I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to the All-Star game or the voting that selects its starters because, as I’ve mentioned in this space before, I think the game is a fraud.

I’ll mention again that there is no way this game should decide home field advantage in the World Series, in part, because it’s not a game featuring baseball’s best players but an exhibition populated by the fans’ favorite players.

There’s nothing wrong with having an “All-Star” game where fans pick the players. But there shouldn’t be anything more important than bragging rights riding on the results.

Most years, the popularity contest features New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at or near the top of every position. Sure, those teams feature many stars, but it’s been common for starting lineups to feature several of those teams’ players who are past their prime and no longer deserve starting billing.

It was surprising to me, then, when I glanced at some news stories about the early vote totals that so far those teams would only have three starters between them – Kevin Youkilis (good player, but over Miguel Cabrera’s amazing start?), Derek Jeter (I’d rather see Jason Bartlett, but there aren’t that many great shortstops right now – it’s defensible, but he shouldn’t be contending for the overall vote lead by a long shot), and Jason Bay (hard to argue that one right now).

The team whose fans have done the best job of stuffing the ballot boxes so far this season is surprisingly the Milwaukee Brewers. While just one guy would be a starter right now (Ryan Braun in the outfield – again, hard to argue this one), the team is in the top three at each infield position including catcher and has three outfielders in the top eight.

I believe Braun is a legit pick. And Prince Fielder is running second to Albert Pujols – he deserves to be selected and likely will make it as a reserve, I would imagine.

But Rickie Weeks is third at second base. His stats were mediocre and he’s out for the year. J.J. Hardy is running third at shortstop and Bill Hall? He’s running third at third base in front of Chipper Jones, despite his .221 batting average. Perhaps most egregious, in my eyes, is how Jason Kendall – a solid catcher who is well, well past his prime, is running second in front of both Brian McCann (fourth) and Russell Martin (fifth).

While I grew up and continue to live in Minnesota I can’t help but pull for the Brewers, albeit dispassionately. And I definitely highly admire the Brewers fans representing for a small market team.

But while it’s unlikely more than one of these guys will be named as a starter, it still represents the fraudulence of putting the fate of the World Series in the hands of the results of this game.

Commissioner Selig, please come clean. Either take the starting lineups out of the hands of the fans. Or admit that you overreacted to a one-time tie when your home city hosted the game and turn this back into what it should be – an exhibition featuring the players fans want to see and nothing more.