Saturday, June 09, 2007


Why fans voting for the baseball All-Star Game is dumb


The current standings for the All-Star ballot on MLB.com show the AL catchers race like so...

1.Rodriguez, I. Tigers 469,696
2. Mauer, J. Twins 438,365
3. Varitek, J. Red Sox 413,153
4. Posada, J. Yankees 392,908
5. Martinez, V. Indians 206,377

Now Victor Martinez is in fifth place, over two hundred thousand votes behind I-Rod. The fans say that I-Rod is the best catcher in the AL. What do the stats say?
Martinez is hitting .318. I-Rod is hitting a respectable .287. Martinez has 12 HR and 53 RBI. Rodriguez has 6 HR and 30 RBI. Martinez is has an OPS (On base plus slugging) of .931, Ivan .734. Almost double the RBI, double the HR, .200 points higher in OPS and Cleveland leads the AL Central. Posada has a slightly higher OPS (.984) but still trails Martinez with 7 HR and 39 RBI. Joe Mauer has only played in 29 games, has a whopping 1 HR and 14 RBI, with an OPS of .922.
Every number points to Martinez, through June 8th, having a much better season than any of the other catchers, and yet he is in a distant fifth place in the voting. This is why the fan voting system is stupid.

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