All-Star voting under way.....(with over 135 games to go)

The Midsummer Classic. You know it. That darn game that leaves us without anything to watch on television for 3-4 days and has us yearning so badly for the first punt of the NFL preseason.  That game that means so much that the NL manager leaves Albert Pujols on the bench with a chance to win the game.....GAH!!!!

I, for one, cannot stand this abomination for a number of reasons. The first of which is the fan voting.  If the fans are to determine the 'all-star' starters (remember the year that Nomar was the top vote-getter, and he hadn't had a single at-bat the whole season?) then we shouldn't be allowed to vote for just any player.  There should be a certain plateau of numbers that a player should accumulate before being eligible to receive a vote.  I mean really, who is voting for Marco Scutaro or Scott Hatteberg?  Not taking anything away from these players because they would put me to shame if I tried to play a game against them, but the fan voting drives me crazy.  We all know Cabrera should have started the all-star game last year over David Wright (don't tell about the defense Met fans, b/c your beloved 'gold glove' 3B has made more errors at third than any other player over the last 3 years) but because of the amount of popularity the New York teams get, more fans vote soley for the 'big names' they see on national tv.  And if this game is to determine home-field advantage for the World Series (don't even get me started on that) then it really should be the best of the best, not whoever can win a popularity contest.  And how can the voting commence only 5 weeks into the year? If a player has a good month, people might vote him in just beacuse his stats are guady, and then by the time the game comes around, there might be a more deserving player.  We all know Hanley isn't going to be the starter, Jose Reyes will win that honor even if he continues hitting only .260.  It's impossible for players from small-market teams to compete against the ones who draw 42,000 a game because their hometown players have their ballot casted many more times than the ones who draw 20,000 or less.

I'll get into my other gripes about the all-star game as the season wears on. But here is another one. Take a look at this advertisement ballot.  Cody Ross isn't even a starter, and do Rabelo, Uggla (only because of Chase Utley) and Hermida really deserve consideration?  Don't get me wrong, I love watching them play and root like heck for them, but they are not all-star starter worthy. 

I've come to realize that the MLB all-star voting is becoming even more full of propaganda (and probably more popular) than the Democratic primary.  And that, my friends, is scary.