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Cabrera the lone All-Star

By craig

The Marlins will have only one player representing the team at this year's All-Star game.

Third baseman Miguel Cabrera was the only Marlin chosen for the 2007 National League All-Star team as second baseman Dan Uggla and shortstop Hanley Ramirez didn't make it.

While I completely agree that Cabrera should be on the All-Star team, I also think it is a complete travesty that Hanley and Danny didn't make the squad and it shows a complete lack of respect for the Marlins.  If Uggla didn't make the team and Biggio had been chosen instead, that would've been understandable.  But he wasn't.

Speaking of which, if I were an Astros blogger, I would be completely livid about Biggio not being on the All-Star team, but I'm not, they aren't my favorite team.  Weirdly, as I am writing this, the Astros bloggers don't seem to care.

If you are wondering how the voting works after the fans have their say, it goes like this:

The 2003 season marked the introduction of the Player Ballot to the All-Star selection process. Each league's players, managers and coaches elect eight position players and eight pitchers from their league. Catchers and infielders who finish in the top two at their position on the Player Ballot, and outfielders among the top six, are assured of making the All-Star Team. In instances where the winners of the Player Ballot are also fan-elected starters, the player with the next highest amount of votes on the Player Ballot makes the All-Star Team. Eight pitchers -- five starters and three relievers -- become All-Stars through the Player Ballot. The manager of each World Series team from the prior season -- in this year's case, Detroit's Jim Leyland and St. Louis' Tony La Russa --then fills the remaining slots on their respective teams, ensuring that one player from all 30 clubs is named to the All-Star Game.

Dan gave his usual intelligent opinion, in the yesterday's game thread comments, about how La Russa screwed up in his selection process.

LaRussa could have made a very respectable NL team, but his fascination with relievers ruined the roster.  With Hanley, it's easy: rather than Sanchez as the token Pirate, take Snell or Gorzellany, drop any of the six (six!) relievers to keep the pitcher/hitter split, and add Hanley.  

To have guys like Fuentes and Valverde on a roster that already has Wagner, Cordero, and Saito, and when their teams were already represented is ridiculous self-indulgence on LaRussa's part.

Dan is right.

My other thought on this, besides the Hanley and Danny debacle, is that the All-Star game is an exhibition game and nothing more.  And I still find it incomprehensible that an exhibition game determines home field advantage for the World Series, but that is a rant for another day.

Here is the list of those chosen for this year's All-Star game.  Yes, there is still another round of voting but no Marlins are included, so I don't care.  I'm such a homer. Oh, and speaking of Homer check this out.  Which brings the question of why does Orlando get one but not South Florida?  Then again, are there still 7-Eleven's in South Florida?

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