All-Star Snubs: Pitchers | The Sports Notebook

With the All-Star rosters being announced yesterday, it is time to look at the pitchers who go snubbed.

Yovani Gallardo

Chad Billingsley and Jason Marquis made the NL All-Star team. Yovani Gallardo did not. Yet when their statistics are compared, Gallardo compares favorably to both the other two, especially Marquis. Is the wins total really that important to those who select the team? Or did they just figure that since Gallardo is only 23 years old, he'll have more chances to make it in the future? (Billingsley is only 24 by the way.) Compared to Billingsley, Gallardo has a better ERA and WHIP, more strikeouts, and fewer walks. Compared to Marquis, he dominates even more, with an ERA over an entire run better. I really don't understand Charlie Manuel's thinking on the Marquis pick, as it seems more like the type of pitcher who makes it as his team's sole representative (see Lilly, Ted) than an actual deserving pick, but Brad Hawpe also made the team so that is not the case. Gallardo is a guy who has stepped up following the departure via free agency of the Brewers' top two pitchers from a year ago (Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia), yet he still can't make the All-Star team.

Kevin Millwood, Jered Weaver

Let me start with Tim Wakefield. Unlike the Marquis situation, I understand why Wakefield is on the All-Star team. He is 42 years old and despite many borderline All-Star seasons, he has never made an All-Star team before. In 1995, his first year with the Red Sox, he was 7-1 with a 1.61 ERA at the All-Star break, yet still was not named to the All-Star team. That was a bigger snub than any of the ones that occurred this year. So maybe this can be thought of as a make-up for that one, fourteen years later.

Back to the guys who were snubbed this year, both Kevin Millwood and Jered Weaver are having All-Star caliber seasons, yet neither one was named to the team. Millwood is fifth in the AL in ERA, almost a full run better than Beckett in that category, yet he still missed out. Weaver's numbers compare favorably to Beckett's as well, but no dice for him either. Perhaps the ???he's young, he'll get another chance??? thinking also applied to Weaver. Lets just hope he doesn't have to wait fourteen years like Tim Wakefield did.

David Aardsma

Brian Fuentes is leading the American Leagues in saves, with one more than Joe Nathan. Of course, like K-Rod last year, thanks the the Angels' propensity for playing, and winning, many close games, he also leads in save opportunities, with two more than Nathan. But just because he has more saves than anyone else does not mean Fuentes should be an All-Star. Aardsma was not the Mariners' closer at the start of the year, so he has only had 18 save opportunities to Fuentes's 26. But with the exception of total saves, Aardsma is out-performing Fuentes is every way, including save percentage. His ERA is over two runs better than Fuentes's! This one should have been a no-brainer. Instead, someone with no brain left Aardsma off the team.

Of course, due to injury or guys not being available to pitch in the All-Game, some of the guys I have named will probably make it. The problem is that they should have already made it.

That is it for the pitching snubs. I will write about the hitting snubs following the completion of the Final Vote to select the last hitter to each team. With the number of snubs that are either on that ballot or didn't even make it to that ballot, I will have something to write about regardless of who wins.

P.S. It should be Adam Lind and Pablo Sandoval