No, the problems with the players’ selections are the glorification of the last 90 days and their backwards emphasis on wins and saves. No Cole Hamels or Johan Santana, but Ryan Dempster and Brandon Webb. Joe Saunders over John Lackey. Brian Wilson over 25 other guys.

I’ve made this point before, but I want to reiterate it as the players’ selections provide a teaching moment. It’s very important, and if it comes off as arrogant, well, I’ll live with that.

The skills required to be one of the very best baseball players in the world have very little to do with the skills required to evaluate the performance and the value of baseball players. I might even argue that the ability to do the former makes you less likely to be able to do the latter. Regardless of how much playing experience is valued by people hiring within the game, by the media that covers the game, and by a lot of fans, all of the evidence we have at our disposal indicates that players by and large do not understand what drives run scoring and run prevention, and are therefore ill-suited to grading the work of their peers.