You Can Vote For Joe Mauer To Be In The Home Run Derby… Kinda

Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Fan interaction is a huge part in making a league successful. I get that, but sometimes the MLB really gets me to scratch my head. I was on the Minnesota Twins official website today and along with the plug to vote for the Twins to the All-Star Game there was a link to vote for… the Home Run Derby?

This caught my interest because I didn’t know you could vote for the Derby participants and it turns out that you really can’t. Once you click on the link to the ‘ballot’, you get the following message:

If you could choose, who would you like to participate in the 2014 Home Run Derby? Select up to three players from both the American League and National League list below. Remember, we appreciate your feedback, but your selections will not determine the actual participants of the 2014 Home Run Derby.

So… yeah. Fans are being asked to kindly suggest who they would like to see slam some dingers at Target Field. Each team in the MLB has a representative on the suggestion ballot which brings me to what has to be a cruel, cruel joke.

The Minnesota Twins representative on the Home Run Derby ballot is Joe Mauer. Yes, Joe Mauer the guy that has played 11 years in the bigs and has hit double digits home runs only four times. With the exception of 2009, he has never hit over 13 in a season. In 2009, Mauer hit 28 slama-jamas.

This post isn’t an indictment on Mauer and how he never hits home runs. The dog that is that talking point was sent to a farm upstate. I just want to highlight how weird Major League Baseball is with their suggestion box that may or may not be used.

Maybe they needed an intern to make a webpage for class credit. Maybe Bug Selig likes really arbitrary things.