2009 ASG Team Participation

I wonder how many of the votes come from agents or family members trying to “promote” their player?

First of all, I ain’t claiming that there is any conspiracy against Figgins. I am claiming unprofessional neglect on the part of the players and the manager and the league front office. Figgy didn’t get many votes in the open primary. I think national name recognition and some bias here speak for all that. Figgy had an amazing first half as an all around player, but he will never vault over ARod, Longoria, and whomever plays 3B for Boston (unless that ends up becoming Figgy next year!)

But let’s look at that 3B balloting a bit. Figgy pulled better than 6 other 3B’s. We don’t have the data, but it is possible that the fans for the Orioles, White Sox, Royals, indians, Mariners and A’s all cast 90% of their 3B ballots for the either ARod, Longoria or Lowell. 90% of 6,150,629 pre-ASG turnstile ballots would be 5,535,566 votes split among those top 3 and added to their local fan base votes. And if those same 3 got just 10% of all the votes from NL pre-ASG turnstile ballots, that would be another 2,193,398 votes. That’s a total of 7,728,964 they could draw from turnstile ballots based on name recognition and bias alone. And that does not count their local fan attendance opportunities. Meanwhile, the Halos had a max voting opportunity for pre-ASG turnstile ballots of only 1,832,941. Even if the Halos had figured out a way to mandate that every single paid attendee file a vote on behalf of Figgy, he needed a huge amount of support from non-attendees to pull it out.

We can play this same math game for radio listeners, for television audiences, and for Internet fans. In every single case we can calculate a theoretical result that would support the possibility that Figgy enjoyed a huge amount of support from his own fan base, but that support paled against the support that the other top vote getters pulled from beyond their own bases. This is why I reject the claim that the whole thing must lie at the feet of Halo fans. No, this is not necessarily so. And because we do not have demographics, we cannot castigate Halo fans.

And, for the record, I could similar thought experiments for the Hunter-Hamilton conjecture. I reject the claim that Hunter has been some kind of web-gem staple on TV. First, I would be hard pressed to believe that he had more than 20 such moments out of nearly 90 games and hundreds of plays. Second, most of his moments would have reached the TV play loops so late that only West Coast and Hawaii viewers would have seen them. Mid-West and Eastern viewers would have long since gone to bed.

So that brings us to the Hamilton Q factor. The guy was THE story of last year’s ASG. He had that whole rags to riches thing going on that the media just drooled over. He had that unbelievable round in the Home Run Derby. His was a large story for a greater part of the season. He went into this year’s balloting as an AS incumbant. I would posit that I could do the same math for Hunter votes around baseballdom that I did for Figgy and come up with a way that mimics the actual results. And, again, the Halo fans would be innocent of your criminal accusations.

But, moving back to Figgy. Once The Final Vote was done, not only did Figgy have an incredible first half on the field, but he ended up 3rd in The Final Vote. He probably ended up receiving more overall votes for ASG consideration than every other major league baseball player but 5. What he did on the field made him worthy of being an AS. What he did at the ballot box made him worthy of replacement consideration. What he did at the ballot box made him worthy of performing in the game on behalf of his supporters. What he brings to the game in terms of versatility made him worthy of getting onto the field for the sheer value of helping the AL win the game in regulation.

But he got in only as the final option. He got in only at the last minute and denied the full AS experience. He got in only because of a hangnail or somethingorother. And his only chance to actually play, his only chance to perform on behalf of all those who did vote for him, was pre-ordained to be dependent on the rare chance of a tie game sometime after the 9th inning. And that’s a shame.

I do feel badly for Fuentes, because he was given assurances earlier which were later countermanded. Figgins, on the other hand, I am sure was just happy to have arrived in time for the game.

But we have shown demonstrably that this was too many pitchers and not enough innings. And in a tie or one-run game, are you saying unequivocally that you’d put Fuentes on the mound for 7, 8 or 9 before using Papelbon, Nathan or Rivera?

Not because we’re subscribing to some AYSO ethic that everyone gets to play/every team gets a player in the game, but because we’re saying that with the game on the line in the 7th, 8th or 9th inning, you feel Fuentes would be the superior choice over any of the other three?

As to the Rangers being favored because of baseball having invested in the team—Cruz was added by the players, not the league or fans, but he never got in the game. Michael Young was selected by the players. And then of course, there were the Ranger pitchers on the squad (insert pause for laugh here). There were three Rangers on that team.Two started, but one because of injury. Two were chosen by their peers, not the fans or management. Hard to say MLB was pulling any strings on that one.