How the Detroit Tigers scammed the vote to get Brandon Inge in the All-Star Game

Oct 15, 2011; Arlington, TX, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge (15) before game six of
Oct 15, 2011; Arlington, TX, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge (15) before game six of / Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
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The All-Star Game voting process has always yielded some very weird/incorrect/hilarious results. One recalls Kansas City Royals fans stuffing the ballot box to get such “stars” as Omar Infante into the ASG. However, what some younger/less aware fans may not know is the Detroit Tigers, too, have played their part in the hilarious history of All-Star voting chicanery.

While many of you are going to be looking at the current All-Star vote and getting mad online at ASG snubs and shout at anything and everything based on how the world is these days, we are going to take a look back at 2009 when a player named Brandon Inge parlayed his status as a Tigers fan favorite, although with a bit of creative ballot stuffing, into an All-Star Game appearance that was probably less than deserved.

Brandon Inge’s 2009 season

Brandon Inge was a long-time Detroit Tiger who put up some really decent seasons for the team thanks largely to being an excellent defender and decidedly medium at best at the plate. One note, Inge probably should have been an All-Star in 2006 when he posted a 4.2 fWAR season with a .253/.313/.463 line with 27 homers. However, we aren’t here to re-litigate that season, but rather we are re-litigating the 2009 season instead.

Other than his defense (which, again, was quite good), Inge was very ordinary in 2009. Over the course of the entire season, he slashed .230/.314/.406 with healthy amount of homers propping up his overall line. Not exactly numbers that scream “All-Star” but certainly not bad, either. So the question now becomes “how did Inge get in?”. First, we have to explain how the first half broke down and who Inge was up against.   

How Brandon Inge stacked up vs. the field

If we are looking purely on merit and overall production, Inge did not stand much of a chance of getting in. Amongst all qualified third basemen in the first half of 2009, Inge ranked seventh in fWAR at 2.8 (tied with Scott Rolen). Looking at just the American League side, Inge was fourth  in fWAR and significantly behind Evan Longoria (3.8), Chone Figgins (3.7), and Kevin Youkilis (3.4). Youkilis played first base a bunch as well in 2009 and made the ASG roster at the position, so we aren’t going to worry too much about him from this point forward.

Longoria was basically what Tigers fans wanted Inge to be as he was an amazing defender back then and he also hit for average and power. He seemed like a mortal lock for the starting spot based on merit and visibility with his .285/.362/.535 line and 134 wRC+ with 17 homers and sterling defense.

Where things get sticky is the debate between Inge and Chone Figgins. Figgins had been strictly better overall in the first half of the 2009 season as his 3.7 fWAR was nearly a full point better than Inge thanks to a .301/.393/.410 line with 27 stolen bases and excellent defense as well. 

The problem here is, well, dingers and that is where objective reasoning starts to give way to the subjective. Brandon Inge led all American League third basemen in the 2009 first with 21 homers. In fact, in the American League only Carlos Pena (24), Russell Branyan (22), and Nelson Cruz (22) had more homers than Inge at the time. Objectively, we know that homers are not the end all, be all…but that doesn’t mean that folks don’t look at the home run leaderboards when evaluating guys, either.

And this is where we get to the “scam” that ultimately got Inge in.     

The Tigers’ “scam” (with a mostly happy ending)

When the 2009 rosters were announced, it was Longoria and the even less deserving Michael Young who got the third base All-Star roster spots. However, in 2009 there was a second fan ballot similar to how things are done now to determine the final player from each league. Over in the National League, the five player ballot was Shane Victorino (more on him in a bit), Cristian Guzman, Mark Reynolds, Pablo Sandoval, and Matt Kemp. In the American League, it was Carlos Pena, Adam Lind, Ian Kinsler, and yes…Chone Figgins and Brandon Inge.

This was a really interesting ballot as it has a mix of guys with strong overall production and guys that, well, had hit a bunch of homers. Again, looking strictly at fWAR, here is how the AL finalists ranked.

  • Chone Figgins - 3.7
  • Ian Kinsler - 2.9
  • Brandon Inge - 2.8
  • Adam Lind - 1.9
  • Carlos Pena - 1.9

Again, a tough hill for Inge to climb especially with Kinsler being the most established player of the group at the time. However, Tigers fans were motivated and as it turns out, they would have some help. Remember Shane Victorino? Well, he is another fan favorite type that Phillies fans really wanted to get into the ASG. However, Kemp and Sandoval had been strictly better by fWAR and Reynolds had hit 24 homers. That was when the plan was hatched.

Going into the final vote, the Tigers and Phillies entered an unofficial alliance to urge their fans to vote for both Inge and Victorino with the teams promoting a “Bran Torino” ballot heavily in the lead up to the vote. The plan worked as both Inge and Victorino made it into the game thanks to the huge turnout. We have seen other teams do this in recent years as well with a high success rate. You have to respect the hustle.

For those worried that Figgins got completely screwed, fear not. As it turns out, Longoria was unable to play in the All-Star Game and Figgins was chosen as an injury replacement on the roster. 

In the end, the All-Star Game is for the fans and if there are enough people to vote for a guy like Inge who, on paper, may be less than worthy that is more than fine. Baseball wants fans to be involved in this sort of thing and they were VERY involved to get Inge into the game. It still doesn’t make it any less hilarious, though. 

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