Some ASG thoughts

10 Years ago I loved the ASG. The idea of the best players in MLB's seperate leagues on exhibition against each other? Who wouldn't love that?

5 Years ago I was enthusiastic about the ASG. No, I was more enthusiastic about my recent discovery of a little website known as Fire Joe Morgan. Their take on the voting, the game mattering, who deserves what and so forth captivated me like the young wide-eyed child of yesteryear. The budding movement of baseball nerds such as myself was in full swing. We laughed at RBI's, and scoffed at Saves. OBP was the stat of choice for us.

Last year, I had a strong disdain for the All Star Game. I finally realized that its awful. The idea itself is fantastic, but the execution is just...deplorable. It had nowhere to go but up for me, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, it could be saved.

Today. I'm fuming. This is absurd. I'm doing what most sabermetrically inclined people tend to do when we feel slighted...we take to the blogosphere!! The following is a list of things that I would do to fix the ASG. I truly love baseball, and I think if this brief break from the regular season is the "All-Star" Game, then the people in it should be the best at their position. Hopefully by the end of this, I won't have broken an arm reaching for truth, or sprained my ankle getting off my high horse.

Change #1 - The Fan Voting
The voting is a popularity contest. It's a contest where the only merit is name recognition value. The reason for this is simple: Fans are ignorant. Actually I'm sorry, most fans are ignorant. Let me clarify further: Fans are not dumb, but ignorant of the facts and the numbers. For example, many baseball fans consider RBI's, vitally important. RBI's and batting average are what the vast majority of fans will cite when making the case for their All-Star ballots. Unfortunately, I have what Doctors call "The Burden of Knowledge" and I can't share those crude talent assessments. Think about it. Batting average has been the mainstream calculator of a baseball hitter's talent since...well, since Henry Chadwick. Again, I do not blame the fans themselves for their votes, I blame us. The sabermatricians. The guys with glasses and calculators who seemingly everyone says "live in our mother's basements." We can do a better job of helping the uninformed with answers instead of snark, with the correct stats over the old and obsolete. We can do better, and we owe the fans and more importantly the game itself to share our knowledge. Let us not change the voting system, but let us change the basis of the votes. If we can open the eyes of the casual fan to the beautiful truth of the numbers, then the All Star Game will win me back.

Change #2 - Every team gets a representative
How absurd. This isn't Pony League baseball where feelings will get hurt. This grown men being paid (very well) to play a game. They are, by definition, professionals. Lets treat them as such. If a team doesn't have any deserving players, then so be it. I hope that embarrassing the entire organization. Few things motivate as well as the fear of public humiliation. If a team gets snubbed from the ASG, I guarantee changes will happen. The fans would clammor, the owner rattle the President, the President yells at the GM, the GM to the manager, and the manager to his coaching staff and the players. That is of course assuming none of the coaches gets fired. Let's finally drop the notion that there should be fairness in the ASG. We shouldn't reward overall mediocrity when stuck on a pathetic team. If I do my job, but the rest of the office is in pathetic shambles, am I automatically considered CEO material? Come on.

Change #3 - Rosters
35 roster spots? Ummm, this is easy to fix. The ASG rosters should be like this:

C - 2
1B - 2
2B - 2
SS - 2
3B - 2
OF - 5
UTIL - 4
SP - 4
RP - 3
P - 3

Bam. 29 Roster slots. Just trimmed the fat. If it looks similar to a fantasy roster, well, it should. Because thats what it. Simple. If a MLB manager can't win a game with 29 of the supposedly best players in his league, then what is he doing managing his own team of 25?? 29 is a lot. I would personally like to see it cut down even more, but I felt that soon we would be approaching the point of diminishing returns of a smaller roster. DL players are still eligible. I split them up as follows:

12 fan voting
10 player voting
5 manager voting
2 final voting -comprised of players who received votes from the 3 earlier voting, but did not make the cut.

Change #4 - In game rules
-A roving lineup card. That is to say that any player, not just one, can start, play 2 innings, sit, then go back in if need be.
-No tie games.
-2 IP limit for pitchers, 4 consecutive innings or 3 consecutive plate appearances for a hitter.

Change #5 - It "matters"
The ridiculous fact that this sole game decides home field advantage for the World Series is almost beyond words. I hate this. The World Series is played months away, and it actually matters. The AL fans never flaunted the recent winning streak. The Giants have flaunted their rings. The World Series matters. The ASG, in truth, does not and should not. Let team with the best regular season record be awarded home field advantage.

Please Bud Selig, do the right thing and adjust, amend, whatever you want to call it, but just fix the All Star Game.