[BirdWatcher]

With the 1976 All-Star game fast approaching, I wanted to step back a moment and say a few words about the selection process and how I interact with this.

To begin with, I always cast my ballot a few days before the announcement of the rosters. Mostly this is because I want to see where things are as close to the game as possible in terms of player performance thus far in the season.
When voting I try to do my best to strike a balance between a biased, Denver Brewer fan perspective and a more objective, knowledgeable WPK aficionado perspective. In other words, when a player on the Brewers is very close to being the best at a position, even if he is not categorically the best, I'll likely vote for him. But if not, I'm going to try to choose the most worthy candidate at every position. All other things being equal, I will likely choose the celebrated player when there is something like a virtual tie. This is the nature of the All-Star after all. Fans want to see well-known players.
So, for instance, this year it means that I voted for both Jake Harris (in the SJL) and Cheol-han Lee (in the MGL) among the 3 starting pitchers in each league, even though it could have been argued that there were 1 or 2 lesser known pitchers who have been better than these two (even including our own Steve Green and Sadahige Kawasaki.) But Harris and Lee still have overall very good numbers and they are the two greatest pitchers of their generation.
On the other hand, if there is an exciting young player taking the league by storm this year and playing at a position where there are other more well-known players with similar results, but not HOF-level players like Harris and Lee, I do like to pick the young phenom. This was true with two outfield positions in the SJL this season, where El Paso leftfielder Pete Wiederkehr is having a ROY season and the San Antonio Keys Zach McClelland, in his 4th full season at age 24, is having a breakout campaign, after being solid up to now. I voted for both of these guys over more well-known options.

Sometimes my decision is easy, such as this year when the Brewers unheralded first baseman Brett Taranto easily leads MGL first baseman in WAR and yet up to this point was not getting the votes. And other times it is more complicated, such as right field in the MGL, where our own Josh Schaeffer is once again among the leaders in WAR and deserving of a spot on the roster but former Brewer Ruben Souffront is having a career year at age 31 and leads at the position in WAR. I voted for Ruben.

And finally I just want to say that I love this process, even if the AS game is a meaningless exhibition. It's a great time to pause and reflect a bit on the season thus far and the voting process itself helps me spot things I might have missed (for instance, two former Brewer catchers, Kevin Curtis and Spencer Wilson, are at the top of the SJL in WAR at their position), especially the performance of players in the SJL, which I try to pay some attention to but don't know the way I know I our own MGL.