Big Names Vs. Big Numbers: Who Deserves To Be an All-Star?

The Major League Baseball All-Star game is a setting where the greatest players of our nation’s pastime come to represent their teams and battle for home-field advantage in the World Series.  Well, most of this is true. 

After hearing that Manny Ramirez, despite serving a 50-game suspension, was near the top of the list in All-Star voting for N.L. outfielders, he was fifth as of June 8, I started to question whether the players having the best seasons were getting the recognition they deserve.  

I am not saying that those players at the top of the All-Star rankings are not playing well, however sometimes household names outshine great seasons.  I understand the fans want to see the biggest names with the biggest paychecks, who’s last name is on the highest selling jerseys in the world, take the field against each other in July. 

On the other hand, if your name and what you’ve done in the past, rather than the present, is a criteria to becoming an All-Star, then why even step onto the field?  If a player is getting paid $20 million a year and only has to put up good, not great, numbers to find themselves at the All-Star Game, where is the incentive to be great? 

Hopefully they are striving to be great for their team, but everyone who puts on a major-league uniform should be doing that. 

Let's start in the American League with some players who’s names and rankings are outdoing their performances.  In the outfield, last year’s all-star hero Josh Hamilton, who took Yankee Stadium by storm in the Home Run Derby, is currently second in the voting with 989,710 votes as of June 9, only behind Boston’s Jason Bay. 

Hamilton had a great season last year but so far this year he is only batting .240 with six home runs, 24 RBI and 20 runs scored.  There are several guys farther down the list who have been much more impressive this season.  

How about Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford who is fourth in the voting and is batting .321 with four home runs, 27 RBI, 44 runs scored and 34 stolen bases.  Sorry but I feel like I need to repeat that last stat for emphasis, 34 stolen bases as of June 9. 

He stole 25 bases all of last season.  Crawford is receiving nearly 300,000 fewer votes than Hamilton at 698,470.  Next up in fifth place is Torii Hunter of the Angels who is hitting .313 with 12 home runs, 43 RBI and 40 runs scored. 

Even further down the list is Baltimore’s Adam Jones who is batting .340 with 11 home runs, 37 RBI and 42 runs scored.  However, Jones is behind Ken Griffey Jr., who is only batting .213 with 6 home run, 16 RBI and 16 runs scored.  I have a great deal of respect for Griffey but do his numbers really show him as the sixth best outfielder in the A.L.?

Mr. Yankee Derek Jeter is leading all A.L. shortstops with 1,511,418 votes while hitting .302 with eight home runs, 26 RBIs and 35 runs scored. 

Those are good numbers, but are they roughly 800,000 votes better than Jason Bartlett of the Tampa Bay Rays who is batting .373, has seven home runs, 30 RBI, 32 runs scored and 14 stolen bases, yet only has 698,227 votes?

Heading over to the National League, at third base David Wright of the Mets is leading the way and is hitting .348 with four home runs, 35 RBI, 37 runs scored.  Those are good numbers, but are they 250,000 votes better than Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman, batting .323 with 11 home runs, 39 RBI and 41 runs scored. 

Oh that’s right, the Nationals are the worst team in baseball so they can’t have a player good enough to start in the All-Star Game right?

Jimmy Rollins is the leading vote-getter for National League shortstops but is just hitting .230 with four home runs, 20 RBIs and 35 runs scored.  That’s much better than Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins who is batting nearly .100 points higher at .326 and twice the home runs with eight.  Ramirez has also driven in 27 runs and scored 36 runs.

Overall, the fans do a fairly good job of voting in players to the All-Star Game but it seems that sometimes big names have more bearing than big numbers.  

Major League Baseball should try an experiment while having fans vote for the all-star teams.  Keep the ballots anonymous.  When a fan stares down at the ballot, the names that are heard more during the summer months than Brett Favre while he’s decided when to come out of retirement will not be seen. 

Instead there are only statistics; numbers to show a player’s performance with no names to overshadow them.  Yes a player can be worth more to a team than just the numbers he puts up, but lets face it, if there’s a game of statistics, it’s baseball.  

If the ballots are anonymous, many of the great players, who are also having great seasons, will still make the cut. 

However, the superstars who aren’t having super years will no longer be leading by 900,000 votes and who knows, maybe Manny Ramirez won’t be rewarded by being voted the fifth-best outfielder in the National League, despite not playing since May 6, and take votes away from players like Shane Victorino or Mike Cameron, currently sixth and seventh in the voting.