Snubs and Tokens: Honestly, Evan Meek Isn't Going To Make Pittsburgh Fan Care

As the MLB All-Star rosters are announced, it's time for the annual smoke screeen that is the All Star Snub. Right up there with flag burning and gay marriage on the list of things that people like to argue about that has no real impact on their lives, the Snub Talk this year seems to be circling around the NL's leader in OPS (Cincy's Joey Votto, who is much more deserving this time around than Ryan Howard, like Howard wasn't going to go with his manager doing the selection), New York's Mike Pelfrey (who the hell cares, he's a mid-rotation guy who has just had a hot half), and I'd find a third guy for this list, but I just dozed off while writing it.

The Snub is crack for Blogfrica, since it involves everything that generates cheap comment heat: no real watching of games, pointless punditry that helps to fuel your homer and/or roto guy need to root for such things, and the inevitable second-tier honor of being named to the game in 2-5 days, when the "winner" decides that he'd rather avoid the plane trip. Because the real honor is being named, not playing.

But thats not what I'm going to go into right now. Instead, I'd like to talk about the requirement that each team have a representative.

For years, I've gone against this, under the theory that MLB+ fans have more than enough to satisfy them, and the occasional nice moment -- Oakland's Justin Duchscherer a couple of years ago being the one that's stuck in my mind, seeing how I'm an A's fan -- was worth it. But, well, then there's Ty Wigginton this year, and Omar Infante (Omar Infante?), and they aren't even all that bad as these things go... with the historical record of Cesar Izturis, Mark Redmond and Mike Williams... and, well, enough.

Since we can't have relegation, the incredibly sensible practice of English Premier League teams where the worst team moves down into the minor leagues, and the best teams in the minor leagues move up, and we've got at least a half dozen teams per year that are DOA on Opening Day from an inability or outright refusal to spend cash...

And since fans in those markets are increasingly tuning out, with perpetually depressed attendance numbers that quite effectively predict which teams are trying and which ones are not...

Well, honestly. Assuming there are any Pittsburgh fans left, how pumped are they to see their single good set-up guy (Evan Meek) going to the game, when it more or less says that your team is too dumb to use their best reliever in the closing role, having paid out for journeyman Octavio Dotel? At least Nationals fan has their closer, Matt Capps, as their token rep. Is Cleveland Fan really ready to get off LeBron Suicide Watch because Fausto Carmona has been Not Terrible this year?

Top 10 Worst Attended Teams, and their Division Rank and Games Back

Cleveland (5th, 12)
Florida (4th, 9.5)
Oakland (3rd, 8)
Toronto (4th, 10)
Pittsburgh (6th, 16.5)
Kansas City (4th, 8.5)
Tampa Bay (3rd, 2)
Cincinatti (1st)
Baltimore (5th, 25.5)
San Diego (1st)

Well, seven of those ten teams are borderline unwatchable, and fans aren't stupid, particularly in tough economic times. People have more options now, and if the team isn't really going to try, why pay to watch it?

This is the point in the proceedings where we need to discuss Stephen Strasburg. After a month of outstanding stuff and a team that doesn't score for him, the most hyped guy ever is 2-2, with a 2.45 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP, and 53 strikeouts in 36 innings. In a particularly overwrought piece of writing for the Lemur, Jim Caple pitched his desire for the ASB to be a Career Apperciation Day for guys like the retired Ken Griffey, the ancient Jamie Moyer and Chipper Jones, the feel-good temporary happiness of RA Dickey or the fielding savant work of Franklin Gutierrez as preferable to a Strasburg appearance.

Which just goes to show that Jim Caple is either doing the purposefully stupid contrarian thing that the Lemur requires as part of that whole unfornunate Disney/Satan contract... or he's just Real Damned Dumb.

Look, there's no guarantees in this world. Strasburg could go all Mark Prior on us. Joel Zumaya might never pitch again. The history books are littered with electric arms that weren't around for very long. Right now, Strasburg is the most entertaining pitcher on the planet. The All-Star Game is meant to be entertaining, and if the Nationals' wunderkind is in it, it just got a lot more entertaining. I love me some Jamie Moyer, but if he goes to this thing and gets lit up, it'd just be sad on every level. And watching feeble old hitters get blown away is also, well, sad.

Almost as sad as the idea that MLB- talent that's freely available in your mixed league waiver wire, like Wigginton and Meek and Carmona and another six guys that will be named as injury replacements next week, belong in the same game as the top talent, or that the minus markets care when a token goes to the game.

They don't care about the All-Star Game. They don't much care about the regular season games anymore, either. Let's stop the pretending, and just have a good fake game instead.