Blake Snell has had a great first half and despite being named as a replacement for the injured Corey Kluber he had good enough numbers to make it the first time around. Eight starters were named to the All-Star most with good enough stats to be named ahead of Snell. Louis Severino was a lock, and a chance to start with a league leading 14 wins against two losses, a 2.31 ERA, 144 strikeouts and 1.01 whip (walks, hits per innings pitched). Corey Kluber was in the running to have a chance to start the All-Star game before going down with a knee injury with a 12-5 record, 2.76 ERA, 132 strikeouts and a 0.91 whip. Chris Sale is having a strong first half with a 10-4 record, 2.23 ERA, 188 strikeouts which is tops in the MLB, and a 0.90 whip. Justin Verlander was another practical option for starter for the All-Star game especially with his manager managing the game, but he is pitching on Sunday so he will be inactive for the game. Verlander does have solid numbers of 9-4, 2.05 ERA which is tops in the AL, 160 strikeouts and o.83 ERA. Gerrit Cole is finishing up the end of the first half pitching well with a 9-2 record, 2.57 ERA, 167 strikeouts and 0.97 whip. JA Happ has a 10-6 record, high ERA of 4.29, 121 strikeouts and 1.19 whip. Jose Berrios is 9-7, 3.41 ERA, 122 strikeouts, and 0.99 whip. Happ and Berrios both had decent numbers but were not as good as Snell’s. However, they must make the All-Star roster as their team’s only representative. That leaves Trevor Bauer as the last guy on the roster and he shouldn’t have been ahead of Snell with an 8-6 record, 2.30 ERA, 168 strikeouts and 1.07 whip. Bauer and Snell have near similar ERAs, strikeouts and whips, but Snell’s record is far better and should have given him the nod over a few of them and especially over Bauer. There always seems to be someone left off, but with injuries and replacements, the right guys get put on the roster, however this case was rather bad that they put some guys on over him. Had Tampa Bay’s catcher Ramos not made the team, would that have made it easier to get Snell on? I think it would have, however either way I think it was a bad job by those in the game and Chris Archer’s (Snell’s teammate) reaction of Snell getting the initial snub was spot on. Archer wrote: “Because we, as players (the ones who vote for the pitchers), didn’t do our due diligence. We have to collectively take the time & effort to (responsibly) fill out our ballots. It’s totally on us & I’m calling out everyone who didn’t take the energy to determine who is most deserving to represent our game in the midsummer classic. This stuff matters, let’s be better. BLAKE SNELL IS AN ALL STAR, not an alternate, replacement or backup.” I couldn’t agree more with Archer, and this may spur on some change to the game when you have this bad of a miss on selecting a player. Look for Snell to be happy to go and possibly urge the league to expand or look into making sure this doesn’t happen again.
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