All Star Changes Are Only Half The Battle

As Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association came to agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Mid-Summer Classic hardly went ignored. Sure there was decisions made on an International Draft, Qualifying Offers, and the new Luxury Tax thresholds, but it was the All Star Game decision that caught the attention of the Associated Press late Wednesday night.

With the new CBA, Major League Baseball decided intelligently that the exhibition game should no longer count. In the 14 seasons since making it matter, nine times the World Series winning team had home field advantage. Thankful to their opposition for the All Star victory, it was a meaningless game in July that determined, at least in part, over half of the last 14 World Series winners.

Here's the thing with the All Star game though, it never should have counted. It shouldn't have counted in the results column, but it absolutely should count when it comes to representation. This summer, Twins fans were given their representative in the form of Eduardo Nunez. Sure, he had a very nice year in comparison to his career norms, but he hardly competed at an All Star level.

With every team getting a representative, this is the kind of situations the league finds itself in at times. While it's not the fault of the player at all, it's a massive miss by the league. Surely, Twins fans didn't need Nunez to be included in the game to decide upon watching it; that was more than likely a separate decision made entirely on its own merit.

As players convene for the All Star game in the middle of the summer, Major League Baseball's focus should be on one thing, marketability. The sport itself needs that stage to highlight the best young players the game has. Sure, you'll have your years where an Alex Rodriguez or Ichiro Suzuki type makes sense, but the bulk of the roster should be up and coming stars. Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, those are names that should be represented at every All Star Game for the next ten years.

It's understandable why leagues incorporate fan voting into their All Star Game processes. At it's core, that's a level of marketability in giving the people who they want to see. In scenarios though where the entire Royals or Cubs roster is starting in an All Star Game, the league may be best served to step in. What do jersey sales look like? Are all of those top players represented? Is the brand a saturated result of baseball players as a whole, or is the game showcasing the best the sport has to offer?

Recently Sony announced that MLB The Show 17 will feature Ken Griffey Jr. on the cover. I am a fan of the move and think it makes sense to do a historic cover as it coincides with his Hall of Fame induction, and Griffey has long been synonymous with baseball video games. However, I can definitely understand the miss that is the league failing to provide uber marketable players that just present no-brainer options in scenarios such as these.

Thanks to the new CBA, the All Star Game will no longer count in terms of determining home field advantage. For a game that's gaining traction again across the country though, it counts at the highest level when it comes to providing a platform to market the most meaningful players in the sport.

All Star Game Sends Mixed Signals

Recently, Jayson Stark wrote a great piece over at ESPN. The crux of it was that the rule mandating every team have an All Star representative should be removed. While that may hit home here in Twins Territory due to the inclusion of Eduardo Nunez in the game, it's part of a bigger problem. Major League Baseball has the best All Star game running, and it's being used to send mixed signals.

Since 2003, the Mid-Summer Classic has meant something. Bud Selig said his game would count, and the All Star Game has determined home field advantage for the American and National League come time for the World Series. The game itself was no longer simply an exhibition, but there were now implications for teams a few months later that hinged on this game.

That's really where the mixed messages begin, but it's far from where they branch out to. In and of itself, baseball is unlike football and basketball. It's not a game you can play halfway. Sure, the managerial aspect in the All Star Game is nothing like that of something you'd see during the season, but you can't fake 90+ mph heat. You can't take a play off with exit velocities rocketing over 100 mph. There's really no such thing as an alley oop dunk fest, or lineman standing up and playing patty cake in baseball, it just doesn't exist. From that reality alone, the product on the field during the Mid-Summer Classic was always going to be better.

When it comes to who plays in the game, the mixed messages are a bit more in depth however. Sure, fan voting has always produced some goofy outcomes (sorry Royals fans), but it provides a level of ownership to those that spend hours casting ballots. You're never going to remove fan balloting, and that may provide a disadvantage for one side or another during a game that counts. Instead though, it's baseball's outdated filling out of the rosters that suggests the game is losing touch with itself.

Has Eduardo Nunez had a great season for the struggling Twins? Absolutely he has, but he's nowhere near the caliber of a player you'd hope to be filling out an All Star team. It's not his fault though, he's a by-product of a rule that says Minnesota must have a player included. Throw Stephen Vogt and the Athletics in that group, as well as a couple of others. It isn't these players faults, but instead a rule that baseball is punishing itself with.

Now we get to the meat of where baseball is missing the point. In an ever competitive landscape of sporting events, baseball has lost traction to football, basketball, and probably a handful of other forms of entertainment. In reeling fans back in, would showcasing the best of your product not be of the utmost importance. Whether including stars of yesteryear, or the up and comers, shouldn't they be what this All Star Game that counts is about?

Given the performance this season, Ichiro Suzuki isn't an All Star. He is however a star that's performing incredibly, and he's nearing an elite baseball milestone. He draws in a contingent of fans that involves an entirely different country, and his appeal goes well beyond America's borders. Carlos Correa is arguably one of the games best young stars. His youth draws in a new generation, and his talent could provide the next wave of fans emulating their hero. How do you not include the likes of Brandon Crawford, Gregory Polanco, Aaron Sanchez, or Aledmys Diaz? It really doesn't matter the rationale, considering the only thing that matters is they won't be there, and this one counts.

The game counts in terms of a win and a loss, but it also counts in the scope of advancing the product that is Major League Baseball. The sport wants to draw a younger generation towards the game. Baseball needs a revitalization of passionate fans, but the messages being sent by an All Star Game selection process suggest a tone deaf practice.

In no realistic scenario does the inclusion of Nunez, Vogt, Odubel Herrera, or Adam Duvall types advance the game of baseball. If fans of those teams were going to watch the game, they would have done so anyways. Having brighter stars selected to not only increase the level of talent on the field, but heighten the draw to the game likely advances every goal set forth for the Mid-Summer Classic.

Baseball wants a larger draw but is turning away its youngest ambassadors. The game counts but talent, or lack thereof, is watering it down. At the end of the day, the sport needs to get on the same page with itself, and make it not only count, but matter too.

The Revival Of The Longball

A year ago, on a rainy night in downtown Minneapolis, some of the biggest sluggers took center stage for the 2014 Home Run Derby. While the Minnesota twins and Target Field were no doubt excited to play host to All Star week, there's no doubt that the playing conditions were going to be adverse on this night. When the dust settled, Yoenis Cespedes reigned supreme, and massive shots were hit, but the event still felt stale.

Forget the fact that inclement weather pushed the action back, or that hometown selection Brian Dozier was lost amongst his slugging peers. As many other years before it, the Home Run Derby once again seemed to have worn out its welcome.

Fast forward on the calendar and Major League Baseball was reinventing the rules once again. After creating the bracket a season ago, the event now resembled something like the NBA's Three Point contest. As a timed event, players were no longer given the luxury of standing around to wait for that meatball pitch. In theory it sounded like a wonderful idea, and what was even better, that's exactly how it played out.

With a stacked field, there was already plenty of intrigue. Having youth rounded out by the old guard in the form of Albert Pujols made sure there was a competitor for everyone to get behind. My money (quite literally) wagon punishing phenom Joc Pederson. The combination of a lefty and long home runs seemed too good to pass up.

Quickly in the competition however, it was plain to see there were going to be more strategical tactics to consider. While the blasts over 420 feet (original set for 475) would give hitters bonus time, they also would take precious seconds off of a winding clock. Going second was going to provide obvious advantages in knowing your target mark, and even stamina would come into play for the sluggers.

Thanks to the way in which baseball had set this new contest up, intrigue was there from the get go. Hometown hero Todd Frazier knocked favorite, Prince Fielder out at the buzzer in the first round. Peterson blew by Manny Machado, and Pujols bested the kid in Kris Bryant. Just one round in, this was shaping up to be a lot of fun.

As both Frazier and Pederson continued on, the finals were set with the most interesting matchup of the night. Pederson was punishing baseballs with the heaviest bat (34/34) in the field, while Frazier was launching rockets out of the park. Thanks to his bonus time, it would be the Reds own Frazier that would hoist the trophy when all was said and done.

Thanks to the timed round, we all witnessed one of the greatest Home Run Derby performances ever, and likely didn't even notice. In 2008, Josh Hamilton hit 28 first round homers in Yankees Stadium. He went on to total 35 and lose to the Twins Justin Morneau. Being able to take breaks and take pitches, Hamilton still wore down over the course of a contest that was simply too long.

Last night, the Reds Frazier went 14-10-14 to a total of 38 home runs. In history, it is Fielder who owns the most derby homers with 81. Frazier nearly halved that amount in a night. With the pressure to keep swinging staying constant, the derby itself became evolving dram right before our eyes.

I expected this season's rendition of the event to be more fun, I didn't think I'd be counting down the days to next year's contest immediately following the end however. Major League Baseball got this one absolutely right, and we are all better for it. Now for ESPN to just take away "Back, back, back, back, back" and Chris Berman. One change at a time I suppose.

Now We Wait...

Brian Dozier was snubbed from the All Star Game for the second year in a row. Last season, Dozier had a breakout year but the vote to get him into the All Star Game was not meant to be. This time around, he's been the best second basemen in all of baseball, and his exclusion should be viewed as a problem for Major League Baseball.

There's plenty of evidence for Dozier's claim to the title of the best second basemen in the game. I recently took a deeper look at what some of those claims look like. On a stage meant to promote the growth of the sport, Ned Yost and Major League Baseball strikes out big time leaving one of the game's brightest stars on the sideline.

With Twitter exploding with the "Vote Dozier" hashtag on Friday, MLB must now count and decided whether it's yet another Royals player in Mike Moustakas or if the Twins will send Brian Dozier to Cincinnati. In the meantime, here's some of the best of what Twitter had to offer in #VoteDozier:

Mike Moustakas drives 56 mph in the left lane. #VoteDozier

— Patrick Donnelly (@donnelly612) July 10, 2015

My reaction when you #VoteDozier pic.twitter.com/E0cTv4IoWO

— J.R. Graham (@JRGraham013) July 10, 2015

The clock is ticking, so get your head out of the toilet and #VoteDozier pic.twitter.com/wxMGHa7ARH

— Kris Atteberry (@tteberry) July 10, 2015

Lunch hour is almost over #VoteDozier @twinsdaily pic.twitter.com/xtk39er27M

— Cody Christie ⚾️ (@NoDakTwinsFan) July 10, 2015

Jump on it. #VoteDozier https://t.co/AkGuHoovbt

— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) July 10, 2015

You should #VoteDozier for this reason only: He is having a better season than any of the other candidates. Period.

— Anthony LaPanta (@AnthonyLaPanta) July 10, 2015

Brian Dozier's current pace: 122 R 162 H 49 2B 6 3B 34 HR 85 RBI All would be career highs #MNTwins #VoteDozier

— Ted (@tlschwerz) July 10, 2015