Clayton Kershaw IS an All-Star but Process Isn’t Shiny

From the Dodgers press release:

“National League All-Star manager Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants announced today, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, that left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been added to the NL’s active roster for the Midsummer Classic.  Kershaw replaces Washington Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer, who started on Sunday afternoon and has elected not to be active during the All-Star Game.”

Okay. I’m glad Clayton Kershaw FINALLY got recognized as an All-Star as he should be, but could the process be more unorganized? The Final Vote seems to be merely a Twitter frenzy rather than a democratic vote, and regardless of his third place finish…Kershaw is in.

The All-Star Game is increasingly becoming more of a platform for advertisements rather than an actual fan-based vote-in exhibition game like it once was. Most players (I heard A.J. Ellis knock the absurdity of basing the home-field advantage in the World Series on the winner of the All-Star Game on SportsNet LA the other day) that the All-Star Game should be more about fun rather than the deciding  factor for home field advantage in the Fall Classic.

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 I’m happy to see Kershaw get recognized for his dominance even if his meaningless wins-losses numbers don’t reflect his true talents, and I agree with Oscar that a majority of fans haven’t even been able to watch Kershaw pitch the past two seasons let alone have the motivation to go online and vote for the reigning M.V.P. and Cy Young Award winner. A huge chunk of the fan base didn’t even get to watch Kershaw’s historic no-hitter last season which is more aggravating than Kershaw not getting the All-Star nod in my opinion.

Hanging chads.

I’m not counting out the possibility that the All-Star voting is rigged either. I don’t want to believe that, but then again I’m not naive to the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals were busy hacking instead of concentrating on their own so-called homegrown talents back in Missouri. There seems to be data breaches on a daily basis in the news, and I’m still murky to how the hashtags and electronic votes are tabulated in a fair manner anyhow. #recount

Of course I want to see Dodgers play in Cincinnati, but then again I would have been okay with a rested up Kershaw in the second half.

He’s in, but it almost seems like a consolation prize.