This Is Your Reminder That MLB Needs To Go Away From Every Team Getting An All-Star Representative
I think for the most part the voters and the coaching staff got these rosters right, but I'm here to remind the masses that not EVERY team needs to send a representative to the All-Star Game.
You want to talk about participation trophy culture? This is literally it. Most teams have players that are more than deserving. The Braves sent 8 guys, the Orioles and a few others sent 4, but then you always get to the bottom of the barrel teams and their throw in guys.
Chris talked about it with Detroit and their guy Michael Lorenzen going to Seattle. Lorenzen is having a good year, not an All-Star year, but a good year for a bad team. He didn't need to make this roster. Did he deserve it? Maybe? I'm not here to say that, I just don't think we need to water down the roster with throw-in guys so every team can feel included. A famous one last year was Paul Blackburn from the A's getting in over Dylan Cease. Blackburn made it solely because the A's needed a guy, Cease should have been in there regardless of what Oakland needed. My most memorable one is Ty Wiggington making it for the Orioles in 2010. No one, and I mean NO ONE was tuning into the All-Star Game to watch Ty Wiggington, I promise you that. Not a soul needed to see him in there rocking an Orioles hat.
I get it's about gettin all the teams involved and getting those fan bases to watch the game therefor making the league more money. And that is why it's done, money. It's no shock there. Every year there are snubs for the game, that is how it happens. And it sucks because sometimes those guys added to the roster to check a box as a team's lone rep keeps a deserving guy out. Do we need a middle reliever from a team who is 35 games back on the roster? Absolutely not.
At the end of the day this is an exhibition game where the league is supposed to showcase the best of the best. That right there is why they need to get rid of the 1 player per team. BEST OF THE BEST. That means the best out there, not picking 1 guy from each squad no matter what.
And don't get me started on the fan voting for the starters. Again, it's an exhibition game so it's supposed to be fun. That I get, but these players have contracts, incentives bonuses, Hall Of Fame standings and much more riding on these. How crazy is it that guys will go to Cooperstown based on what fans vote for, not the idiotic MLB HOF voters. Look back to Jeter's last year, should he have been there based on his numbers? No, but he was. But that whole story is for another day.