The MLB All-Star Game is one of the sports most viewed annual events, as it intends to highlight some of the games best players in an attempt to gain larger viewership. Last year, the event eclipsed approximately 8.24 million viewers. One of the reasons as to why millions of people watch this event is because they are able to get involved in it. Fans can vote for their favorite players to be a member of the All-Star team, which leads more people to get involved. The downside of this is that many players have contract incentives dependent on All-Star game appearances, so players that are on teams in a larger market have a higher chance of obtaining these incentives. Therefore, players on small-market teams are essentially being discriminated against and in many instances cannot fully reap the benefits of their contracts.

The Real American league "All-Star" team

This is what the All-Star team should look like if personal biases were not inflicted on the votes. "*" Denotes a player listed as a reserve is not on the actual team or a reserve moved to starter, and "**" denotes a player listed as a starter is not on the actual team.

Starters

C Alejandro Kirk, 1B Luis Arraez*, 2B Jose Altuve, 3B Rafael Devers, SS Xander Bogaerts*, LF Yordan Alvarez*, CF Mike Trout, RF Aaron Judge, DH Shohei Ohtani

Reserve Infielders

C Jose Trevino, C Jonah Heim*, 1B Ty France*, 2B Andres Giménez, 3B Jose Ramirez, SS Carlos Correa, Additional Spot: DH Miguel Cabrera

Reserve Outfielders

Taylor Ward, Giancarlo Stanton, Julio Rodriguez, Byron Buxton, Kyle Tucker

Starting Pitchers

SP Shane McClanahan, SP Gerrit Cole, SP Kevin Gausman*, SP Dylan Cease*, SP Frankie Montas*, SP Framber Valdez, SP Justin Verlander, SP Shohei Ohtani

Relief Pitchers

RP Clay Holmes, RP Emmanuel Clase, RP Jorge Lopez, RP Andres Munoz*, RP Scott Barlow*

Honorable Mentions

Jose Abreu, Yandy Diaz, George Springer, Martin Perez, and Andres Munoz

Players Left off From Actual Team

Tim Anderson, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alek Manoah, Martin Perez, Paul Blackburn, Nestor Cortes Jr., George Springer, Andrew Benintendi, JD Martinez, and Gregory Soto.

The Biggest Snubs

Ty France was one of the most talked about snubs, and for good reason. While Guerrero Jr. is one of the best and brightest players this game has to offer, he was simply not the best first basemen in the American League this year.

First off, it is clear that Arraez’s production paired with his versatility depicts that he is more than deserving of the starting spot. The reserve spot is a toss up between France and Abreu, as they have been seemingly identical hitters, but I took France as he was the better defender. The point is that although Vlad is the largest name here is likely why he got the starting spot over the more deserving players.

The next major change for the American League was seen at the shortstop position. I did not list the original starter Tim Anderson at all, as he was easily third out of himself, Xander Bogaerts, and Carlos Correa, as shown below:

Once you factor in the volume of playing time, it is clear that Xander Bogaerts is the best of the three so far in 2022, shortly followed by Carlos Correa, who is most likely of the three to sustain this production. While Tim Anderson is having a very solid year, he does not deserve a spot on this team over Carlos Correa, and does definitely not deserve to start over Xander Bogaerts.

More Changes (AL)

My next major change was having Yordan Alvarez in the starting lineup over Giancarlo Stanton. While Stanton is having a fantastic year, nobody is more deserving of a starting spot in this lineup over Yordan Alvarez. I understand that not starting Shohei Ohtani isn’t an option, as he does things that nobody else can do, so I kept him at the DH spot even though Yordan is a better hitter. Both Yordan and Stanton rotate in at Left Field and DH at their respective teams, but saying that Stanton is the better of the two is blasphemous.

Stanton is having a fantastic year, which is why I still had him as one of my reserves, but we have not seen someone produce at the rate that Yordan has offensively since Barry Bonds. Him not being a starter is a travesty, and is a clear sign that fan voting is ineffective.

Finally, the exclusion of Taylor Ward from this team is simply incorrect. Ward slashed .296/.387/.517 with a .391 wOBA, 13.2 BB%, 13.7 barrel%, 42.3 HardHit%, and ranked 9th in all of baseball with a 158 wRC+ for batters with a minimum of 200 plate appearances. These numbers are superior to those of George Springer and Andrew Benintendi by a wide margin, which is why I left both of them off my list. Ward is a smaller name that often gets unnoticed considering he is in the same lineup as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, who take up all of the headlines.

In taking away an extra outfield spot I replaced it with Jonah Heim. Heim has been nothing short of elite so far this season. A 126 wRC+ and .343 wOBA paired with a 5.7 CDA, 5.5 FRAA, 4.3 FRM, and 2.1 WARP shows you how good of an all around player. I could not for the life of me leave him off of this list. Heim has always been elite defensively, but his transformation into becoming a quality hitter makes him one of the best catches in baseball.

The Starting Pitchers from the American League were pretty poorly voted in. McClanahan, Ohtani, and Cole were both locks, and I also agreed with Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez making it, but outside of that there were several issues. The first being that they chose the wrong Oakland Athletic to be on the team. Paul Blackburn is a solid pitcher, but he is by no means better than Frankie Montas:

Clearly, Montas blows Blackburn away and should be the representative for the Oakland A’s.

The real issue was Alek Manoah and Nestor Cortes Jr. being on the list instead of Dylan Cease and Kevin Gausman. Cease and Gausman have been better thus far.

Overall the four have been relatively close, but the gap in fWAR between Gausman and everyone else puts Gausman ahead, as well as the strikeout rate for Cease. Both of these two pitchers have been some of the best in baseball and are more deserving than the opposition.

Outside of all of this I also replaced Gregory Soto with Andres Munoz, as Miguel Cabrera being awarded the extra spot fills the void for a Tigers player, plus Munoz has been a more effective pitcher. I also gave Scott Barlow my last spot as I needed a Royal and his -0.39 xRV is very respectable.

The Real national league "All-Star" team

My lineup for the National League is as follows:

C Contreras, 1B Goldschmidt, 2B McNeil*, 3B Machado, SS Swanson*, LF Betts, CF Nimmo**, RF Soto*, DH Bryce Harper (replaced by William Contreras due to injury)

Reserve Infielders

C Will Smith*, 1B Pete Alonso, 1B CJ Cron, 1B Albert Pujols, 2B Tommy Edman*, 3B Nolan Arenado, 3B Brandon Drury*, SS Trea Turner

Reserve Outfielders

Kyle Schwarber, Joc Pederson, Michael Harris II*, Ian Happ, Starling Marte

Starting Pitchers

Burnes, Nola*, Rodon, Wheeler*, Alcantara, Musgrove, Kershaw

Relief Pitchers, Díaz, Hader, Helsley, Mantiply, Bednar

Honorable Mentions

Ronald Acuna Jr., Freddie Freeman, Tony Gonsolin, Luis Castillo, Joe Musgrove, Max Scherzer, Austin Riley, Austin Slater and AJ Minter

Players Left off From Actual Team

Jazz Chisholm Jr. , Travis d’Arnaud, Tony Gonsolin, Max Fried, Garrett Cooper, and Luis Castillo

Changes

I would first like to note that I believe they got the bullpen perfect, which is pretty rare. I considered putting AJ Minter over David Bednar, but Bednar was by far the best Pittsburgh Pirate at his respective position, so he deserved the honors.

I thought it was a poor job by the league for leaving Tommy Edman off of the list. Edman is the best defensive player in all of baseball, posting 11 DRS and 6 OAA at second base, along with 6 DRS and 8 OAA at shortstop. This paired with 7.0 BsR, 3.4 fWAR, and being in the 86th percentile in sprint speed make him a great player to have in your lineup. Although he is relatively average offensively, he is an incredibly valuable overall player and is very deserving of being a reserve. Additionally, the starting second baseman spot between McNeil and Chisholm Jr. was also wrongfully decided.

While Jazz has been slightly better overall, McNeil’s versatility along with having better durability than Chisolm give him the edge.

Another minor change is that Dansby Swanson should start and Trea Turner should be the reserve. Swanson led in wRC+, wOBA, OPS, DRS, OAA, and fWAR conveying how he has been the overall better player this year. The outfield alignment was done poorly to say the least. Ronald Acuna Jr. was being overvalued by his past success and was put ahead of more deserving players.