The criticism about the MLB All-Star Game providing the winning league home-field advantage in the World Series has some merit. The advent of interleague play would provide the perfect opportunity to give the league that has the better record the edge of playing the seventh game of the World Series at home, and it would probably be a better way to make the determination.
There would probably be criticism of that solution, just as there is of the current one. But the critics often fail to bring up the fact that it was a nonissue prior to assigning the winning league the advantage of playing a potential four games at home in the World Series.
The American and National League simply alternated home-field advantage every year, and while having the sixth and seventh games at home appears to be a significant advantage, the teams that did not have the advantage won the World Series eight straight years from 1965 through 1972.
Playing for home-field advantage keeps both teams involved. While managers still have to work the majority of players into the All-Star Game, they are compelled to try to win the game for their league.
That may be one of the reasons that the American League has nine relief pitchers on its roster. Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost has had success turning baseball games over to his talented bullpen, and he will try to employ that same philosophy with relievers like Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox, Andrew Miller of the New York Yankees, Brad Brach of the Baltimore Orioles and Will Harris of the Houston Astros.
The National League has eight starting pitchers, including Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs, Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets, Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins and Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants. The best National League pitcher, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been sidelined by a trip to the disabled list with a bad back.
The American League starting lineup features outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, third baseman Manny Machado of the Orioles, second baseman Jose Altuve of the Astros and catcher Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals.
Trout is considered by many to be the best all-around player in baseball, and the numbers tend to back him up. He is hitting .323 with 18 home runs and 56 RBI. Machado has played shortstop for the majority of the season, but he is a remarkable fielder at third base and has 19 homers and 53 RBI.
Altuve is making a run at the AL MVP Award with his .350 average and 14 home runs, while Perez has 12 homers and 37 RBI through the first half of the year.
The National League will be heavily dependent on its all-Cubs infield. Anthony Rizzo has belted 20 home runs and driven in 61 runs while compiling a .402 on-base percentage. Kris Bryant may be outdoing Rizzo on the opposite side of the infield at third base. Bryant has already hit 25 homers while driving in 64 runs.
Second baseman Ben Zobrist and shortstop Addison Russell are the other Cubs in the infield, while Buster Posey of the Giants will be behind the plate. Posey has a reputation as one of the game's best clutch hitters, and he has hammered 11 home runs and knocked in 41 runs while hitting .289.
If the game comes down to the reserves, both teams have plenty of firepower. The American League will depend on Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners, Ian Desmond of the Texas Rangers and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The National League will look to Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies, power-hitting Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Wil Myers of the host San Diego Padres.
All-Star Weekend will get underway with the All-Star Futures Game Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on MLB Network. The Home Run Derby will be held Monday night at 8 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN, while the All-Star Game will be played Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET and televised on Fox.
All statistics courtesy of MLB.com.
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