The full All-Star Game rosters were released on Monday night, and players like Prince Fielder, Jason Kipnis and Nolan Arenado—whom many felt should have started at their respective positions—made it as reserves.
Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer headline the starting pitchers on the National League team, while American League manager Ned Yost will have to choose between Felix Hernandez, Chris Archer, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Sale, David Price and Sonny Gray to start the game.
Here are the full rosters for both the AL and NL teams:
This year, more than in past seasons, there seem to be a lot of worthy candidates who were left off the roster because of competition at certain positions.
With the fans voting in Nelson Cruz as the starting designated hitter and Fielder’s being recognized by his peers for his efforts at DH halfway through the season, Alex Rodriguez was left off the AL team and the final fan vote.
Considering Rodriguez’s contributions to the success of the first-place New York Yankees to this point—16 home runs, 47 RBI and a .903 OPS—Jayson Stark of ESPN told Mike and Mike that A-Rod got snubbed:
There were snubs on the NL side as well.
An argument can be made that a guy like Justin Turner, who is having a breakout year, hitting .315 with 11 home runs and a .948 OPS, deserved the nod over D.J. LeMahieu of the Colorado Rockies.
Apparently Turner hasn’t impressed his fellow players throughout the league as much he has D.J. Short of NBC Sports:
But Monday night wasn’t all hard feelings.
Jacob deGrom and Keuchel, two of the more promising young pitchers in the game, were among those who learned they’ll be playing in their first All-Star Game:
The kids weren’t the only ones receiving the news for the first time in their careers, however.
A.J. Burnett is in the midst of perhaps his best season this year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitching to a 1.99 ERA and a 7-3 record.
Burnett has accomplished a lot over his 17-year big league career. He’s led both leagues in shutouts, won a World Series and tossed a no-no while walking nine batters.
But he had never made an All-Star team until Monday night. Pirates and NL teammate Andrew McCutchen is delighted for Burnett, according to Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Yost and NL manager Bruce Bochy have the unenviable task of choosing the starting pitchers, with a myriad of justifiable options at their disposal.
Scherzer may have been the best pitcher in the sport over his past four starts, Greinke has the lowest ERA in MLB and Cole has an MLB-leading 12 wins. You would have to figure Bochy will hand the ball to one of those three to start the game, passing over his own guy, Bumgarner.
Stark noted that Scherzer could join elite company next Tuesday in Cincinnati, but according to Chris Johnson of MASN, Scherzer’s in line to start on Sunday for the Washington Nationals, which would take him out of the discussion:
Yost, meanwhile, has to decide between former Cy Young winner Price, the three pitchers with the lowest ERA’s in the AL—Gray, Keuchel and Archer—and Sale, the AL leader in strikeouts with 147.
John Buccigross of ESPN believes Keuchel deserves the distinction, and Keuchel’s peers seem to agree, according to Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle.
We’ll see if Yost shares the same sentiment.
For now, fans have to decide which AL and NL players merit the final roster spots on each team.
Johnny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Jeurys Familia, Carlos Martinez and Troy Tulowitzki are the candidates for the NL, while Xander Bogaerts, Yoenis Cespedes, Brian Dozier, Brett Gardner and Mike Moustakas earned the last chance to make the AL squad.
Twitter campaigning is in full effect:
Cueto and Kershaw haven’t been as dominant as people have grown accustomed to, but they still have had very good seasons, with a 0.92 and 1.04 WHIP, respectively.
Familia, meanwhile, has a 1.13 ERA and 0.88 WHIP and converted 23 of 25 save opportunities.
There are enough great starting pitchers in this game, but Familia—someone probably unfamiliar to many fans—deserves to put his talents on display on the big stage.
The AL candidates are all pretty even, but Bogaerts is a guy a lot of people were starting to write off but is really proving some doubters wrong with a nice first half.
So with that, it’s up to the fans to round out the two rosters and play the role of general manager, something they love to do in the comments sections.
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