COAS Casts a 2015 All Star Ballot

It's late June in another baseball season, Major League Baseball's All Star Game is right around the corner. With ballots coming due in a couple days, I need to vote. And I can actually do it closer to the deadline this year.

Major League Baseball has one of the more intriguing All Star Games, and also probably the most controversial. A ton of Kansas City Royals make up the American League team, something that has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. My take: this system is set up to be abused like this. I personally don't like it, as my votes go for who I think deserves to go, but I don't begrudge people for ballot stuffing to get players on their favorite teams in.

Obviously, I will still take full advantage of being able to vote 35 times, but I'm voting in an honest fashion. The players I think deserve to make it get my vote. Simple as that. Let's get to it.

American League
1B: Miguel Cabrera (DET)
2B: Jose Altuve (HOU)
SS: Jose Iglesias (DET)
3B: Manny Machado (BAL)
C: Brian McCann (NYY)
DH: Nelson Cruz (SEA)
OF: Mike Trout (LAA)
OF: Yoenis Cespedes (DET)
OF: Brett Gardner (NYY)

Most of these picks were fairly obvious. Miggy is having another good year, Manny Machado has had a monster first half, as have Brian McCann and Nelson Cruz, and Mike Trout is Mike Trout. Jose Altuve was pretty obvious too, though from there it was tricky. Jose Iglesias doesn't have much pop, but is hitting well. Then at the back, Cespedes and Gardner both have good all around numbers and make for a well rounded lineup.

National League
1B: Paul Goldschmidt (ARI)
2B: Dee Gordon (MIA)
SS: Jhonny Peralta (STL)
3B: Nolan Arenado (COL)
C: Buster Posey (SF)
DH*: Anthony Rizzo (CHC)
OF: Bryce Harper (WAS)
OF: Norichika Aoki (SF)
OF: Andrew McCutchen (PIT)

Important note: the NL doesn't have a voting spot for a DH for obvious reasons, hence the asterisk. Since it's not an official vote, I'm allowing myself one homer vote for a Cub. Final side note: the designated hitter is for sissies. Anyway, Rizzo is in at DH because he shouldn't start at first over Goldschmidt, who has been amazing. Bryce Harper was the other automatic one before I even looked at numbers. From there, Nolan Arenado and Buster Posey were obvious choices, Dee Gordon felt like an "Eh, it'll work" vote at a shallow second base pool, Jhonny Peralta beat out Troy Tulowitzki, and I felt that Aoki and McCutchen were the best all around guys. I would have voted for Stanton, but as he's injured, it's a wasted vote.

The Official 2015 Confessions of a Sportscaster All Star Ballot

All of these were voted for 35 times, then another 70 times under my two other emails because why not. Most of these guys will probably not start. Odds are most, if not all, will end up playing in the All Star Game, however. That's good enough for me.

My hope still is that we have the seven Royals starting the All Star Game to force a change of some sort in the All Star Game format. I like the All Star voting; it gives the fans a choice of who they want to see play. If we keep that though, then the Game needs to go back to being an exhibition, and strictly so. No more home field advantage in the World Series. It was an interesting idea, but it allows players on teams who won't sniff the playoffs to impact the playoffs. I don't like that. Take it back to an exhibition and we're good.