All Star Final Votes Results Unveiled

Yeah, despite that I sort of vaguely like to root for Rakuten as an underdog and all, this annoys me to no end. I mean, c'mon, Shima? A catcher batting .170? I know Satozaki hasn't been up to quite his usual level of awesomeness this year, but there's no reason why he shouldn't have won the catcher vote for the PL. And yeah, I'm a Fighters homer, but still, there's NO excuse for Hichori Morimoto and Atsunori Inaba to finish behind Teppei and Isobe in the outfielders.

I'd say that Yamasaki is definitely an all-star, and I actually don't have a problem with Tanaka getting the top vote (even if Darvish is better), and I even like Kazuo Fukumori (but Takahiro Mahara has been an insane closer this year and much more deserving).

But the rest of them - this is just ridiculous. Rakuten's gotten a lot better as a team, but it's not an all-star team by any means.

Just another reason why I don't like fan voting. Sure, it's a game for the fans, but it's also some sort of honorary moment for the players.

2005's CL All-Star roster was full of Tigers players, but at least many of them were doing well. But it's not like this Eagles' team is doing all that well, despite the improvement from the previous years.

And I had to agree, Shima is by no means anywhere near to even be called a "good" catcher, not to mention an All Star caliber one. I honestly haven't watched him much, but from the two matches I have seen him play, he looked shaky calling the game - and that .170 batting average saids it all about his offense. He's also just a rookie, too. He might just be the worst starting catcher in all of NPB today, and yet he's going to start the All Star game.

I wonder what other players from other teams had to say about this. Did fans from Sendai hack the computers or what? Where did all these Rakuten fans came from?

Man, this is ridiculous. Only 3 teams represented in the PL for the starting lineup? Give me a break. Fan voting really is not meant for this sort of thing, and I agree with Shinigami, where did all these Eagles fans come from? There are much more deserving players like Deanna listed, Inaba Atsunori being one that comes to mind, and Nishioka Tsuyoshi from the Chiba Lotte Marines is another.

I think that the sportswriters and the managers should do the selections instead of the fans, because that way you actually have the best players being represented.

- I wonder what other players from other teams had to say about this. Did fans from Sendai hack the computers or what? Where did all these Rakuten fans came from?

I'd be interested to hear what more deserving players have to say.

As for the voting results, I want to say this is some kind of sick joke. If you ask me the powers that be in NPB should replace a lot of the undeserving players in favor of way more deserving players.

Also, yes I understand the All Star game is for the fans, but this again has to be a sick joke. They can't be serious with these results. Shima is the farthest thing from an All Star, he's batting .170.

This isn't even as bad as the 2005 results which saw Hanshin dominate the voting, at least the majority of them deserved to be there. Many deserving All-Stars are going to be scammed of a roster spot, which is plain sad.

To those of you who think that this is the worst case of ballot stuffing in NPB history, I'm afraid you'd be mistaken. Kenjiro Kawasaki was voted to the All Star team a few years ago for the Chunichi Dragons, despite not pitching for several years after signing with Chunichi as a free agent. There was a great deal of embarrassment on behalf of NPB, the All Star sponsor, Chunichi, and Kawasaki (who was touched that the Dragon fans would show him so much support despite taking a huge paycheck and not taking the mound for them).

As for the sports writers, they'd elect an all-Giants squad on a year that the Giants finish in last. They're really no better than the fans.

The managers generally do a good job at picking deserving players and getting representation from all the teams. All is not lost.

I've also seen complaints about which foreign players are more deserving of a spot than others in the past. There is more going on behind the scenes, as some actually turn down offers to play in the All-Star Series so that they can get a little extra in-season vacation. Many of the Japanese players who aren't chosen appreciate the extra days off as well.

Please remember, there are two games, not one. So a good number of players will still have their chances. All is not lost.

Finally, if you can read Japanese, Jiji News Service has critisisms of the All Star voting up with voices from the players.

More player voices [Jiji News - in Japanese] about the All-Star selections.

Jim Allen has a good article [Daily Yomiuri] where he also brings up many complaints about the voting results.