Absolutely your decision.

I applaud your purist instincts with regard to the All-Star voting. I used to be the same way. But the way the game is run and the purpose of the game are different now. It’s a fan-oriented game - it’s a popularity contest where the starters are the fan favorites. How else do you explain every fan being entitled to 25 votes (per e-mail address)?

So, now I vote for my favorite players (Yankees) rather than who actually deserves to be there. Most of the time it doesn’t bother my conscience because most of the time the Yankees players are right up there among the best in the league. This year, I will admit, causes a bit of a conundrum.

Plus, in my opinion, the ballots are available far too early, especially if votes are counted electronically (basically immediate results). So, again, if it were anything more than the “Fan Favorites Game” the ballots would be distributed in mid-June, when statistics have more or less stabilized and people have had as much of a chance as they want to see who’s playing best.

So, again, I do applaud your approach, but if “everyone else” is simply voting for their home guys regardless of performance, then I feel I should do the same.

we’ll never know how the thought process went. i suspect the yankees looked more at stats rather than actual scouting , but no one is saying how they made the decision. the question now is what to do with him.

short of getting what they could from a japanese team, i would pitch his butt off at the A ball level ( so he’s not impacting doube or triple a players).
i would just wear him out with high pitch counts and innings and see if being pitched the way he was in japan would help him get his command back.

the yankees have other things to worry about.i suspect igawa is just going to be buried in the minors as a continuous project like karsay and pavano were because of injuries .