It’s always fun to talk about All-Star snubs once the starting lineups are revealed, but now that the entire squads have been filled, the debate can truly begin as to which players were dealt the toughest blow.
You can view the full rosters for the 2015 MLB All-Star Game in each league below, courtesy of MLB Communications:
Mike Moustakas and Carlos Martinez are also added to the mix after winning the Final Vote in their respective leagues.
Since we’re talking strictly the voting results, we’ll limit the discussion to All-Stars who are heading to Cincinnati by virtue of the fans or their peers. The managers’ selections will be pushed to the side.
Keeping that in mind, the four players below are among the more arguable additions.
Mike Moustakas, 3B, Kansas City Royals
Once Moustakas was unveiled as a Final Vote candidate, Brian Dozier didn’t stand a chance. You knew Kansas City Royals fans would mobilize to get their guy into the All-Star Game. Kudos to those Royals fans for getting Moustakas to the top of the ballot, but Dozier is more deserving of the honor based on performance.
The Royals third baseman is the stronger of the two defenders, but his American League Central counterpart owns the edge in nearly every offensive category:
After Dozier hit a walk-off homer in the Minnesota Twins’ 8-6 win Friday night, the levels of indignation ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick felt about Dozier’s All-Star slight seemed to increase:
All told, both the fans and players did a good job of selecting the AL All-Star representatives. This wasn’t a year in which you saw a number of guys getting in who had no business going to the Midsummer Classic.
Moustakas is a bit of an outlier, but even he has a convincing All-Star case. It just so happens that Dozier built a stronger body of work.
DJ LeMahieu, 2B, Colorado Rockies
DJ LeMahieu is a tremendous defensive second baseman. His value pretty much stops right there, which makes you wonder why his fellow players in the National League felt that qualified him to go to the All-Star Game.
Even playing half his games in hitter-friendly Coors Field isn’t enough to inflate LeMahieu‘s offensive numbers. He’s batting .309, which is likely somewhat deceiving given his .370 average on balls in play, to go along with a .397 slugging percentage, four home runs and 35 runs batted in.
His .088 isolated power is 62nd among 77 qualified hitters in the National League—approaching Ben Revere levels of futility.
Justin Turner seems the most natural replacement in lieu of LeMahieu. Turner may spend the bulk of his time at third base, but his versatility would’ve given NL manager Bruce Bochy some options. He could’ve filled in at second if the situation called for it.
Turner has more home runs (11) and RBIs (38) than LeMahieu despite getting 94 fewer plate appearances.
Carlos Martinez, SP, St. Louis Cardinals
All-Star voting, at least for the fans, is a popularity contest. In that regard, no player did more to help himself than Martinez, who not only bombarded social media imploring fans to vote but also wisely formed a dual ticket with Moustakas to win over the Royals faithful:
St. Louis Cardinals fans will point to Martinez’s 10-3 record and 2.52 earned run average as support for his All-Star nod. While both figures are impressive, they don’t tell the full story about his season and don’t necessarily mean he’s having a better year than Johnny Cueto or Clayton Kershaw.
Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer summed up the argument as to why ERA can be a bit deceiving about a pitcher’s true value:
Given that we’re well into the 21st century by now, you’re probably already aware of the arguments against judging a pitcher by his record and his ERA.
But, in the event that you’ve somehow just arrived in the 21st century, here’s the gist: A pitcher’s record and ERA are influenced by too many things he can’t control. For example, the big ones would be the performances of his offense and bullpen for his record and his defense for his ERA.
Let’s take a look at where Martinez stacks up against Kershaw and Cueto when comparing nine-inning averages and FIP, xFIP and SIERA, three sabermetric statistics that better illustrate a pitcher’s isolated performance:
When you level the playing field a bit, you see just how much better Kershaw has been in 2015. He’s allowing fewer home runs and walks while striking out more batters. His more normalized figures also outshine Martinez in all three facets.
Kershaw shouldn’t be a legacy All-Star pick—three Cy Young Awards in four years carry no clout in this discussion. Simply going off 2015, Kershaw has outperformed Martinez.
Even Cueto would’ve been a better selection than Martinez on merit alone.
But this isn’t the first nor will it be the last time players and fans rely more heavily on less reliable statistics in order to overlook a player who deserves All-Star consideration.
Note: Stats are courtesy of FanGraphs.
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