Bryce Harper Advocates Letting Top MLB All-Star Vote-Getters Pick Teams

Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper is set to compete in his fifth All-Star game in six MLB seasons, and he is already looking for ways to shake up the normal experience. 

"It'd be great if let's say the two leading vote-getters by the fans did a draft system and could pick from both sides," he said Monday, per ESPN. "So I could be facing Max Scherzer today, I mean nobody sees that. It would be a lot of fun to do something like that to make it a little more competition to face somebody on your team, like if (Clayton) Kershaw was facing Justin Turner or Chris Sale facing Mookie Betts. That'd be a lot of fun."

Harper would have this power after earning the most votes in the National League, while Aaron Judge was the leading vote-getter in the American League.

The NFL used a similar format for its Pro Bowl from 2014-16. Instead of current players serving as captains, however, former players such as Michael Irvin, Cris Carter, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders had the honors.

The NHL has also utilized this system, with Nick Foligno and Jonathan Toews most recently serving as captains in the 2015 All-Star Game, although it completely changed the format to a division-based tournament in 2016.

While the NBA has kept its conference teams for its All-Star Game, the Rising Stars Challenge briefly used a draft between former players like Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley.

The MLB All-Star Game couldn't make any adjustments in the past few years, as home-field advantage in the World Series was on the line for the league that won. That rule is now gone, however, which creates more of a relaxed atmosphere for the Midsummer Classic.