Right after the MLB season started I was at the league’s site and noticed that you could already start voting for the All-Star game, and the one moment I gave it any thought was that it was way too early for me to even start considering voting.

I am in the ‘what have you done this year’ group of voters, one of a number of major groups I see voting. There is also fans I know that only vote for players on their team, ones that vote for last year’s performance, and a few rare ones that only vote for a player in either the NL or AL.

It is now getting to the point that I will vote and have really appreciated the fact that I can do it online for two reasons. I no longer live in a town with a major league team and the closest is a two hour drive. The second is IBM punch cards went out with the VAX.

What I have not realized until a MLB Advanced Media note came my way that you can also vote for Triple-A All Stars. I suspect the voting in this contest will be much more team-oriented since if you do not live in a town with a AAA team it is unlikely that you have watched any of the players perform, although games are shown on MLB’s network.

The fan voting will represent 1/3 of the total vote with other votes being cast by by members of the media and each club’s field manager, coaches, and general manager.

However this is a good move by MLB in trying to bring more attention to its minor leagues. It certainly looks like it is trying to make the Triple A All Star game, which will pit players from the Pacific Coast League against players from the International League, into a must see event. While I doubt it will ever reach the NFL’s minor league games’ popularity — i.e BCS college football, this is a good way to increase interest in baseball.

The Triple A All-Star game, which has been played for the last 24 years, will be played at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, N.Y., home of the Buffalo Bisons, on July 11 at 7:00 p.m. EDT