MLB: 2016 All-Star Game balloting already underway
The 2016 MLB season is not even a month old but the league has already begun the voting process for the 2016 All-Star Game.
The 2016 MLB season seems like it has just begun, but that does not mean fans have to wait to decide on who will play in the All-Star Game in July.
The 2016 MLB All-Star Game will take place on July 12 in San Diego and voting is currently underway.
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The goal of this move seems to be to maximize the amount of votes for the game, although it goes against the purpose of the game itself. The MLB All-Star Game is the only one in professional sports that has postseason implications, or any implications whatsoever, so it is important the best players are chosen for each side.
The most popular players are not always the right choices, but fans are usually capable of selecting top talent for All-Star Games. The larger roster allows for the most popular players to be selected by fans, and then the best of the rest being selected by the managers.
The ballot itself features nearly half the league’s position players, while the pitchers will be added later on. According to the CBS Sports article:
As noted, fans will determine the starters, and the remaining 25 AL slots and 24 NL slots — i.e., the pitchers and reserves — will be filled using, in the words of MLB’s action-news press release, “a combination of Player Ballot choices and selections made by the two All-Star managers.”
The pitchers and reserves are just as important as the starters, as they are the ones who will be playing at the end of the game. It would almost be smarter to save the best players for the end of the game, but that would defeat the purpose of having them voted in as starters.
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A change like this could be made in the future, but it would take a bold manager who would likely have to get permission from the league.