All-Star balloting for this year’s game at Yankee Stadium  (surely to feature one of those “this ticket went for $50,000 stories) ends next week, as fans set the starting lineups before players drop out with injuries and they must be re-set.  There has been some talk this year about how much home-field means since so many teams have extraordinary records at home, but you know what that means—when it comes time for the World Series, the exact opposite will happen.  Since the “home-field” policy was instituted, there has only been one Game 6 played, and the road team was the winner. 

Enough bickering about that—time for something else to complain about.  Each year, there is a microcosm of events that leads to pretty bad players being selected for their league’s team, a combination of injuries to other players, the “all teams must be represented” little league rule, and an occasional mind-boggling manager decision.  Since 1990, here are the worst players that have played in the game.

7. Jose Rosado, 1997, 1999
This Royal starter finished 4th in the rookie of the year balloting the year before and parlayed that into an appearance in the midsummer “classic” the following year.  This list could be changed into “Top 7 Sole Appearing All-Star Royals” pretty easily.  Had to get a Royals shot in here somewhere since they swept the Cardinals and are playing again this weekend.  Rosado returned to the game in '99, a season which he finished 10-14.

6. Jose Lopez, 2006
Lopez is a good example of a guy who came out of nowhere with a good first half, was rewarded with an All-Star Game, tailed off in the second half, and has since stuck around the majors as a guy barely able to keep an everyday job.  Now, two years later, you look back and wonder how in the world below-average hitting Mariner second baseman Jose Lopez ever made the All-Star team.  

5. Kent Bottenfield, 1999
Bottenfield is one of Cardinal fans’ all-time favorites.  Pitching for an atrocious Cardinal team, he was somehow able to luck into a combination of good run support and great bullpen help (from an ungodly horrible bullpen at that), turning his record from a standard .500-on-a-crappy-team to an All-Star level well-over-.500-standing-out-on-said-crappy-team.  And for Cards’ fans, it turned into eight years of Jim Edmonds and the greatest run in franchise history.  As an added bonus, Bottenfield is an award winning Christian rock star and strongly resembles every player in the original RBI Baseball.

4. Ron Coomer, 1999
Granted, it was hard not to root for Coomer, he had the likable persona of Ham from The Sandlot or the guy in your neighborhood who would always crush the ball in your backyard.  But neither of those guys ever made a major league All-Star team, at least not that I could research.

3. Ken Harvey, 2004
Here’s a good one, a guy who hit .270 for a couple of years with a few homers, ended up backing into an All-Star appearance since he was on the Royals, had twelve at-bats the following year, and has not sniffed the majors since.

2. Lance Carter, 2003
He is probably the most notorious example from this decade.  The Rays, when they still had their Devil adjective in front of their name, needed an All-Star, and they went with lefty specialist reliever and eventual closer Carter, who ended the ’03 season with a 4.39 ERA.  His other accomplishment is much more impressive, the elite “baseball players named Lance” club, joining Berkman, Cormier, Johnson, Broadway, Blankenship, Niekro, Parrish, and Painter.

1.  Scott Cooper, 1993, 1994
He may be the perfect example of the differences between “decent everyday player” and “All-Star.”  In his 1993 All-Star season, he hit .279 with 9 homers and 63 RsBI and a .353 OB%.  The next year, .279 with 13 homers, 53 RsBI and a .355 OB%.  Average numbers, but no All-Star.  Cooper’s name is mentioned a lot when various points are made about the one-per-team rule and others, so it’s only natural that he gains the top spot on the list…especially since he made it twice.  Unlike Rosado, Cooper didn't pitch 200 innings in each of his seasons.

The Top 7 is written by Jason Major.  He forgot to mention that Cooper was more popular than he deserved because he was the replacement to Wade Boggs.  Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com