Bryce Harper has an idea to spice up the MLB All-Star Game and it's pretty great
How about an All-Star draft? Bryce Harper likes the idea
MIAMI -- The best players in baseball will meet for the 88th All-Star Game at Marlins Park on Tuesday. As always, the format will feature AL players against NL players. That's the way it has been since the first All-Star Game in 1933. Here's how you can watch the game.
But what if it weren't AL versus NL? What if, say, Clayton Kershaw could face Corey Seager? Or Gary Sanchez could throw out Aaron Judge trying to steal a base? Mixed league All-Star rosters are usually reserved for fantasy leagues. Nationals slugger Bryce Harper has an idea to make it a reality.
"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 said Monday. "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 Kershaw was facing Justin Turner, or Chris Sale facing Mookie Betts. That'd be a lot of fun."
Other leagues have tried an All-Star draft in the past. The NHL used one several times from 2011-15, in which two captains selected their teams fantasy-draft style. The NFL did something similar with the Pro Bowl recently. The MLB All-Star Game would feature the same player pool -- 32 players from each league -- then the two captains draft their rosters.
This year the leading vote-getters in each league were Harper and Judge, so they would act as captains and select All-Star teams. Seems like a fun idea, no? The draft would be televised, of course. Fans are going to want to watch that to see where their favorite players land, and to see which captain snubs his teammate, that sort of thing.
Now that the All-Star Game no longer determines home-field advantage, MLB is free to try new and creative ideas to make the game more interesting. Other leagues have used an All-Star draft in the past, so it's not unprecedented. And it doesn't have to be permanent, either. Try it one year, see how it goes, then re-evaluate.
The All-Star Game is a meaningless exhibition and MLB should have a team of Top Men hunkered down somewhere trying to come up with ways to make it more fun. Harper just gave them a freebie. An All-Star draft would be a blast.
















