I was over at MLB.com on Sunday casting some of my 25 votes for this summer’s All-Star Game and I was struck something I saw there. Now I saw this same thing last year so it’s not really new nor am I really mad about it per se, but I just don’t understand the reason for it:
The team ballot. Who exactly thought this was a good idea? This is how undeserving Red Sox and Yankees get voted in. Those two teams have throngs upon throngs of fans and they lazily use this team ballot link 25x apiece despite the fact that several of the players included don’t have any business in the game. I didn’t mean to single out Florida in particular as every team has one of these annoyances, but back to my original question: who thought this was a good idea? First off all, why would I want to see my entire team represent their league in the ASG? I see my team 9 innings a night, 6-7 days a week. I’d like to see SOME of my team’s players in the games, but not the starting nine. That’d be absurd.
Secondly, why would I want to waste my votes at positions I know won’t go to my team’s representative? Using the example above, I’d be embarrassed to cast a ballot for Emilio Bonifacio. And I’d say no offense to Bonifacio except I’d be lying. I don’t care if he’s offended by that statement. He sucks. He might well be a great guy in his life, but he’s not a very good baseball player and 2,000 throwaway votes by jokers that click the Team Ballot button is precisely 2,000 too many for him. Think about a team like the Padres. They have ONE vote-worthy player so each Team Ballot vote includes 8 WORTHLESS picks.
I don’t mean to be Elitist All-Star Vote guy that says who can and can’t be voted for, but surely there should be some objectivity involved and that is especially true when it comes to these Team Ballots that include supershmucks like Bonifacio and Chris Getz. If you want to vote Ryan Howard over Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez, I get that. He’s a superstar having a solid season. I wouldn’t personally cast that vote as I think both are markedly better, but in the end I can get over that pretty easily. However, I am anti-Team Ballots.
Baseball By Paul 
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