The new All-Star voting system is a perfect match for the Yankees and all MLB fans

As of this season, MLB has introduced a new and improved format for voting players into the All-Star game. As opposed to the normal voting right up until the game and counting all the votes, MLB has added a second round to this process. While round one is simply tallying votes, the second round adds a twist. Round two, or “The Starters Election” is a 28-hour voting period in which fans choose from the top three vote-getters at each position in each league to determine which of those players will start the All-Star game.

On June 10, the first All-Star Ballot update came out. The results showed that the Yankees had a player in the top three for the number of votes at each infield position. So if these results remain the same up until the Starters Election, there is a possibility that a Yankee will start at each infield position in the All-Star game. While highly unlikely, this is yet another reminder as to how well this Yankees team is put together. Name any infield position and the Yankees have an All-Star caliber player at their disposal. That’s pretty impressive, especially when you keep in mind Didi Gregorius has only played in four games this year.

On top of this being great for the Yankees and their fans, the new ballot is tremendous for MLB and its growth as a league. This is a small adjustment to a game that doesn’t matter yet it could potentially have a great positive effect for its fanbase. Last year, and many before that, fans would scan through a list of all All-Star ballot worthy players at each position from around both leagues (usually about ten or twelve per position). They would vote for either their team’s player or the player who they thought had the best statistics. Team bias aside, there are usually two or three players that really run away with the voting race. After the superstars who normally tally the most votes, the players behind them are either other popular players or less popular players having great seasons. This is where the new system has its benefits.

The Starters Election gives fans a closer look at the top vote-getters per position, forcing them to choose between the top three at each. This makes fans pay attention to how the other players around the league are performing.

For example, take the first AL ballot results for catchers and pretend it was the second round.

Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez leads all AL catchers in votes. Sanchez is by far the number one player on this list in terms of popularity among baseball fans. So now, with the second round, instead of Sanchez just getting the starting spot, fans will see his statistics match up against James McCann and Jason Castro. These two catchers are by no means household names, but if the Starters Election began today, they’d have the chance to win the position based on the new format.

This results in casual MLB fans gaining a better knowledge of players they may not have heard of before. As mentioned previously, this is a small step, but a step in the right direction nonetheless. This won’t raise the popularity of the sport overnight, but will certainly advertise more players to more fans.