FanPost Round-Up: What changes would you make to the All-Star Break?

Last week, in the spirit of the All-Star Break, we asked you - the community - what you think should change about the All-Star Break, whether it was about the All-Star Game itself to any other festivities. Unfortunately, we received only one FanPost, so I’m assuming that almost everyone in our community thinks the All-Star Break is fine the way it is or had writer’s block (which I get most of the time, so no worries).

Since very few ideas came in, below is the idea from one of our members of our community along with a few of my own to freshen up the All-Star Break.

Literally take a break

Thank you to Joeyself, who was the only member of the community that provided his input on what should happen to the All-Star Break: Nothing. Now before you say “huh?” read his FanPost here and get a sense of his thought behind the idea. I really think it’s a wise idea and has some merit.

Move it to the off-season

Instead of having the activities and game happen during the season, move it to a couple weeks after the World Series is over. Although MLB would probably see this as a loss of money, moving the All-Star festivities to the off-season would allow everyone to gauge players’ full seasons instead of just half of a season. Voting could be done during the post-season so that way fans can still be involved with baseball if their team doesn’t make the playoffs.

Go international

What better way to promote Major League Baseball worldwide than to move its All-Star festivities, showcasing the best players of the game, outside Canada and the United States? This would go in hand with moving the All-Star stuff to outside the season, or extend the All-Star Break during the season. Plus, who doesn’t like to travel?

More skills contests

Yeah, hitting homers and even more homers is really cool and all, but there’s more to baseball than that. Both the NHL and NFL (and maybe the NBA? I don’t pay attention to it...) have skills contests associated with their All-Star Breaks. The MLB could look at including best outfield catches, throwing at a target, base-stealing, and more.

Decrease roster sizes

75 players were named All-Stars this years. Granted, not all of them were able to play because of injury, rest, etc., so some players were named in their place. 75 players totals 10% of all players in the majors that are on the active 25-man roster (25 x 30 = 750; 75/750 = 10%). This year, each All-Star roster had 32 players, and there’s no way that a team needs that many players on it. Having that many players on a team seems to lose the meaning of “All-Star”, and we know that there were players that that did not deserve to be there while someone else was playing the game. Decreasing the roster sizes to the standard active roster (25 this year; 26 next year) would give more meaning to being an All-Star.

Change the voting process

This year, Twins fans and players alike felt that there were many players on our favorite team that should have gotten the nod to the All-Star Game, but didn’t. Fan-based voting is great, but only to an extent. It gets the fans involved in a game they love, but lot of fans vote only for players from their favorite team or players by their popularity. A simple way to fix this is to have the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) conduct a voting process themselves to choose the roster for both teams, minus a few roster spots. After the rosters are decided, then fans can vote for the starter at each position, including the starting pitchers for each team, along with the final few roster spots.

Thank you again to Joeyself for his FanPost submission for our FanPost Call! Hopefully more community members will participate in the future. If you have any ideas for a FanPost Call, mention it in the comments! If you want to write your own FanPost regardless, get started here! We might even move it to the front page!