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The MLB’s All-Star Game (I’m going to be calling it the ASG from here on out, All-Star Game is just too much for my poor little fingers to type!) is coming up. The festivities start today (7/18) in fact! As is true for all professional league ASGs, it’s mostly bullshit. Empty pomp and circumstance designed to put a few more bucks in the pockets of the owners. The best thing about it is that it gives players a few much-needed rest days in the middle of the season.
If you’ve ever watched a full ASG, you’re either 10-years-old or a real baseball sicko. The ASG is not a good baseball game. The best players usually don’t play for more than three innings. Everyone is just trying not to get hurt playing in a meaningless game, so no one tries that hard. Baseball thrives on tension and when the game doesn’t matter that tension is largely drained from the room. It used to be a little more exciting because of the chance to see the best players from the AL match up against the best of the NL, the only time that would happen outside of the playoffs. However, with increases in interleague play over the last few years that’s not really a draw anymore. Ohtani will match up against say Clayton Kershaw or Corbin Burnes during the regular season, perhaps even more than once if the pitching rotation works out.
My real problem with the ASG is the rule that every team gets to send a player to the game. That’s just plain stupid. It’s not that it waters down the quality of the game or something. As I said, no one is really trying that hard in the first place, there will never be a good ASG game. Who am I to talk about quality anyway, every single MLB player, no matter how low their WAR falls, is one million times better than I am. I don’t particularly care about the quality of the game. It’s foolish to try and derive any insight into whether the AL is better than the NL or vice versa from one game. What I don’t like is that it rewards teams for tanking.
Tanking, for my non-sports readers, if any of you are left, is when a team loses *on purpose* to get better draft picks, or save money, or some combination of both. Now to be clear, losing on purpose is against the rules in every major league sport. However, teams find ways around those pesky little rules. Usually through “resting” their best players or by fielding subpar teams on purpose. The players generally don’t try to lose, they’re just handicapped by their front office and coaches.
In baseball, teams generally tank or re-build to use the doublespeak employed by baseball executives, by fielding bad teams. What that looks like in the MLB is a little different than in the NFL or the NBA. Essentially teams leave players who could be playing in the major leagues, or at least given a shot to see how they perform, in the minor leagues for months, and in some cases years after they should have been called up. I’ve talked about that here before.
The intricacies of this type of tanking are beyond the scope of this blog, but it generally involves something called “service time manipulation” and is largely about paying players as little as possible for as long as possible. There is a ton out there on the internet if you’re interested in reading more on that subject. Tanking is also a much longer process in the MLB. Players drafted in 2022 will not play in the majors for at least a couple of years. This is unlike in hockey, football, or basketball, where a top draft pick can instantly make a team a contender. Rebuilding, if the team isn’t willing to make trades, can be a much longer process, without any guarantees. Just look at the 2011-2019 Phillies teams if you need evidence of that.
So, what does this have to do with the ASG? It’s simple, tanking teams like the Reds, the Nationals, or the Diamondbacks, all get to send to the ASG despite their express intent of fielding losing teams. Certainly, sometimes tanking teams can have a superstar worthy of an ASG berth on their own merits. Most of the time though, it’s some relief pitcher who had a slightly better than average first half of the season and so gets a nod. Teams take advantage of this by running ads about their All-Stars, promoting them, etc etc. Free publicity for teams that absolutely do not deserve it.
I’m not mad at the player of course. It’s great for them. A fair number of players have ASG bonuses in their contracts and can receive extra cash for winning the game. That’s great for them, I have absolutely no problems there. Every player in the ASG should make big bucks for being there and get some of the ad revenue. My big qualm is how teams reap rewards for putting a shitty product on the field.
Of course, getting rid of the rule requiring an All-Star from each team wouldn’t fix the problem of service-time manipulation. Public ownership and a relegation system is really the only viable fix for that. But it could move the needle in a positive direction. The embarrassment of not being able to field even a single All-Star could be a motivator for some teams. It would also give fans something concrete to point to when complaining about tanking. Owners will only really start to care if it hits their pocketbooks, but it could add to the mounting pressure to do something about the teams that refuse to field competitive teams.
In any case, I will be watching the Home Run Derby today, hoping that Kyle Schwarber knocks 60-odd balls out of the park. I will not be watching the actual ASG on Tuesday, because who has time for that nonsense?
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