All-Star Fan Voting

Does fan voting for the All-Star game need to be abolished? For years fan voting has been the way that players have been voted into the All-Star games and how starters are selected but as the years go on the fan voting system becomes more and more like a failing method. After this year's All-Star votes were totaled and the two finalists for each position announced, it was even

more evident that the fan voting system either needs some changes or needs to be abolished.

To start, the reasons why fan voting has shown to be an issue this season especially is demonstrated through the votes that were received for National League shortstops. While Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the young stars in the sport and would probably receive All-Star votes in any other year, there is an issue with him ending up 5th in shortstop voting this year–he hasn't even played a game in the 2022 season. So how is he eligible to end up 5th in standings after the first round of voting? I am not sure, but if fan voting is here to stay, then this is something that should be addressed and fixed because a player who hasn't started a single game prior to All-Star voting managing to be 5th in votes just seems unfair even if the player is Tatis Jr.

Another issue with this year's All-Star voting has more to do with how the fan voting system appears to defeat the purpose of the All-Star game–having the best players in their positions showcase their talents. An example is the Toronto Blue Jays having six players move on to the finalist stage. While this can just be seen as a city showing up for their team, the issue comes when you see some of the stars who were eliminated early from starting positions due to this.

One of the most obvious is in the American League shortstop positions where the finalists are Bo Bichette and Tim Anderson, and Xander Bogaerts ended up 3rd. However, if you look at stats from up until this point in the season now how Xander Bogaert didn’t make it to the round of finalists is confusing. Bogaerts, at this point, has a batting average of .311, on-base plus slugging of .839, and 91 hits in 293 at-bats. Bichette has 350 at-bats and has 90 hits, a batting average of .257, on-base plus slugging of .727. While their numbers are relatively close it just seems as if Bogaerts lost out on his chance to be a starter due to a fan base flooding the votes. It could be argued that this is the point of the fan voting system, but at what cost if the best in their positions are not really the ones who will end up starting the game?

The fan voting system has been argued over for years, and after how this year's votes turned out, do we think we are getting closer to the end of the fan voting method?