Kuzul

Saturday evening marked the release of the 2013 MLB All-Star roster for the American and National League squads.

Since the fans get the final say, there are bound to be disagreements, but there were several players who were particularly undeserving of such gaudy status.

In some instances, the league’s lowly teams have to send at least one player, and that resulted in a rather strange selection. However, there were others who didn’t quite do enough to be deserving of a nod to the Midsummer Classic.

Let’s take a look at the rosters, then analyze three of the players who stood out as somewhat surprising selections in pro baseball’s showcase of top-notch stars.

Note: Results were obtained from Fox’s All-Star Selection Show telecast. Results and rosters will be updated when voting is finalized.

American League Roster

*Denotes starter

National League Roster

*Denotes starter

Jason Castro, C, Houston Astros

This was simply a case of the Astros not having a much better option, and it forced Castro onto the squad as a third catcher behind Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals.

As ESPN’s David Schoenfield points out, Perez was voted in by the players as the backup, which essentially shoved Castro in by default. That prevented stars at other positions from making the team—and more deserving ones at that.

Castro is hitting the best he ever has in his career, but that’s still only good enough for a .270 average to date. It also included a recent 2-for-15 slump, via ESPN, so it’s likely he’s trending downward.

It’s nice that Castro’s improvement has been recognized, but it’s all relative. His selection should spur the debate about each team requiring one All-Star selection apiece.

Marco Scutaro, 2B, San Francisco Giants

The National League side is difficult to pick bones with. A case could be made for Washington Nationals prodigy Bryce Harper, but he’s so talented and missed significant time with an injury. It’s not as if he isn’t worthy.

Scutaro, on the other hand, seems like more of a sentimental pick in a sense, given that this is his first All-Star Game at age 37.

Perhaps he’s still riding the wave of his World Series heroics from last year, but whatever the case, Scutaro is a bit of a perplexing pick. NL manager Bruce Bochy may have shown some favoritism by choosing his own player from San Francisco.

Second base is arguably the position that the National League has the least depth at, which is why it was strange that Bochy elected to take three of them.

Again, though, this is a bit of harsh criticism, because it’s very difficult to contest any of the players on the NL’s deep team.

Justin Masterson, P, Cleveland Indians

The towering 6’6″, 250-pounder has won 10 games and dropped seven in 2013 and has an unimpressive ERA of 3.78.

Last year, Masterson‘s showing in that statistic was far poorer, as it ballooned up near five earned runs yielded per appearance. However, the improvement he’s shown isn’t enough to warrant an All-Star selection.

It would be one thing if he’d had a Cy Young-caliber campaign on his resume and was having a so-so year—such as, say, Detroit Tigers flamethrower Justin Verlander.

That’s not the case with Masterson, though, and he’s tied for 17th in the AL in WHIP (1.22). Masterson just does not have enough substance behind his candidacy to deserve the selection.

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