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TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. This week's topics include voting players to the MLB All-Star game, the Blue Jays' winning streak and increasing fan safety at games.

1) Kansas City Royals players are currently leading seven of the nine voted positions to start the MLB All-Star game, including some very glaring mistakes such as Eric Hosmer over Miguel Cabrera at first, Alex Rios over Adam Jones for the last outfield spot and of interest to Blue Jays fans, Mike Moustakas ahead of Josh Donaldson by more than a million votes for the start at the hot corner.  Considering the winner of the game determines home field in the World Series not to mention the amount of bonuses gain and lost from playing and starting the game, should Major League Baseball step in and either take the vote away from the fans or at least reduce the weight of fan voting in ultimately determining the starters for the game?

There are two major problems with the All Star game. 

First, the game is played to determine home field advantage for the World Series.  A number of years back, when I was still GM for the Mets, I got a call from the Commissioner's Office asking my opinion about making the game count for home field advantage in the Series.  I said that I was completely against it.  I didn't want a player from a last place team dictating whether my playoff contending team had home field advantage or not.  I was completely satisfied with the alternating years sequence that was in place at the time.  I was told thanks for your opinion but the Commissioner is going to do it anyways. He wanted to make the game more interesting and drive more viewers to satisfy MLB TV partners at Fox.  So why ask?

The second major problem with the All Star game stems from the first problem; if the game means something then the fans should not determine the starters in the game.  It should not be a popularity contest when the result of the game actually counts for something significant.  It is no longer just an exhibition game. 

The easy and obvious solution is to let the players vote determine the starting lineups and the fans vote be used to fill out the bench players.  Currently the player vote supplements the roster after starters are elected by the fans. 

I have no problem with Royals' fans stuffing the proverbial ballot box under the current rules.  The rules are the rules.  As I said, they need to be changed, but as they stand now, every fan base can do the same thing. 

Remember there are no longer paper ballots.  Each person can vote up to 35 times online now.  If it is a competition, then good for the people of Kansas City for participating.  If other fans want their players in the game, go online and vote for your guys.  Otherwise, the Kansas City Royals will be the ones determining if the AL gets home field advantage. 

2) The Blue Jays are playing their best baseball of the season right now, putting together a solid winning streak that has them over .500 for the first time since they were 16-15 on May 9th.  What have you seen that has been different about their play during this winning streak and do you see this level of play as something the team can sustain further into the season or is this just like we've seen from them over the past two years when they won nine in a row (2014) and 11 in a row (2013) before returning to the inconsistent play that has plagued them over the last couple years.

The Blue Jays change in fate over the last couple of weeks is no surprise.  They have scored the most runs in the majors and have the best ERA in the month of June. 

That is a winning formula. 

The Jays lead the majors in runs scored on the season, so the fact that this month the offense is particularly good is no shock.  It is the pitching which has been remarkable.  The Jays staff has given up the fewest walks this month and have the lowest WHIP in baseball.  They are limiting the opposition's opportunities to score. 

This is a much better formula than what has been in place for most of the year:  the Jays scoring the most runs but also giving up the most runs.  To tell you how good this offense has been, how about this stat:  the Blue Jays have not had a save in any of their last 18 wins.  That means they are either winning in their final at bat or they are winning by more than three runs.  Their offense is contagious.  When they hit, they really hit.  They all hit.  When they don't hit they usually lose because the pitching is not a shutdown staff.  The Jays have outscored their opponents by 59 runs but they are only 31-30.  It is bizarre.  With a run differential that significant the Jays' record should be 36-25, which would put them in first place in the division. 

To win 90+ games a club needs to win many different kinds of games.  They need to win the 2-1 game as well as the 7-6 game.  The Jays have clearly shown the ability to slug the baseball.  They can win if the game turns into a slugfest.  But can they win games when the offense gets shut down?  Pitching is the key. 

Despite the Jays' pitchers leading baseball in pitching in the month of June they still only have a mediocre staff.  Plus, sometimes it is not who you play, but when you play them.  The Jays are playing well but they ran into the Nationals, Astros and Marlins when they are playing some of their worst baseball of the season.  This streak certainly has helped their confidence but it will take talent to keep on winning. 

Alex Anthopolous is going to have to upgrade his staff in the rotation and the bullpen if he wants to sustain success.  The Jays are a mid-level pitching staff that is hot and pitching extremely well.  But don't be fooled.  Unless the personnel is improved this will just be one of those streaks that we have seen from the Jays before. It comes and it goes. 

3) There was an unfortunate incident in a game between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics where a fan was struck by a broken bat and left the game with a serious injury.  The latest news is that the fan is going to survive which is great news, but should Major League Baseball be doing more to increase the safety for fans that are around home plate and in the immediate area of the base paths.  Obviously there is some concern about making sightlines worse for the fans in the high priced seats and therefore reducing the value of those locations as well as damaging the experience of being that close, but shouldn't the well-being of those in the seats be more important?

There is no question that baseball needs to act and act quickly to better protect fans around home plate.  Learn from what happened in hockey.  It took a death before the nets were extended in hockey arenas.  If someone dying at a baseball game would force us to put up protective netting then put it up.  Why would we wait for a fatality?

Baseball already learned this lesson once he hard way.  It was after a Colorado Rockies' AA first base coach was struck in the head and died that baseball instituted a rule that all base coaches needed to wear helmets.  If the rule had been in place sooner maybe he wouldn't have died. 

Each stadium should have the netting behind home plate extended beyond both dugouts.  This would protect fans from foul balls and broken bats potentially leading to serious injury.

The safety of the fans is by far more important than their getting foul balls, wrist bands from players, t-shirts from the in-game entertainers, etc.  Sure some may complain that their view is less than than it was but they will adjust. 

Please, please, please, Mr Commissioner do something.  I don't ever want to say, "I told you so", when you are on your way to a funeral for one of your fans. 

4) What do Shelby Miller, Chris Archer, Mike Pelfry, Jake Odorizzi, Jesse Chavez, Hector Santiago, Alfredo Simon,  Jake Arrieta, Trevor Bauer, Anthony DeSclafani, Tyson Ross Wade Davis, Santiago Casilla, Brad Boxberger, Mike Bolsinger, Eduardo Rodriguez and Colin McHugh all have in common?

Yes! They are all pitching at an extremely high level this season.  But that is not it…

Do you give up?

They all started their careers in a different organization than the one they find themselves in right now.  Think about that.  All 18 of these pitchers started in one place and for whatever reason are now with another organization.  Some have been traded while some have been claimed on waivers.  What this tells me is that clubs can not only find acquire pitching outside of their organization, they can find quality pitching; even elite pitching. 

I have changed my view of how I would build my organization.  So many organizations focus on drafting as many high quality pitchers as possible.  Certainly, quality pitching is necessary to win.  But I would have my organization focus on identifying and selecting the best hitters early in the draft. 

Offense is at a premium in the game.  The numbers indicate that pitchers seem to be dominating hitters.  There is a greater supply of good pitching than there is good hitting.  The stats say so. 

The list of pitchers above shows that organizations will give up on some arms or find them expendable to satisfy some other need, namely offense.  You will always be able to get pitching for offense. 

I have come to the conclusion that I would never draft a pitcher in the first three rounds of the draft.  Hitters have more value plus pitchers get hurt far more frequently than hitters.  It is much more rare that a position player would suffer an injury that diminishes his full potential.  It happens with pitchers.  However, medical care has improved so much that the success rate for surgery and rehab is fairly predictable.   When a pitcher is injured he has less value to his club and can be acquired at a lesser price than when he is healthy.  That may seem obvious, but when that pitcher returns to form he may be as good as he ever was.  That provides an opportunity to get pitching for less while still getting the upside of the talent. 

So when in doubt…take the hitter.