It's ballot box stuffing time already!

[blueberryale77]

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp

It's right up there on the front page of MLB's web site. Time to start casting your 25 online ballots. No time like the present for Sawx fans to start stuffing the boxes for .177 hitting Big Papi and .239 hitting 'Tek and the Yanks fans to go to town for .153 hitting Robby Cano and .167 hitting Giambi... and you know they will too! I know this gets discussed every year but the stupidity of it never ceases to amaze me. All-Star balloting should take place in June only, not starting before the end of April!

[TyCobb]

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp

It's right up there on the front page of MLB's web site. Time to start casting your 25 online ballots. No time like the present for Sawx fans to start stuffing the boxes for .177 hitting Big Papi and .239 hitting 'Tek and the Yanks fans to go to town for .153 hitting Robby Cano and .167 hitting Giambi... and you know they will too! I know this gets discussed every year but the stupidity of it never ceases to amaze me. All-Star balloting should take place in June only, not starting before the end of April!

Would it even matter if they voted at the end of April. I just hope Markakis doesn't get snubbed.

[Mad Mark]

Would it even matter if they voted at the end of April. I just hope Markakis doesn't get snubbed.

Markakis WILL get snubbed. He's only in his third MLB season, and he plays for the "once proud" Orioles. I'd be willing to bet 75% of the people outside Baltimore casting All Star ballots couldn't pick him out of a lineup...with help.

[JTrea81]

Markakis or Sherrill will be our lone representative picked by Francona.

The OF will be Manny, Ichiro and Vlad. The IF will be A-Rod, Jeter, Pedroia and Youkilis with Victor Martinez catching. It's not even worth voting...

[Rockbird]

The Luis Hernandez campaign starts NOW! Get to work folks! Let's send Little Looie to the All Star Game!!!

[Mackus]

Any way we can Rick-roll the AS Game?

[RShack]

Tidbits about All Star roster selection and the ballot stuffing:

History of player selection methods

From 1935 through 1946, the manager of each All-Star squad selected the entire team.

Fans were given the opportunity to vote on the eight starting position players starting in 1947. In 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box (see below), and elected a Red to every position except first base. Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in and removed two Reds from the lineup. As a response to this unfairness, fan voting was discontinued. Players, coaches, and managers were given the sole authority to elect starting position players, for the next dozen years.

Between the lack of fan input and over-exposure due to the double All-Star Games during 1959-1962, interest in the game was thought to be waning. As part of the rise of the MLB Promotion Corporation's attempts to modernize marketing of baseball, fan balloting for the starting eight was restored for the 1970 game.

Sometime in the 1960s, the distinction between left-fielder, center-fielder, and right-fielder was dropped, and it was provided that the top 3 vote-getters in the outfield category would start regardless of position. Prior to that the situation included remarks like "If you had Clemente, you couldn't have Aaron", and so on.

Rico Carty was the first player ever selected to an All-Star team as a write-in candidate by fans, in 1970, the first year that voting was given back to the fans. Upon getting elected, he was quoted as saying "Thanks to the fans for making this possible, and thanks to Gillette for making this all necessary."

Steve Garvey was the second player ever selected to an All-Star team as a write-in candidate by fans, in 1974. He was later the MVP of that game.

Until 2003, reserves and pitchers were chosen by the manager. Player voting was re-introduced in 2003 because the managers were criticized for picking players from their own team over more deserving players from other teams.

One continuing controversy of the player selection process is the rule that each team has to have at least one representative on its league's All-Star roster. Opponents of the rule contend that the purpose of the game is to spotlight Major League Baseball's best players, and that some superior players are left off the roster in favor of possibly less deserving players from weaker teams. This argument is strengthened by the greater urgency of winning the game, due to the rule that the winning league attains home field in the World Series. Supporters of the rule point out that this rule spreads interest in the game, and prevents large-market teams from totally dominating the squad and possibly resulting in, for example, an All-Star Game consisting solely of Yankees and Red Sox playing a team consisting solely of Dodgers and Cubs.

A number of compromises have been suggested in the media, such as limiting the number of representatives a particular team could have, requiring only that a certain percentage of teams be represented, or expanding the size of the All-Star rosters to mitigate the issue. However, Major League Baseball has not indicated that it is considering altering or eliminating the rule in any form.

Stuffing the ballot box

In 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box and elected 7 Reds players to start in the All-Star Game. They were:

Johnny Temple, 2B

Roy McMillan, SS

Don Hoak, 3B

Ed Bailey, C

Frank Robinson, LF

Gus Bell, CF

Wally Post, RF

The only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman Stan Musial. While the Reds were known to be a great offensive team with many outstanding position players, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often. There were even stories of bars in Cincinnati not serving alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.

Commissioner Ford Frick decided to appoint Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post. In addition, Frick decided to strip the fans of their voting rights. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote again returned to the fans.

To guard against further ballot stuffing, since 1969, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots. Since the dawn of the internet age, online voting has again raised fears of ballot stuffing. In one incident in 1999, Nomar Garciaparra gained over 14,000 votes thanks to an automated computer program.[1] Major League Baseball assures its fans that they have taken precautions to guard against this. Similarly, popular players who are injured often garner many votes despite their inability to play in the game.

[mdterps4life25]

I wish they would get rid of the fan voting all together...its worse than the NBA! It has nothing to do with how a player is performing....its just a popularity contest.

[blueberryale77]

Markakis or Sherrill will be our lone representative picked by Francona.

The OF will be Manny, Ichiro and Vlad. The IF will be A-Rod, Jeter, Pedroia and Youkilis with Victor Martinez catching. It's not even worth voting...

There's no way Sherrill gets selected. ERA too high and most outside of Oriole land (and some inside) don't regard him as a true closer. I would think most likely Roberts gets in the same way he did last year, by virtue of finishing second in the player voting and the players and fans agreeing on the starter. Pedroia is leading in batting average and playing for the Red Sox so he's a shoo-in to start. Nobody else is lighting the world on fire but Brian has been as solid as anybody despite having a period of almost a week where he only got one hit and is respected by his peers so I think he'll once again get their votes while being nowhere near the top 5 in fan voting. Nick could be selected if that doesn't happen in the player voting (outfield player voting will be more complicated because the players will probably disagree with the fans on at least one starter) but I also suspect that by the time Francona has to make his decision Brian's numbers will be significantly better for a second baseman than Nick's are for an outfielder. Of course, if we keep playing over .500, Francona might find it in his heart to give us two all stars.

Edit: Actually I just checked and they already are. Brian (.820) leads AL 2B's in OPS by 28 points (over Pedroia at .792) and is 78 points ahead of the next competitor (Jose Lopez). He leads in both components of OPS too, by 27 points in slugging and his OBP at the moment is one point higher than Pedroia's and two points higher than Kinsler's.

[Dipper9]

Would it even matter if they voted at the end of April. I just hope Markakis doesn't get snubbed.

Either Markakis or Roberts will be our lone representative when the manager selects them, but I would not call Kakes getting snubbed. He is clearly going to be a superstar some day, but today, 2008, he is not one of the three best outfielders in the AL stats wise, nor is he a popular player outside of Baltimore. You have to have at least one or the other, and Markakis has neither. So there is no "snub" with him yet. Its just the simple fact that he's not there yet.

[TinCup]

Either Markakis or Roberts will be our lone representative when the manager selects them, but I would not call Kakes getting snubbed. He is clearly going to be a superstar some day, but today, 2008, he is not one of the three best outfielders in the AL stats wise, nor is he a popular player outside of Baltimore. You have to have at least one or the other, and Markakis has neither. So there is no "snub" with him yet. Its just the simple fact that he's not there yet.

A voice of reason.