2011 MLB All-Star Voting: Fan Vote Ruins the All-Star Game

Many people will disagree with this statement, but the simple fact is the fan vote ruins the All-Star Game.

Every year, the fans vote in players who do not deserve the honor whatsoever. This year’s culprit: Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.

Jeter is hitting just .260 in 62 games this season with two home runs and nine doubles, far from All-Star numbers, and also has been sidelined since June 13 with a calf injury. Jeter’s numbers are comparable to Boston Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro, hitting .267 with three home runs and six doubles, and Scutaro’s name would never have been uttered in the same sentence as “All-Star.”

Asdrubal Cabrera has been far and away the best shortstop in the American League this season thus far, hitting .291 with 14 home runs and 49 RBI. He will not get to start in the All-Star Game because he is not as popular a player as Jeter with the fans.

Jeter’s selection by the fans comes hand in hand with the snub of the much deserving Detroit Tiger shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Peralta is hitting .311 with 14 home runs and 48 RBI for the Tigers this season, well above the numbers posted by Jeter, and he was left off the All-Star team with only so many infield positions available.

The selection of Michael Young over Peralta by All-Star manager Ron Washington is justified, even with Peralta’s superior numbers, by Young’s ability to play multiple positions on the field including shortstop, second base and third base.

The fans avoided another blunder by pushing Tigers catcher Alex Avila past Yankees catcher Russell Martin in the final days of voting. Avila has positioned himself as the best catcher in the American League this season and has posted much better numbers than Martin. Martin has had a good first season with the Yankees, but Avila has posted a batting average of .298, 74 points higher than that of Martin at .224.

Thankfully for Avila, the fans came through in the end and got this one right.

The fans are a huge factor in the success of Major League Baseball, and it would be wrong to completely rid them of voting for their favorite All-Star’s, but giving them 100 percent of the vote is not the way it should be.

It is a huge honor for these players to be selected as starters in the All-Star game and some even get bonuses upwards of $125,000, which Roy Halladay received in 2009, so the coaches and players vote should have some influence on the starting lineup.

The simple solution is to make the fan vote count for 50 percent, the coaches 25 percent of the vote and the players 25 percent of the vote. The result would give the vote for the All-Star Game starting lineup some legitimacy, and it would no longer just be a popularity contest amongst the fans.

For the most part, the fans got it right this season, which is not to be said about years past. The voting for the All-Star Game definitely needs changing, although it is not the only thing about the All-Star game that needs changing. Simply put: It should not count.

One last thought: It is good to see that the fans in Japan voted with their brains and did not vote Ichiro in as a starter for once.