Yeah, yeah, I get it – you want more than seven or eight All Star pitchers. But let’s be honest – most pitchers are just average, and no one (other than their specific fans or stat nerds) really wants to see a “set up man” in an All Star Game. I’d wager most casual fans can’t even name one. So the pitchers will be the top five or six starters, with a couple of closers of note.

As far as the players that will actually be out there on defense, we’ll leave that to fan voting. We’ll keep the rule that each team must have at least one representative. Maybe we’ll leave that up to the actual players on the team, or some sort of local poll. Or just the player with the highest WAR; it’s no big deal. The rest of the batting side of the roster can be filled out by the team’s manager, choosing from runners-up in the fan voting – with a decided bias to the big name stars. At least we won’t have to worry about having too many players at the same position – the starters voted in by the fans will be expected to be out there for all six innings.

Putting the lineup together gets interesting. Every batter gets one plate appearance. Outs don’t really matter; it’s if you can get on base and / or drive in any runners on base when you come to bat. It seems to me that the most important at-bats will be in the last inning, since whoever’s left on base by the final batter is wasted and will never score. So I’d make sure the big power hitters are down at the bottom of the lineup. This pretty much also means the best pitcher will be out there in the last inning, too.

Strategy gets weird. Since runners stay on base from one “inning” to the next, there’s little incentive to steal a base or bunt a runner over – unless you want to eliminate the chance of a double play. Intentional walks will disappear entirely. Striking out will be the worst thing a batter could do – you don’t get on base, you don’t even move a runner up.

It’s going to be very strange.

But it’s just an exhibition game, where we’re trying something different.

For the 30 batters, assign a spot to each team. The players on defense will be the starting eight chosen by the fans for the summer’s All Star Game. Then, pick a player from each team that doesn’t yet have a representative. Fill in the remaining slots with worthy players.

Choosing pitchers will be easy. The top five or six starters, plus two or three closers. Don’t worry about teams; every team should already be covered on the batting roster.

I suppose I’ll have to make a batting order. You know what? This is an exhibition game, I’m just testing out the idea, and I’ve got two teams to mess around with. So let’s have the NL bat according to increasing OPS, and the AL by alphabetical order.

A coin toss determined that the AL batted first.

We’ll see what the actual game looks like next time.