MLB: 5 Ways to Fix the All-Star Game

Every year I wind up watching baseball’s All-Star Game, and every year I’m left with two thoughts. First, it’s better than the rest of the all-star events in the other major sports. Second, it could be so much better than it is. It’s not going to get any better, though.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with this game is that there isn’t a huge incentive to make it better. People are used to underwhelming all-star contests, so they don’t really care what happens -- as long as there is a winner.

Leaving the game as it has been is such a wasted opportunity, though. There is an incredible amount of talent in the sport, so the chance to see it all on the same field at the same time should be something you can’t wait for every year.

MLB has tried all sorts of tweaks and adjustments to make the game matter more, but they have all failed to some extent. I think it is time for more radical steps. Here are five things the league could do to make the game dramatically better:

Make it a best of three

Baseball is not a game that lends itself to a single game to decide things. Any team can beat any other on a given day, but the more games that are played the better the chance that the best team will win.

If the league really wanted this All-Star Game to matter they would make it an all-star series played over the course of three days. That would be a much better test for the pitchers as well. Doing it this way would make good business sense as well.  Baseball would be able to sell tickets to three games instead of just one.

The Home Run Derby could even be integrated into the three games — run the first round before the first game, the semi-finals before the second game, and the finals before the third game.

Pay the winners

Money is the best incentive for players, so they should be rewarded financially for playing in the game. I wouldn’t make it automatic, though, and wouldn’t make the league pay the players.

Instead, I would like to see contracts with a standard incentive clause that would reward players not for making the All-Star Game, but for playing for the winning team. It would be in the interest of teams to offer these clauses because having an all-star is obviously good for teams.

Pick the best players regardless of who they play for

I understand why they want to have a player from each team to try to engage all of the markets. What that requirement does, however, is to create a team that likely isn’t the best possible one.

Ultimately I think it would do more to promote the sport to have the best players showcased in the game than it would to have marginal all-stars from every market. Including marginal players like they do now weakens the overall product of the game.

Pick the team properly

The current system for picking players is totally ridiculous. It is so convoluted that it lacks meaning — the fans pick some players, the players pick others, then the mangers pick some, then some are voted for on the Internet. It’s crazy, and it all but ensures that the best possible team won't be out on the field.

The answer is simple. At the beginning of each season pick a small selection committee for each league made up of analysts, scouts, and other baseball people, and charge them with following the season as it develops and picking the true all-stars.

This would solve all of the problems with the current rosters, and the unveiling of the rosters and the tracking of who could be on them would become an event in itself.

Share the revenues proportionately

The All-Star Game is a moneymaker for the league, and it would be much more of one if they went to a three-game series as I suggested earlier. I think teams would be much more interested in making sure their players make the team and win once they get there if they had a potentially large financial interest in the outcome.

I’d like to see the revenues from the game split among the teams represented by the winning team in the game. That money should be split proportionately.

Therefore, if there are 25 all-stars on the team and one team has four of those all-stars, then they should get 4/25 of the revenue. If a team has no all-stars then they get nothing, and if their players are on the losing team then they also get nothing. It could be a great way to make the teams committed to putting the best product they can on the field.

Doc will be back on his site with his expert MLB picks after the All-Star Game and right through to the World Series.