The All Star Game Must Change For The Sake Of Baseball

      As the All Star game starters, reserves, and pitchers were being announced Saturday night, I was a bit concerned that some of the real stars in this league this year would not make it. Turns out my concerns were correct. With players like Bryce Harper with only 29 RBI's and has missed 31 games this year actually made the starting roster. To have the nerve to have Marco Suctaro, (a player who is only has 19 RBI's and 2, yes a  pathetic 2 Home Runs) in the All star game is absolutely ridiculous. We all know about this Yasiel Puig "sensation", ESPN has the audacity to promote Puig as the final vote winner. If ESPN is that desperate for media attention and thinks MLB need Puig in the game then we have some serious issues. Yes, Puig has been off to a torrent start to his very short Major League career, however to suggest that he deserves to be an all star because he has knocked in 19 runs and hit 8 home runs and struck out 31 times is outrageous. Puig went 0-4 with four strikeouts Saturday and people started saying he is just an average ball player. These "fans" aren't truly fans in my book if the only reason they pay attention to the game is to see someone go 4-5 with 2 homers and 5 RBI's every single game. True fans of the game should know that players that work hard every single day and put in the effort and show themselves on the stat sheet and in the win collumn deserve to be recognized in the mid-summer classic. 

     Teams like the Oakland A's, the Atlanta Braves only have ONE all star. Yes, one all star for two first place teams. Struggling teams like the Blue Jays, Brewers, Mariners, and Giants all get multiple All Stars, of course. The lack of respect for first place teams and guys who play every game of every season is disgusting. The Braves have to beg too get their best hitter (Freddie Freeman) into the All Star game as a "Final vote" by the "fans", of course. Brian Mccann also has a very strong case to make, he has been tearing up Major League pitching since coming off the DL. In 48 games played B-Mac has 10 homers, 28 RBI's and a blistering .304 BA. Justin Upton hit 12 homers in the month of April, yes he slowed down a bit, but he is well worthy of the nod as at least a reserve, after all he has more homers than Brandon Phillips and way more RBI's than Bryce Harper. In this stat-driven league we are in it really surprises me that Everth Cabrera with 24 RBI's and 4 home runs and a .294 BA and has spent time on the DL actually triumphed players like Ian Desmon, Adrian Gonzalez, Andrelton Simmons, Gerado Parra. In the AL you have players like Salvador Perez beating out the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury. Ben Zobrist, who is hitting a whopping .262 on the season getting in over Josh Donaldson who is hitting .319 and arguably the A's best hitter. Jed Lowrie is having a great season on a first place ball club but still gets snubbed. I don't know what's worse, the popularity contest in the All Star game or the boring, noncompetitive Home Run Derby. In 2010 Chris young was in the Derby (have no idea why) he muscled out 1 home run. That actually made me laugh. In 2011 Brandon Inge hit a staggering ZERO home runs in the Derby and guess what? Robinson Cano did the same thing in 2012! Then Matt Kmep followed it up with a grand total of one homer. So, I propose that we get away with the "captains" and start letting the fans, yes I said fans vote for the Derby contestants. Let the fans vote for the exhibition portion of the All Star festivities and let the players vote for the game that counts so it will be a fair advantage all the way around. I wouldn't even mind having captains for the All star game, let a the former MVP's of the years prior decide who makes their team. That way the players will only have themselves to blame if they lose.


      Back to the Home Run Derby, in order to intensify and make even the non-casual fans interested MLB should seriously consider head-to-head match-ups. I don't know about you but I would definitely pay money to see Evan Gattis go up against Justin Upton in a battle to see who could get the most homers out of 20 swings. How about Miguel Cabrera going up against Prince Fielder. Or Josh Hamilton against Mike Trout? Now, that is a million dollar act. It would not only attract fans of Baseball, but fans of competition. Who wouldn't want to see a battle of the best of the best? A true challenge to see who is on top of the Home Run world. That way we don't have mediocrity in one of the most exciting plays in the game. I think by allowing these changes to take place MLB, media outlets, and fans of the game will all be a lot more pleased. Deserving talent equals happy fans and the best way to do that is to change. I fear that America's favorite pastime is turning into America's favorite worst time and that is awful because I truly love the game and would really hate to see it turn into an unpopular sport. Hopefully the sports community can band together and create a better Mid-summer classic where the deserving players get to represent their deserving teams. Let's try to at least get one more deserving Brave in the game. Vote Freddie Freeman!