All Star Voting

The email arrives and I sigh as I roll my eyes. Those same eyes turn to check the calendar. Yep, we are one month into the season and we're voting for the July All-Star game. Am I the only one who sees a problem here?

I try to be really upbeat and positive in general and especially here. But I have to point out what I view as a major problem.

TIMING
All-Star voting starts one month after the season starts. What that means is, there are players who are off to torrid starts who will cool, players who are starting off slow who will heat up, and players who are on the DL now. Fans have the unfortunate tendency to vote based on current numbers, not track records, or they look at the wrong numbers.

Two examples from the Tigers (because that's what I know best) are Jim Adduci and J.D. Martinez. It would be lunacy to vote Adduci into the All-Star game now because A) he might not even be in the Majors by July and B) he won't sustain the way he's hitting right now. J.D., on the other hand, has missed the entire season so far, so he won't get hardly any votes, based on past voting patterns. 

LOOKING AT THE WRONG THINGS
Here is the problem with how people vote - they vote based on hitting only and what your team did. Hitting changes. Players go through slumps. A really good hitter can be in a slump when he goes to the All-Star game. The flip side is, no one seems to really care about defense. I don't care how good he is as a hitter, if he's not the best defender, don't vote for him. 

The way I try to vote is a mix. I'd prefer to have a guy who is a better defender than hitter, but I usually try to pick guys who are pretty good at both (disclamer: I honestly believe we have several guys like that on the Tigers).  

To give another example, I'm voting for Alex Avila for catcher. He won't win, but I'm voting for him anyway. James McCann will be an All-Star someday, but for now, Avila is the better defender and, especially at catcher, you want a premier defender. I really don't even care about hitting for the All-Star catcher. He needs to be a brick wall behind the plate. 

I mentioned people vote on how teams perform and that's not fair to certain players. When the Royals were winning big for the past two years, they got so many players into the All-Star game. I'm not saying they're not good players, but it's not fair to exclude really good players, just because their team isn't performing as well. 

I don't have any numerical evidence to back up these claims, I'm simply stating the trends I've seen. I don't mind people voting for their team's players, unless their player is not good enough. There were several years when I didn't vote for Castellanos at third because there were simply much better options. I think he has earned the trust to go to the All-Star game. Do I think he will? No. But he has become a player that is good enough at his position. 

The solution to this problem? Postpone the voting until June. June 1st the All-Star game voting starts and you have about a month to vote. That's plenty of time and it will give a better sample size to see who really is having an All-Star worthy year.