Fixing the All-Star Game

[BaltimoreTerp]

With all the recent opinion pieces about tweaking the All-Star Game, which come out every year at this time, I'm curious to know if anyone has any specific ideas to fix the game, the whole break, or things in-between.

My personal idea, and secondary reasoning for starting the thread, has to do with the balance that needs to be kept between playing as many All-Stars as possible for the fans while allowing for specific strategies and situations, such as extra innings.

I think that if the game goes into extra innings, they should start the rosters over at that point. That means that every player who has been taken out can go back in.

There would be restrictions to that, though. The main one would be that the players in the game at that point would basically become the new starting line-up, and if taken out would be out for good.

I believe that, if this were to become the rule, it would eliminate most of the roster issues that have come around in this game, from the minor (Albert Pujols being "saved" for extra innings) to the insane (the Milwaukee tie incident).

Anyone else have a thought?

[Moose Milligan]

I think the obvious one that everyone will say is not allowing the outcome of the game to determine who has homefield advantage in the World Series.

Get rid of the rule that every team has to have a representative.

I'd like to see them hype the futures game a bit more...With the advent of the MLB televising the draft and trying to be a bit more like the NFL and NBA in that regard, I think it's pretty important to promote the young talent that is coming through the ranks. MLB right now is dripping with good, young talent and there's a lot more in the minors. Make the futures game really important.

I like your idea about resetting the rosters if extra innings comes into play...however I might limit it to players that have only had an at bat or have made an appearance in the field but didn't get a shot at bat. If you've pitched more than an inning or had two at bats or more, you're done.

The good thing about your idea is that it's original and it can be tweaked. I agree, though...something has to be done with the way the rosters are set up.

[Sports Guy]

Expand the rosters for extra innings purposes and make it USA vs the World.

[Leitch]

No more interleague play + MLB hyping the rivalry between the leagues - stupid WS Home Field Advantage stipulation = more interesting All-Star game

[Migrant Redbird]

First of all, with the rosters already expanded to 32 players, I don't see a need to expand them further, allow players to re-enter the game, or end the practice of having a representative from every team.

I'd leave the playing of the game just like it is. Sure, I was annoyed that Pujols didn't get into the game, but it's not a big deal. The AL won last season and the home field advantage didn't keep the Cardinals from defeating the Tigers 4-1. I believe the home field advantage did make a big difference back in 1987, but normally it's secondary to a lot of other factors.

What I would do is change the fan voting around so that the fans of each team chose their own team representative, instead of the manager having to fill it out for them. The fans know their own players and if they want to send a washed up player who's a lock for the HOF instead of the guy who's their current team MVP, let them do it.

I would have the players, coaches, and managers vote for the starters and backups, with the top vote getter starting and the runner up being his backup who would replace him in the event of injury. If they voted on a right handed starter, a left handed starter, and a closer, that would be 22 players right there. Many of those would overlap with the 14 or 16 voted in by the fans, so there shouldn't be any risks of over running the 32 player roster limits. The managers would then choose the remainder of the roster.

If we wanted to provide a margin of substitutes for the event of extra innings, we could allow each manager to name "supernumeraries" whose participation on the team would be known in advance as being primarily "just in case". That would open up an avenue for players like Chone Figgins and Melvin Mora to pad their all star selection stats.

As for inter league play, I like it. I'm just disappointed in how it's been implemented. I'd like to have seen the Cardinals play in Camden Yards, although I could certainly travel up the road to Philadelphia or down the road to DC if I were determined to watch them play on the East Coast. I could care less about playing a home and home series against the Royals, who haven't been "rivals" to the Cards for about 20 years.

[Cokeman]

With all the recent opinion pieces about tweaking the All-Star Game, which come out every year at this time, I'm curious to know if anyone has any specific ideas to fix the game, the whole break, or things in-between.

My personal idea, and secondary reasoning for starting the thread, has to do with the balance that needs to be kept between playing as many All-Stars as possible for the fans while allowing for specific strategies and situations, such as extra innings.

I think that if the game goes into extra innings, they should start the rosters over at that point. That means that every player who has been taken out can go back in.

There would be restrictions to that, though. The main one would be that the players in the game at that point would basically become the new starting line-up, and if taken out would be out for good.

I believe that, if this were to become the rule, it would eliminate most of the roster issues that have come around in this game, from the minor (Albert Pujols being "saved" for extra innings) to the insane (the Milwaukee tie incident).

Anyone else have a thought?

I don't think starting over the rosters would have helped the Milwaukee situation. If I remember correctly, they ran out of pitchers...and I really don't think it is a good idea to bring pitchers back into the game after any kind of extended period...you're just asking for trouble there.

One way to fix that would be to have each league select 2 additional pitchers...with the stipulation that they could only be used if the game went into extra innings.

[Camden_yardbird]

The thing that gets me is this. They made it count. Then they did away with switching leagues each year. How stupid is that. Make it count and then take away the parity of venue, when the whole reason you made it count is to stress the importance of venue? Someone, anyone explain this one to me.

As for the lack of players problem. It seems simply expanding the rosters is the most obvious solution.

Fan voting needs to change. We were close this year to having another non deserving big market player at the game. Its fairly obvious that the voting needs to change to eliminate the big market population advantage.

I am adamantly opposed to eliminating the one player from each team. I think if you do that you "disenfranchise" many people across the country. I also think you would get rosters made up of players predominately from 2-4 teams. Certainly the managers choices would be skewed toward their own team/ division if they don't have "quotas."