Nationals star Bryce Harper received the most votes from fans for this year’s All-Star Game in Miami, and he has a suggestion to tweak the game’s format involving the vote count.
If it were up to Harper, the two players with the most votes would get to be captains and draft the rest of the All-Star selections. The idea would get rid of the American League vs. the National League.
“It’d be great if let’s say the two leading vote-getters by the fans did a draft system and could pick from both sides,” Harper told ESPN. “So I could be facing Max Scherzer today — I mean, nobody sees that. It would be a lot of fun to do something like that to make it a little more competition to face somebody on your team, like if [Clayton] Kershaw was facing Justin Turner, or Chris Sale facing Mookie Betts. That’d be a lot of fun.”
Harper and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge earned the most votes for this year’s game, so under Harper’s plan, they would be the one picking teams.
It’s a fun idea, in theory. Other leagues have already tweaked with the All-Star format, with the NHL using a fantasy draft in 2011, 2012 and 2015. The NFL also went with a draft format in the Pro Bowl for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
MLB has already been open to changes. This is the first year in 14 years where the game won’t determined home-field advantage for the World Series.
The All-Star Game is Tuesday at 8 p.m. eastern in Miami. The game will be televised by FOX.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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