Allow me to rant. Hope you don’t mind.

I’m not an All-Star game guy, and that goes for all sports. It’s generally meaningless with fancy buzzwords to make the results somewhat credible in the grand scheme of it all. Do you think Houston really cares about cementing Oakland’s suddenly very real possibility to get the all-important seventh game at home? Not really. And in the other sport’s games, they are nothing more than glorified, yawn-inducing scrimmages. They aren’t even all that compelling considering that the players aren’t even bothering to actually, y’know, compete.

So, in essence, I view the forthcoming All-Star break as nothing more than a break to catch up like other things. Like 24. Or The Americans. Or Homeland. Or Ren and Stimpy, I dunno. Just feels good to have a reset for the stretch run (…already?). Out of sight, out of mind, if you will, and I don’t even give a hoot about the Home Run Derby anymore, really. After a while, it starts to get monotonous about 20 minutes in. Maybe I’m just getting old (don’t answer that), but the whole shebang just doesn’t thrill me anymore. Homers are more fun when they’re unexpected. Games are more fun when they don’t come with contrived hooks. I used to get annoyed when players skip out on the festivities. Now, since I’m older, wiser and just plain crabby, I completely get why they do.

HAVING SAID THAT…

One way to get me interested again is to take away the fan voting.

Does Lord Jeter deserve to be in the game even by the slimmest degree of merit? Nope. Do most fans outside of Baltimore even know that Matt Wieters is out for the season and into the next (and has already been replaced)? HOW ON EARTH IS COREY KLUBER NOT ON THE ROSTER (yet)?

The popularity contest aspect of the fan voting cheapens what could make it all compelling. It should be done by people who actually know “stuff.” (Be it metrics or just pure, clear knowledge of the game at large other than the posterhogs.)

And yeah, somebody’s probably going to look at me and say that I’m just as guilty as being a homer as they are, but Kluber was eighth in the league prior to today’s ho-hum, no-big-whoop, 8.1 of ball and he continues to rack up the strikeouts at a rate we’ve not seen since CC was here. That’s a longer time away than it seems.

Mark Buerhle. Please.

So now the Rockies are doing this team-up thing with the Indians in where that they’ll vote for Kluber if we vote for Justin Morneau. I don’t wanna vote for Twins, or ex-Twins.

In the end, we all know how it will wrap up, consternation be damned. After all, this is “an exhibition” but with supposed stakes. We saw Kipnis get upstaged by Mariano Rivera’s going away tour last year. Don’t be surprised if it happens again, when Brantley hits a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to send Oakland on their way to gaining Game Seven.

Lord Jeter will get another car he doesn’t need along with his sham All-Star Game MVP for going 0-2 but winning the hearts over and over again of soccer mom’s near and far.

Corey Kluber will just wait for his next start; being a walking lesson in DILLIGAF that I should probably take note of.

 

 

11 Comments

  • Gvl Steve says:

    Yeah, this was a classic case of a player being punished for his team’s crappy overall play. The bullpen has blown 3 saves for Kluber, and the team gave him no run support in several starts. He should be leading the league in wins but is only 8-6, which shouldn’t matter in all-star consideration but does.

  • JimM. says:

    Its just a case voter being a year behind. you have to rack up some momentum over a couple of seasons for the voters to notice. Mark Buehrle is the typical “reputation” vote getter. He has made the team solely on past performance. Just make sure I wasn’t over reacting (because I don’t follow the Jays/Buehrle) I went to fangraphs to see the Kluber/Buehrle head to head.

    per fangraphs

    Kluber: 75 ERA-, 71 FIP-, 2.65 FIP, 1.18 Whip, 3.4 WAR
    Buehrle: 64 ERA-, 94 FIP-, 3.74 FIP, 1.24 Whip, 2.0 WAR

    For ERA- and FIP-, “adjusted for park and league where 100 is average and lower is better”

  • Cale says:

    I completely agree on the fan voting. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

    Kluber should be there. I understand picking Buerhle and Kazmir, but there’s no way Scherzer should be there over Kluber. He’s only there because he won the Cy Young last year. I would also argue Price should not be there, but I guess the Rays needed a representative.

    Sadly, trying to look at it objectively, if there’s one greater snub than Kluber, it’s probably Sale, who’s also in the final vote. He’s got a lower ERA/WHIP and higher K/9 than Kluber. He was just snubbed because he missed 3 weeks with an injury.

  • Swift says:

    Please Chris, rant away. And you are right on about everything.

    I’m no big fan of the All-star game and I hate fan voting. It turns it into a popularity contest, a name recognition contest, and gives a huge edge to teams in big markets like NY and LA.

    I hate the fact that home field advantage in the World Series is determined by that; it is idiotic, and was just tacked on to give to try to give the All-star game a tiny bit of meaning (it still fails that in my mind).

    Yeah, Kluber deserves a trip (and might still get it), but even better for him would be some run support and a contract extension from the Indians.

  • The Doctor says:

    of course there’s always some ridiculous fan picks, and the “one player from every team” rule dilutes the roster considerably, but derek jeter is the ultimate case for taking away fan voting privileges. the mlb should at least have the deceny to call it what it is – a people’s choice game, not an all-star game.

  • Jeff says:

    Careful what you wish for. The people who “know” voted for Rafael Palmeiro’s gold glove in 1999. 27-28 games = a gold glove?

  • TribeFanMcC says:

    While I think Kluber belongs, I’m actually mostly OK with the snub. It’s the All STAR game, emphasis on the star. If I weren’t a fan of the Indians I couldn’t care less about Kluber. He’s having a good but nowhere near historic year. In general, I’d rather see guys like Buerhle and definitely guys like Jeter, because it makes the game far more entertaining. The current season should matter for 90% but as a tiebreaker I’m perfectly fine with the longevity of Buerhle giving him an edge.

    • TribeFanMcC says:

      And as for Jeter… I have no time to debate his merits as an allstar. He’s the ultimate allstar. Guys like Jeter, Ripken, Mays, etc have all been given allstar invites late in their career based off what they meant to the game. If he doesn’t deserve it, no one does.

      • Cale says:

        I would have agreed with you up until 2003, now that there is actually incentive to win. If you’re playing to win the game, you need the best players today…not the best players over their career.

        That’s completely the fault of the MLB brass, though. You can’t have it both ways…an exhibition game that matters is an oxymoron. Since they went to this home field thing in 2003, the team with home field advantage is 8-3 in the world series.

  • D.P. Roberts says:

    As for Scherzer – it’s “traditional” for Cy Young winners to get picked to the All Star team. It’s also traditional for the previous year’s pennant winner to get selected as manager, which is why John Farrell got picked even though the Red Sox are 39-49 with the third worst record in the league.
    Combine that with coaches Terry Francona and Ron Gardenhire (both of whom are also managing teams with losing records), and the AL staff are a combined 121-141 this year.

  • Gvl Steve says:

    Just read that Bourn is out 3-4 weeks and the team traded for Pittsburgh OF Chris Dickerson and cut George Kottaras. As this is Bourn’s 3rd hamstring injury this year, they should just put him on the shelf for the rest of the year and hope he can get genuinely healthy in time to serve out the last two years of his contract productively. If they keep screwing around, he’ll tear it like Ken Griffey did and then it will really be all over for him.