoticed, could we at least let those players who often don’t see a playoff berth for seasons to come, get recognized just a little…midway through the season?
