I had my say about the All Star Game last year, so I'll link back to that if you want the argument.
Instead, I'll talk about what I usually do when I vote at the ballpark (which, alas, I haven't done for a few years...I've voted from home sometimes, but I never find it as fun).
What I do is a whole bunch of ballots. One is my favorite players. One is Giants in the NL and my Blue Sox heroes in the AL (yes, those two ballots tend to overlap a lot). One is something close to what I think of as the closest to what the game should be if it has to be something (which I don't really think): basically, who I think is the best player at every position right now. One is the best career-so-far. One is the guys who I believe have the best careers remaining (that's a fun one. Who has more remaining -- an all-time great 30 year old, or a 23 year old with great potential?). One is the guys who I believe will wind up with the best overall careers, eventually - that's a lot of fun, too. Depending on how much time I have, and how many chances I have, I can generate a few more, too. I suppose I might eventually get to "best year so far," but it's not one of my favorites at all. I mean, it's probably a better definition of All Star than my favorites or the All-Giants ballot, but it's not who I want to see in the game.
Oh, and one of the reasons I like doing it at the ballpark is that I don't like checking with anything. No looking up the stats. Now, I can't defend that as The Best Way to Do Things, but it's fun for me.
You and Joe Sheehan would get along, when it comes to picking an All-Star team.
ReplyDeleteI don't fault you for doing it this way. Its certainly your prerogative and it is fun to do it. But this is a reason why home field in the world series shouldn't be decided by the all star game. Besides, what do you play 162 games for if not for those game to decide the structure of the playoffs?
ReplyDeleteWell, there's that Yankees thing. Other than that, yup, Joe and I get along just fine (I only slightly know him; I wrote a bit for BP when he was still there). I don't think we disagree on much. Except for that Yankees thing.
ReplyDeleteI think it's silly to have the extra WS game pegged to the ASG, but I also don't care, because home field advantage in the WS is such a minor factor. I just heard someone the other day claiming that it helped the Giants last year -- but in fact the Giants won in five, meaning that there were only two games at China Basin and three in Texas.
Also, it's nice to have the Jeter-going-for-3,000 out of the way (and he got it with an exclamation point--5-5, with the game-winning RBI). Although I'm not much of a Jeter fan.
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