All-Star voting starts way too early

Why does All-Star balloting begin before the first month of baseball is over?  The All-Star Game is not until the third week of July, so what reason is there to let fans vote when the only stats they can see represent well under a third of the season’s pre-All-Star-break half?  This practice not only helps popular but undeserving players get elected, it also leads to important inaccuracies.

As I mentioned in my last post, Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera switched positions before the first month of the season ended, but the ballot lists Guillen as a first baseman and Cabrera as a third baseman.  If one of them ends up being elected to start for the American League, he will be forced to play a position that he will not have played in nearly three months.  Another Tigers player – Jacque Jones, who was just designated for assignment – is one of Detroit’s three outfielders listed on the ballot.  This issue probably won’t cause a problem since Jones has no chance of getting elected, but it still keeps whoever replaces Jones in the starting lineup (thus far Brandon Inge and rookie Matt Joyce) from being listed on the ballot and unless he catches the eye of Terry Francona, the AL’s manager this year, the odds that he will have any chance of making the team are slim to nil.

History has long shown that early balloting should not be done.  Though I have been unable to find a listing of the St. Louis Cardinals players on the 2001 ballot, I suspect Albert Pujols was not one of them.  Mark McGwire was surely listed as the first baseman, and the other positions Pujols played when he first came up – third base and outfield – most likely had starters Placido Polanco, J.D. Drew, Jim Edmonds, and Ray Lankford on the ballot.  Pujols ended up playing in 161 out of 162 games that year and of course went on to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

To answer my opening question, the reason voting starts so early is that MLB wants to get the maximum number of ballots cast, and that’s simply not what it should be about.  The All-Star Game should be a chance to reward players who have excelled during the first half of the season and, in many cases, to give the spotlight to top performers who are all too often overshadowed by better-known (but not better-performing) players.

In more positive news, Chase Utley has been on a tear, and though generally not thought of as a power hitter, he is leading the majors in home runs.  If he keeps it up, he could be a legitimate Triple Crown winner.  I don’t expect it to happen – in fact I’d be surprised if by season’s end Utley were in the top 10 in homers or RBI’s – but it is certainly a story worth watching throughout the next five months.

I was real happy to see Freddie Bynum back with the big club last night; that he collected hits in his first two at-bats was just a bonus.  I had hoped that Bynum would win the starting job as the team’s shortstop in Spring Training, but instead he went on the disabled list with a torn meniscus in his right knee, and manager Dave Trembley gave the job to Luis Hernandez.  Nothing against Hernandez, but he was hardly contributing on offense, and with most of the starting lineup struggling, the team needs all of the offensive help it can get.  I was also thrilled to see Daniel Cabrera’s line against the Royals – a complete game, just three hits allowed, seven strikeouts and most impressive, just ONE walk surrendered.

Finally, a player as dedicated to the game as it gets, Julio Franco, announced his retirement this past weekend at the age of 49.  Franco holds the record as the oldest player ever to hit a home run, having accomplished the feat in May of 2007 at 48 (officially).  The victim?  None other than the Big Unit – Randy Johnson.  Known for using the heaviest bat among his peers, the Ageless Wonder will not soon be forgotten.