Look, I know how these people feel. here at Field events, A handful of writers have been selected to wax poetic about this year’s superstar players selected to the All-Star team. The rest of us were left out, ruthlessly ignored from our rightful spots on the roster due to some bizarre, overly complicated selection process.
We are the snubs. We are all in this together.
So, here’s our non-All-Star team, the most valuable players at each position, who didn’t hear their names called on Sunday night and, at least so far, haven’t been selected to the Midsummer Classic .
Note: The starting position players are selected through fan voting, and the players vote to select eight pitchers, one substitute for each position. The league selects the final few players to fill out the roster, ensuring each team has a representative.
catcher
Patrick Bailey, San Francisco Giants
Neither league was without a third catcher this season (and it’s easy to argue that each drafted the right two guys behind the plate), but Bailey would have been a worthy addition (the league selected outfielder He Liott Ramos and ace Logan Webb serve as backups for the Giants). Throwing and fielding metrics make Bailey one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, while wRC+ puts him essentially on par with Salvador Perez offensively. Bailey only made his debut last year. He will be an All-Star at some point.
deeper
Heliot Ramos, Logan Webber selected to represent Giants in 2024 All-Star Game
first base
Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks
A word of advice for anyone looking to make an All-Star team: Try not to play in the same league and at the same position as Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman. The two were selected to the All-Star team for the eighth time this season. Walker hasn’t made one yet. He ranks third in the NL in home runs (behind All-Star DH players Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna), and he ranks 10th in the NL in wRC+ (but still behind Harper and Freeman). Walker could still make the team if Harper’s hamstring strain keeps him out of the All-Star Game, but the Phillies appear to expect Harper to return this week.
second base
Bryce Turang, Milwaukee Brewers
War isn’t a perfect metric, but it’s a useful shorthand for measuring a player’s overall impact. Turang is the fourth-best player in the entire National League, according to Baseball-Reference in WAR. FanGraphs’ version is less optimistic, but he still ranks 20th in the NL, 30 spots higher than NL backup second baseman Luis Arraez, and more than 1.5 better in WAR. Turang doesn’t have the batting average of Areez, but he does have more power, more stolen bases and better-than-average defensive metrics. However, the players chose Araz.
shortstop
Francisco Lindor, New York Mets
If Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, who is out for a significant amount of time due to injury, is not optioned to start in the NL, there may be room for Lindor, who ranks seventh in the league in fWAR. But the Cincinnati Reds’ Eli De La Cruz (as a replacement for the injured Mookie Betts) was optioned by the players, and the league selected C.J. Abrams as the Washington Nationals’ lone representative, That leaves no room for Lindor or Willie Adams. There are 40 players with at least 2.5 fWAR so far this season, nine of them at shortstop (if you count multi-position Willie Castro with the Minnesota Twins and approx. Smith, there are 11). Even with seven shortstops selected on both rosters, snubs are inevitable.
third base
Jordan Westburg, Baltimore Orioles
There are five third basemen in the top 18 in American League fWAR, but there simply isn’t enough room on the roster for them all. Fans voted for Jose Ramirez, players voted for Rafael Devers, and the league chose Isaac Paredes to represent the Tampa Bay Rays. This makes Westburg an odd man. He might be successful if he’s listed as a second baseman — he’s played about a third of his games there — but Westburg, Paredes and Smith’s numbers are pretty similar, and there’s not enough space to accommodate them all.
outfield
Willie Castro, Minnesota Twins
Colton Cowser, Baltimore Orioles
Brandon Nimmo, New York Mets
Castro isn’t exactly a candidate for All-Star voting. He played at least 20 games at five different positions — second base, third base, shortstop, center field, left field — sometimes rotating through multiple positions in a game. Despite these changes, he still managed a 130 wRC+ and ranked sixth among all qualified outfielders in both leagues. However, he was not selected to the American League team. Neither did Orioles rookie Cowser (or teammate Anthony Santander) or many of the defensive standouts (notably Dalton Washoe of the Toronto Blue Jays). There’s a little more room for NL outfielders, but Nimmo is at least as good as any outfielder in the NL bullpen.
Brent Ruck circles the bases after hitting a three-run homer against the Orioles. (D. Ross Cameron/USA Today)
designated hitter
Brent Rooker, Oakland Athletics
David Fry had one of the most surprising performances of the first half. He racked up double-digit starts at catcher, left field and designated hitter — with innings at first base, third base and right field — and helped the Guardians maintain the No. 1 spot , in at least 200 games. However, Rucker had similar offensive numbers (155 OPS+ to Frye’s 161) while hitting nearly 100 more plate appearances and hitting more than twice as many home runs (18 vs. 8).
starting pitcher
Ronel Blanco, Houston Astros
Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers
Louis Gill, New York Yankees
George Kirby, Seattle Mariners
Christopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies
If your last stay was three weeks ago, you might think Jill is a lock on the AL staff. As of mid-June, he had a 2.03 ERA in 14 starts and appeared to be a worthy replacement for the injured Gerrit Cole in the Yankees’ rotation. But Gill’s last three starts – Sunday night against the Red Sox – resulted in a three-game losing streak and a 14.90 ERA, which dropped his season ERA to 3.41, good for 15th in the AL. . Four starters with sub-3.00 ERAs failed to make any team (Blanco, Sanchez, Brady Singer of the Kansas City Royals and Jake Irvin of the Nationals). Likewise, the major league strikeout-walk rate leader (Kirby) and xFIP leader (Flaherty) also have the third-best strikeout rate and fourth-best expected ERA. But inevitably, some select starters will opt out, meaning some initial snubs will ultimately pan out.
deeper
The Phillies exit Atlanta with 7 All-Star players, Schwarber and Harper are about to return, and their debuts are worth thinking about
relief pitcher
Trevor Megill, Milwaukee Brewers
The top-ranked Brewers have two players in the NL starting lineup, but none in the bullpen (their three infielders deserve consideration) or in the bullpen (their bullpen ERA Ranked fourth in the majors). Closers Megill and Brian Hudson rank fifth and sixth in win probability increases, and either could reasonably increase, but National League players voted for two non-closers (Matt S. of the Philadelphia Phillies Trahm and Jeff Hoffman), forcing the league to use five of its six free agents to find the Mets (Pete Alonso), Nationals (Abrams), St. Louis Cardinals (Ryan Helsley), the Chicago Cubs (Shota Imanaga) and the Miami Marlins (Tanner Scott). The true free-selector in the National League is Weber.
(Top Photo of Francisco Lindor: Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
